Abstract Expressionist prints

into the decade after World War II brand new imagery and visual ideals changed the art globe, and its center shifted from European countries to America. Abstract Expressionism is acknowledged as the key success of US art within the 20th century, but its effect on the visual arts has never been totally analyzed. In 100 prints by as numerous music artists, this exhibition surveys the age's diverse ways to printmaking, and the stylistic and technical experimentation that revolutionized American graphic arts. Images represented the entire stylistic range, which we currently characterize as Abstract Expressionism, including Abstract Surrealism, biomorphism, painterly motion, and calligraphy. The works inside show exemplify a multitude of printmaking media, and range in scale from miniature drypoints to mural-sized screenprints.

Within the last decade, the Worcester Art Museum has pursued an energetic program to acquire this material and, with few exceptions, the images in the exhibition result from the Museum's permanent collection. Artists represented include pioneers regarding the nyc class such Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline, along with San Francisco Bay region musicians and artists like Richard Diebenkorn and Nathan Oliveira.

The show is combined with a total catalogue, which reproduces each printing in shade, provides a discussion for the work, and a singer's biography. The book and event also explore the cross-influences of art, poetry, and jazz with this powerful age.

Sponsored by Allmerica Financial.

Extra good help is given by the nationwide Endowment the Arts, The Judith Rothschild Foundation, The Richard A. Heald Fund, and the Christian A. Johnson Exhibition Endowment Fund.