Robert Richenburg: The Path of an Abstract Expressionist From the Richard Zahn Collection September 29 – October 27, 2006 |
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This retrospective exhibition celebrates fifty years of painting by American artist Robert Richenburg. Drawn primarily from the exceptional collection of Richard Zahn, the exhibition focuses on Richenburg’s contribution to American Abstract Expressionism, the avant-garde movement that placed American art on the world stage after World War II. Influenced by the European Surrealists, who came to America as exiles during the war, the Abstract Expressionists experimented with an automatic process of painting, using their unconscious as a source for their imagery. This process of free association was closer to the improvisational approach of jazz musicians than to traditional painting techniques. Avoiding preparatory sketches, Abstract Expressionist artists invented their imagery as they worked. Richenburg’s large painting, Court, 1954, with its spontaneous forms and “flying” brushstrokes, is a classic example of this revolutionary style. In Court, Richenburg revealed his artistic process, leaving the drips and splashes as a record of his work. In his more ominous black paintings from the late 1950s and early 1960s, Richenburg responded to the darker aspects of human nature and the brutality of war. Born in 1917, Richenburg studied at Boston University; George Washington University and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC; and the Art Students League in New York City. During World War II, from 1942 until 1945, Richenburg served in the army as a combat engineer and demolition expert. After the war, he continued to study art with Amédée Ozenfant and Hans Hofmann. Richenburg was a member of the legendary Eighth Street Club, which was formed by artists in 1949 as a forum to discuss avant-garde issues. He exhibited in the historic Ninth Street Show in 1951. His work was included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Major retrospective exhibitions have been held at the Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, in 1992; at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1993; and at David Findlay Jr Fine Art, New York, in 2003.The Sidney Mishkin Gallery is located at: Gallery hours are: © 2006 Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College |
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| Sandra Kraskin (gallery) | |
