Balcomb Greene (1904–1990)
and his wife, artist Gertrude Glass Greene, were heavily involved in
political activism to promote mainstream acceptance of abstract art.
They were founding members of the American Abstract Artists
organization.His early style was completely non-objective. Juan Gris
and Piet Mondrian as well as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse
influenced his early style.[4] From the 1940s his work "opened
out to the light and space of natural form." He painted
landscapes and figure. "He discerned the pain of a man, and
hewed to it integrally from beginning to end…. In his study of the
figure he did not stress anatomical shape but rater its intuitive,
often conflicting spirit."
Balcomb Greene contributed
to modernist cause through his writings: "It is actually the
artist, and only he, who is equipped for approaching the individual
directly. The abstract artist can approach man through the most
immediate of aesthetic experiences, touching below consciousness and
the veneer of attitudes, contacting the whole ego rather than the ego
on the defensive.Wikipedia
In 1940 Balcomb Greene
began studying art history at New York University, going on to
receive a master’s degree in 1943. During this period, his
aesthetic approach changed as he abandoned the crisply rendered and
brightly colored forms of his geometric work in favor of the figure
shown against a backdrop of fragmented planes. He went on to create
paintings, often naturalistic depictions of the female nude, that
were characterized by an expressionist handling of paint and a
limited palette of whites, greys and other muted tones that derived
from his interest in photography. In 1947 Greene purchased some land
on Montauk Point, Long Island, where he built a home on a high bluff.
With the exception of a trip to Paris in 1958-60, he spent most of
his time on Long Island, where he was one of the pioneers of the East
End art colony. Inspired by the proximity of the ocean, he painted a
number of marines, using dynamic brushwork to evoke the energy and
spirit of the sea.(Spanierman Gallery)
No comments:
Post a Comment