Installation Views - Breaking Boundaries: American Abstract Art, 1930 - 1945 - September 10 – October 30, 2004 - Exhibitions

Breaking Boundaries: American Abstract Art, 1930-1945 presents the stylistic diversity of early American abstract art by offering twenty works by eighteen artists. During the years of the Great Depression and World War II, social realism and figurative art represented popular American taste. However, numerous avant-garde American artists went against the grain and devoted themselves to abstraction, searching for a universal language to address society in a manner that was more profound than realist art. The impact of these pioneering artists was enormous as they helped generate acceptance for abstract art and laid the foundation for the rise of Abstract Expressionism.

Two geographically and aesthetically distinctive groups of abstract artists emerged in the United States – the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and the Transcendental Painting Group (TPG). The majority of artists in this exhibition were members of the AAA that congregated in New York City. Members of the AAA were generally inspired by the dynamic energy and industrial forms of their urban surroundings. Three artists in the exhibition were members of the TPG that was centered in New Mexico. Members of the TPG were inspired by the light, color and forms of their desert environment.

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is the exclusive representative of the estates of Burgoyne Diller (1906-1965), Louis Stone (1902-1984) and Charmion von Wiegand (1898-1983).

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