PROGRESSIVE GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION IN AMERICA
1934-1955
SELECTIONS FROM THE PETER B. FISCHER COLLECTION
Harry Holtzman, Susan C. Larsen, Necia Gelker
Harry Holtzman, Susan C. Larsen, Necia Gelker: PROGRESSIVE GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION IN AMERICA, 1934-1955: SELECTIONS FROM THE PETER B. FISCHER COLLECTION. Clinton, NY: Emerson Art Gallery, 1987. Original edition. Slim quarto. Printed perfect bound wrappers. 96 pp. 50 color and black and white plates. Catalog of 52 works by 40 artists. Bibliography provided for each artist. Errata sheet laid in. Opening reception invitation laid in. Wrappers lightly soiled, otherwise a fine, fresh copy. Uncommon.
8 x 10 softcover exhibition guie with 96 pages and 50 color and black and white plates by 40 artists. Published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Fred L. Emerson Gallery, September 26 - November 7, 1987, and three other locations. Includes essays by Harry Holtzman, Susan C. Larsen, Necia Gelker.
Contents:
- Preface: William Salzillo
- The founding of the American Abstract Artists Group: a reminiscence: Harry Holtzman
- The art of collecting as an exacting passion: Susan C. Larsen
- Candor and commitment: a conversation with Dr. Peter B. Fischer: Necia Gelker
- Catalogue of the exhibition
- Illustrations
- Checklist
Artists included in this exhibition: Charles Biederman, Ilya Bolotowsky, Byron Browne, Louis Bunce, Giorgio Cavallon, Burgoyne Diller, Drewes, John Ferren, Perle Fine, Adolf Fleischmann, Suzy Frelinghuysen, Albert E. Gallatin, Fritz Glarner, Sidney Gordin, Arshile Gorky, Dwinell Grant, Balcomb Greene, Gertrude Greene, Hans Hofmann, Carl Holty, Harry Holtzman, Charles Howard, Frederick Kann, Nikolai Kasak, Paul Kelpe, Michael Loew, Evsa Model, George L.K. Morris, Irene Rice Pereira, Ad Reinhardt, Theodore Roszak, Louis Schanker, John Sennhauser, Charles Shaw, Esphyr Slobodkina, Leon Polk Smith, Albert Swinden, John von Wicht, Charmion von Wiegand, Vaclav Vytlacil, Jean Xceron, and Wilfred Zogbaum.
To understand Abstract Art, is in reality, the problem of understanding any and all art from a qualitative viewpoint. “Abstract” signifies a direct, untrammeled relationship of the elements of plastic expression. The abstract artist is concerned with the universal values, the real expression of art. Because it is the clearest effort to represent these values, Abstract Art is in the forefront of esthetic development.
This exhibition features masterworks of progressive American abstraction with a concentration on works representing geometric abstraction from the 1930s and 1940s. The exhibition included more than forty museum-caliber paintings and constructions by many of the most significant American modernists.
Over the last twenty-five years, Dr. Peter B. Fischer has assembled a collection that is regarded by most as the finest of its kind. The earliest work in the collection is a 1910 Manierre Dawson painting entitled Prognostic. This painting, one in a series of three, is the earliest American example of a non-objective painting. Rare cubist works by Arshile Gorky, John Graham, and Ad Reinhardt are contrasted with non-objective works from the 1930s by Bengelsdorf, Diller, Drewes, Ferren, Gallatin, Holtzman, Kelpe, Morris, Shaw, Slobodkina, and Swinden. The 1940s are represented with masterworks by Frelinghuysen, Polk Smith, Von Wiegand, and Xceron. The Fischer collection also features exceptional constructions from the 1930s by Biederman, Diller, Pereira, and Roszak.