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The 1950s | East Hampton, NY

Eric Firestone Gallery | East Hampton, NY

July 15 – October 18, 2020

Fred Mitchell (November 24, 1923 – May 21, 2013), Harbor, 1953

Fred Mitchell (November 24, 1923 – May 21, 2013)

Harbor, 1953

oil on panel

18h x 25w in
45.72h x 63.50w cm

Framed: 25h x 31 1/2w x 2 1/2d in
63.50h x 80.01w x 6.35d cm

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Martha Edelheit (1931-)

Martha Edelheit (1931-)

Untitled (July 58), 1958

oil on canvas

63h x 51 1/2w in
160.02h x 130.81w cm

George McNeil (1908-1995)

George McNeil (1908-1995)

The British Navy, 1957

Oil on canvas

66h x 55w in
167.64h x 139.70w cm

Thomas Sills ,

Thomas Sills

Native Dancer, 1958

oil on canvas

45 1/2h x 69w in
115.57h x 175.26w cm

Earl J. Hooks

Earl J. Hooks (1927-2005)

Untitled

Stoneware

17h x 8w x 8 1/2d in
43.18h x 20.32w x 21.59d cm

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)

Mother and Child, 1951

bronze

17h x 10w x 5d in
43.18h x 25.40w x 12.70d cm

Joseph Glasco (1925-1996)

Joseph Glasco (1925-1996)

Portrait of a Young Lady, 1956

plaster

14 1/2h x 8w x 6 1/2d in
36.83h x 20.32w x 16.51d cm

Sidney Gordin (1918-1996), Untitled, 1958

Sidney Gordin (1918-1996)

Untitled, 1958

welded steel

15 1/2h x 10 1/2w x 6d in
39.37h x 26.67w x 15.24d cm

Norman Lewis (1909-1979)

Norman Lewis (1909-1979)

Untitled, 1951

graphite on paper

19h x 24w in
48.26h x 60.96w cm

Elaine de Kooning

Elaine de Kooning

Conrad, 1952

oil on canvas

14h x 10w in
35.56h x 25.40w cm

Joe Stefanelli (1921-2017), Occasion, 1957

Joe Stefanelli (1921-2017)

Occasion, 1957

oil on canvas

70h x 86w in
177.80h x 218.44w cm

Miriam Schapiro, Fête Champêtre [Homage to Giorgione], 1954

Miriam Schapiro

Fête Champêtre [Homage to Giorgione], 1954

oil on canvas

78h x 105w in
198.12h x 266.70w cm

Sidney Geist, Untitled, c. 1957

Sidney Geist

Untitled, c. 1957

Painted Wood

112h x 31w x 31d in
284.48h x 78.74w x 78.74d cm

Mimi Gross, Via Guelfa Visitors (Firenze), 1959-60

Mimi Gross

Via Guelfa Visitors (Firenze), 1959-60

Oil on canvas

77h x 77w in
195.58h x 195.58w cm

Framed: 79h x 79w x 2 1/2d in
200.66h x 200.66w x 6.35d cm

Theodoros Stamos, Divining Rod, 1951

Theodoros Stamos

Divining Rod, 1951

Oil on canvas

66h x 35 1/2w in
167.64h x 90.17w cm

Joseph Glasco (1925-1996), Salome, 1955

Joseph Glasco (1925-1996)

Salome, 1955

oil, enamel and mixed media on canvas

83 1/2h x 70w in
212.09h x 177.80w cm

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004), Abstraction #102, 1956

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004)

Abstraction #102, 1956

oil on canvas on panel

14 3/4h x 23 3/4w in
37.47h x 60.33w cm

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004), Abstraction #25, 1955

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004)

Abstraction #25, 1955

oil on canvas on panel

16 1/2h x 48w in
41.91h x 121.92w cm

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004), Abstraction #39, 1955

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004)

Abstraction #39, 1955

oil on canvas on panel

31h x 22w in
78.74h x 55.88w cm

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004), Abstraction #14, 1954

Carl Pickhardt (1908 - 2004)

Abstraction #14, 1954

oil on canvas on panel

30 1/2h x 21w in
77.47h x 53.34w cm

George McNeil (1908-1995), Black Convergence, 1952

George McNeil (1908-1995)

Black Convergence, 1952

oil on canvas

58h x 40w in
147.32h x 101.60w cm

Charles DuBack (1926-2015), Stripes, 1959

Charles DuBack (1926-2015)

Stripes, 1959

oil on canvas

46h x 46w in
116.84h x 116.84w cm

Jorge Fick, Where War Is, 1952

Jorge Fick

Where War Is, 1952

Oil On Canvas

30h x 22w in
76.20h x 55.88w cm

Pat Passlof, Cassowary, 1954

Pat Passlof

Cassowary, 1954

oil on paper mounted to board

17h x 15w in
43.18h x 38.10w cm

Press Release

Eric Firestone Gallery continues its scholarly reinvestigation of the New York School with a series of Fall exhibitions at its East Hampton location. Each show will focus on a single decade, while presenting a wide range of artists. The first exhibition will include work all from the 1950s by the following artists:

Josef Albers | Elaine de Kooning | Dorothy Dehner | Charles DuBack | Martha Edelheit | Jorge Fick | Jane Freilicher | Sidney Geist | Joseph Glasco | Sidney Gordin | Mimi Gross | Earl J. Hooks | Norman Lewis | John Little | George McNeil | Fred Mitchell | Joan Mitchell | Louise Nevelson | Pat Passlof | Carl Pickhardt | Milton Resnick | Thomas Sills | Miriam Schapiro | Theodore Stamos | Joe Stefanelli

Many artists, working even within abstraction, were in fact referencing personal narrative, the body, and old master painting.  Miriam Schapiro’s monumental “Fete Champêtre (Homage to Giorgione),” 1954 was originally exhibited at the historic artist-run Tanager Gallery.  Schapiro was drawn to the sensual qualities of the Giorgione painting, which allowed her to explore - even within gestural abstraction - the figure, a sense of mystery, and a layered evocation of nature. These aesthetic qualities would later connect to her feminist project.

Joseph Glasco (1925 - 1996) also turned to Venetian Renaissance painting as inspiration for his “Salome” (1955). It shows a pair of monumental, sculptural figures - one partially clothed - set against a dense mixed-media surface forming an intricately patterned ground. The painting was included in the Whitney Museum’s 1955 exhibition “The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors,” which traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and other venues throughout the country. Glasco eventually became disenchanted with the New York art world, moving to Texas. His partner at the time was the experimental novelist William Goyen. 

Joe Stefanelli’s painting “Occasion” was shown at a Whitney Annual in 1957 and acquired by the Chrysler Museum.  He was part of the 9th Street show, and numerous Stable Annuals, but the curator Judith Stein has written that it was really “in the neo-expressionist eighties that fashion caught up with Stefanelli.” His forms and shapes are marked with an expressive, energetic handwriting.

The exhibition includes a selection of works on paper by Dorothy Dehner (1901-1994), which presage the sculpture she would begin making in the late 1950s. Dehner was married to artist David Smith from 1927-1951, and they lived together in Bolton’s Landing in the 1940s. There, Dehner discovered Ernst Haeckel’s seminal 1904 study of natural forms, Kunstformen der Natur. These images were often the inspiration for her whimsical, lyrical works on paper. 

 

 

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