Corinne Michelle West - Action Painting

 

 Corinne Michelle West (1908–1991) was an American painter; she also used the names Mikael and Michael West.She was an Abstract Expressionist.West was born in Ohio. She attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before moving to the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1925.She moved to New York in 1932. She was Arshile Gorky's muse and probably his lover, although she refused to marry him when he proposed several times.She graduated from the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1930. After graduating and leaving the teachings of Hofmann, in 1934, West began studying under Raphael Soyer.In 1936 she had her first solo exhibition, at the Rochester Art Club; Also in 1936, she had begun to go by Mikael to obtain better opportunities, and after Arshile Gorky told her that the name "Corinne" sounded like that of a "debutante's daughter." Gorky suggestion however, is based on a real prejudice against women in the art world, such as with George Sand and George Elliot.In 1941 she began to use the name Michael, which she used in her regular life as well as her painting.She exhibited in Manhattan's prestigious Stable Gallery in 1953, and had a solo show in 1957 at the Uptown Gallery in New York City. In 1958 she had a one-woman show at the Domino Gallery in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.She also wrote poems; she wrote a series of 50 poems in the 1940s, including the poem The New Art in 1942. Later in 1968 she created a series of poem-paintings related to the Vietnam war.She was married briefly to Randolph Nelson in the 1930s, and in 1948 she married filmmaker Francis Lee, but they divorced in 1960.
The first major West Coast exhibit of her work was held posthumously at Art Resource Group's Newport Beach, California gallery in 2010.Wikipedia

 

Kazuo Shiraga - Gutai avant-garde movement

"Kazuo Shiraga was born in 1924 and was an abstract-expressionist painter. He joined the Gutai movement in 1954 after becoming frustrated with the traditional Japanese style of painting Nihon-ga, which he studied at school. He began his experimental painting at the Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai (Contemporary Art Discussion Group) and explored oil painting with the use of his hands and fingers. Shiraga found new freedom in the art medium, and enjoyed the consistency and texture much more compared to the thin ink-based pigments that was found in traditional Japanese painting. Gutai leader, Jiro Yoshihara, inspired Shiraga and in turn pushed him to create work that has never existed before. From this, Shiraga began performance painting, a key element to the Gutai movement. Shiraga began to paint using his full body in some performances and continued to explore the relationship between body and material. Shiraga is most noted for his foot print paintings that he made into his 80s, which revolve around Japanese, Chinese, and Buddhist themes."(debuckgallery.com)

Michael Goldberg - Action Paintings & Abstract Expressionism

Michael Goldberg (December 24, 1924 – December 31, 2007) was an American abstract expressionist painter and teacher known for his gestural action paintings, abstractions and still-life paintings... A veteran of World War II, Goldberg was one of the last few remaining survivors of the New York School;he was sometimes referred to as a member of the so-called "second generation" of Abstract Expressionists, although he began exhibiting his action paintings in important group shows in galleries in New York City in the early 1950s. Goldberg began taking classes at the Art Students League of New York at age 14. In the 1950s he studied painting with Hans Hofmann, and he discussed painting with Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and several others of the New York School sometimes at The Eighth Street Club, a regular meeting place of modern artists working in and around Tenth Street in New York and sometimes at the Cedar Bar. He began to exhibit his paintings in New York City during the early 1950s, and some of his abstract expressionist peers included artists like Joan Mitchell, Alfred Leslie, Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler, Knox Martin, Friedel Dzubas, Norman Bluhm and Sam Francis among others.Michael Goldberg came into prominence in the late 1950s, early 1960s just as Color field painting, Hard-edge painting and Pop Art emerged onto centerstage. With the changing of fashions in the art world; his greatest accomplishments as a painter weren't sufficiently recognized; and as many of his generation his work was overlooked for many years. Although by the 1970s and 1980s his work began to achieve recognition and appreciation and he enjoyed a long, successful and a celebrated career as an abstract painter.Wikipedia