Clement Greenberg' (January 16, 1909 - May 7, 1994) was an influential American art critic closely associated with the abstract art movement in the United States. In particular, he promoted the Abstract Expressionist movement and had close ties with the painter Jackson Pollock. January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... -1... is the 127th day of the year (128th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Jackson Pollock, No. ... January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... is the 127th day of the year (128th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... An art critic is normally a person who have a speciality in giving reviews mainly of the types of fine art you will find on display. Typically the art critic will go to an art exhibition where works of art are displayed in the traditional way in localities especially made... Black square by Kazimir Malevich Abstract art is now generally understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural world, but instead uses colour and form in a non-representational way. ... During the modernist period, three types of agents were involved in the process of making a work of art: the artist, the critic and the gallery owner. ... Jackson Pollock, No. ... Controversy swirls over the alleged sale of No. ...

Kitsch

Greenberg was a graduate of Syracuse University who first made his name as an art critic with his essay Avant-Garde and Kitsch, first published in the journal Partisan Review 1939. In this article Greenberg claimed that avant-garde and Modernist art was a means to resist the leveling of culture produced by capitalist propaganda. Greenberg appropriated the German word 'kitsch' to describe this consumerism, though its connotations have since changed to a more affirmative notion of left-over materials of capitalist culture. Modern art, like philosophy, explored the conditions under which we experience and understand the world. It does not simply provide information about it in the manner of an illustratively accurate depiction of the world. "Avant Garde and Kitsch" was also a politically motivated essay in part a response to the destruction and repression of Modernist Art in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and its replacement with state ordained styles of "Aryan" art and "Socialist Realism." Syracuse University (SU) is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. ... Avant-Garde and Kitsch is the title of a 1939 essay by Clement Greenberg in which he claimed that avant-garde and modernist art was a means to resist the dumbing down of culture caused by consumerism. ... Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... For Modernism in an American context, see American modernism. ... Kitsch (pronounced “kich” as in “rich”) is a term of German origin that has been used to categorize art that is considered an inferior copy of an existing style. ... For the more specialised meaning of Connotation in semiotics, see connotation (semiotics). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Aryan (/eÉ™rjÉ™n/ or /ɑːrjÉ™n/, Sanskrit: ) is a Sanskrit and Avestan word meaning noble/spiritual one. ...

After Abstract Expressionism

Greenberg believed Modernism provided a critical commentary on experience. It was constantly changing to adapt to kitsch pseudo-culture, which was itself always developing. In the years after World War II, Greenberg came to believe that the best avant-garde artists were emerging in America rather than Europe. Particularly, he championed Jackson Pollock as the greatest painter of his generation, commemorating the artist's "all-over" gestural canvases. In the 1955 essay "American-Type Painting" Greenberg promoted the work of Abstract Expressionists, among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still, as the next stage in Modernist art, arguing that these painters were moving towards greater emphasis on the 'flatness' of the picture plane. As part of his program to promote the principle of medium specificity in the arts, Greenberg stressed that this flatness separated their art from the Old Masters, who considered flatness an obtrusive hurdle in painting. Greenberg argued for a method of self-criticism that transported abstract painting from decorative 'wallpaper patterns' to high art. Greenberg's view that, after the war, the United States had become the guardian of 'advanced art' was taken up in some quarters as a reason for using Abstract Expressionism as the basis for Cultural Propaganda exercises. He praised similar movements abroad and, after the success of the Painters Eleven exhibition in 1956 with the American Abstract Artists at New York's Riverside Gallery, he travelled to Toronto to see the group's work in 1957. He was particularly impressed by the potential of painters William Ronald and Jack Bush, and later developed a close friendship with Bush. Greenberg saw Bush's post-Painters Eleven work as a clear manifestation of the shift from abstract expressionism to Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction, a shift he had called for in most of his critical writings of the period. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Controversy swirls over the alleged sale of No. ... Willem de Koonings Woman V (1952-53), National Gallery of Australia Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was an abstract expressionist painter, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. ... Hans Hofmann (1880 - 1966) was an abstract expressionist painter. ... Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. ... Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, one of the leading figures in abstract expressionism. ... Medium specificity is a principle in aesthetics and art criticism that developed during the period in art history called Modernism. ... Harold Town, Mechanical Forest Sound, oil on masonite, 1953 Painters Eleven (variant names Painters 11 or P11) was a collective of abstract artists active in Canada from 1954 to 1960. ... Ronald, The Hero, oil on canvas, 1957 Ronald, mixed media on paper, 1993 William Ronald, R.C.A. (1926-1998) (variant name William Smith Ronald; born Willam Ronald Smith) was an important Canadian painter, best known as the founder the influential Canadian abstract art group Painters Eleven in 1954. ... Bush, Big A, acrylic on canvas, 1968 Jack Bush (1909-1977) (variant name John Hamilton Bush) was an important Canadian abstract expressionist painter, born in Toronto, Ontario in 1909. ... Color Field painting was an abstract style that emerged in the 1950s after Abstract Expressionism and is largely characterized by abstract canvases painted primarily with large areas of solid color. ... Lyrical Abstraction is an important American abstract art movement that emerged in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC and then Toronto and London during the 1960s - 1970s. ...

Greenberg's eye led him to reject the Pop Art of the 1960s, a trend clearly influenced by kitsch culture. Through the 1960s Greenberg remained an influential figure on a younger generation of critics including Michael Fried and Rosalind E. Krauss. Greenberg's antagonism to 'Postmodernist' theories and socially engaged movements in art caused a backlash amongst both artists and art historians. Adrian Piper, an artist and art theorist wrote such a backlash in her essay, The Logic of Modernism, How Greenberg Stole the Americans Away in Flash Art 168 in 1993.^{[citation needed]} This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Michael Fried was a soldier in the U.S. Army. ... Rosalind Krauss is an American art critic, professor, and theorist. ... Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Adrian Piper (September 20, 1948) is an African American artist. ...

Post-painterly abstraction

Main article: Post-painterly Abstraction

Eventually, Greenberg was concerned that some Abstract Expressionism had been "reduced to a set of mannerisms" and increasingly looked to a new set of artists who abandoned such elements as subject matter, connection with the artist, and definite brush strokes. Greenberg suggested this process attained a level of 'purity' (a word he only used in quotes) that would reveal the truthfulness of the canvas, and the two-dimensional aspects of the space (flatness). Greenberg coined the term "Post-Painterly Abstraction" to distinguish it from Abstract Expressionism, or Painterly Abstraction, as Greenberg preferred to call it. Post-Painterly Abstraction reacted against gestural abstraction and branched into two sects, the Hard-Edged Painters such as Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella who explored relationships within shapes and edges, and Color-Field Painters such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, who poured diluted paint onto the unprimed canvas to explore aspects of pure, fluid color. Post-painterly Abstraction is a term created by art critic, Clement Greenberg in the 1960s to distinguish his idea of pure art from the Abstract Expressionism movement of about the same time. ... Look up Canvas in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Hard-edge painting style can be considered a subdivision of Post-Painterly Abstraction, which in turn emerged from Color Field painting. ... Ellsworth Kelly (b. ... Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter and printmaker. ... Color Field painting was an abstract style that emerged in the 1950s after Abstract Expressionism and is largely characterized by abstract canvases painted primarily with large areas of solid color. ... Helen Frankenthaler (born December 12, 1928) is an American post-painterly abstraction artist. ... Morris Louis (Morris Louis Bernstein) (1912 - 1962) was one of the talented U.S. abstract expressionist painters to emerge in the fifties. ...

Clement Greenberg Collection

In 2000, the Portland Art Museum (PAM) acquired the Clement Greenberg Collection of 159 paintings, prints, drawings, and sculpture by some of the most important American artists of the mid-20th century. PAM exhibits the works primarily in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art - some sculpture resides outdoors. Among the collection: Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, and Sir Anthony Caro. The Portland Art Museum (PAM) in Portland, Oregon was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum in the Pacific Northwest. ... Kenneth Noland (born April 10, 1924) is an American painter. ... Helen Frankenthaler (born December 12, 1928) is an American post-painterly abstraction artist. ... Jules Olitski is an American abstract painter and sculptor, born Jevel Demikovski in Snovsk, Russia, on March 27 1922, a few months after his father, a commissar, was executed by the Russian government. ... Sir Anthony Caro (born 8 March 1924) is an English, abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblies of metal using found industrial objects. ...

See also

• Art criticism
• Art critic
• Art history
• Modernism
• Postmodern art
• Abstract Expressionism
• Post-Painterly Abstraction
• Color Field
• Lyrical Abstraction
• Jackson Pollock
• Willem de Kooning
• Painters Eleven

Art criticism is the study and evaluation of art. ... An art critic is normally a person who have a speciality in giving reviews mainly of the types of fine art you will find on display. Typically the art critic will go to an art exhibition where works of art are displayed in the traditional way in localities especially made... This article is about the academic discipline of art history. ... For Modernism in an American context, see American modernism. ... Postmodern art (sometimes called po-mo) is a term used to describe art which is thought to be after or in contradiction to some aspect of modernism. ... Jackson Pollock, No. ... Post-painterly Abstraction is a term created by art critic, Clement Greenberg in the 1960s to distinguish his idea of pure art from the Abstract Expressionism movement of about the same time. ... Color Field painting was an abstract style that emerged in the 1950s after Abstract Expressionism and is largely characterized by abstract canvases painted primarily with large areas of solid color. ... Lyrical Abstraction is an important American abstract art movement that emerged in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC and then Toronto and London during the 1960s - 1970s. ... Controversy swirls over the alleged sale of No. ... Willem de Koonings Woman V (1952-53), National Gallery of Australia Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was an abstract expressionist painter, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. ... Harold Town, Mechanical Forest Sound, oil on masonite, 1953 Painters Eleven (variant names Painters 11 or P11) was a collective of abstract artists active in Canada from 1954 to 1960. ...

References

• Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture, Beacon Press, 1961
• Greenberg, Clement. Late Writings. St. Paul: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
• Greenberg, Clement. A Critic's Collection. Portland: Portland Art Museum, 2001.
• Greenberg, Clement. Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste. Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Rubenfeld, Florence. Clement Greenberg: A Life. Scribner, 1997.

External links

• Clement Greenberg