Color field
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Color Field painting is 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. An alternate but less frequently encountered term for this style is chromatic abstraction.
Taking its example from other European modernists like Miró, the color field movement encompasses several decades from the mid 20th century through the early 21st century. Color field painting actually encompasses three separate but related generations of painters. Commonly used terms to refer to the three separate but related groups are abstract expressionism, post-painterly abstraction, and lyrical abstraction. Some of the artists made works in all three eras, that relate to all of the three styles. Color field pioneers such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, John Ferren, Adolph Gottlieb, and Robert Motherwell are primarily thought of as abstract expressionists. Artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Francis, Richard Diebenkorn, Jules Olitski, and Kenneth Noland were of a slightly younger generation, or in the case of Morris Louis aesthetically aligned with that generation's point of view; that started out as abstract expressionists but quickly moved to post-painterly abstraction. While younger artists like Frank Stella, Ronald Davis, Larry Zox, Larry Poons, Walter Darby Bannard, Ronnie Landfield, Dan Christensen, began with post-painterly abstraction and eventually moved forward towards a new type of expressionism, referred to as lyrical abstraction. Many of the artists mentioned, as well as many others, have practiced all three modes at one phase of their careers or another. During the later phases of color field painting; as reflections of the zeitgeist of the late 1960s (in which everything began to hang loose) and the angst of the age (with all of the uncertainties of the time) merged with the gestalt of post-painterly abstraction, producing lyrical abstraction which combined precision of the color field idiom with the malerische of the abstract expressionists. During the same period of the late 1960s, and early 1970s in Europe, Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer and several other painters also began producing works of intense expression, merging abstraction with images, incorporating landscape imagery, and figuration that by the late 1970s was referred to as Neo-expressionism.
Painters
The following is a list of color field painters, closely related artists and some of their more important influences:
- Josef Albers (1888–1976)
- Edward Avedisian (1936–2007)
- Walter Darby Bannard (1934–2016)
- Arvid Boecker (born 1964)
- Ilya Bolotowsky (1907–1981)
- Frank Bowling (born 1936)
- Stanley Boxer (1926–2000)
- Jack Bush (1909–1977)
- Dan Christensen (1942–2007)
- Gene Davis (1920–1985)
- Ronald Davis (born 1937)
- Robyn Denny (1930–2014)
- Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993)
- Piero Dorazio (1927–2005)
- Thomas Downing (1928–1985)
- Friedel Dzubas (1915–1994)
- Gabriele Evertz (born 1945)
- Paul Feeley (1910–1966)
- John Ferren (1905-1970)
- Sam Francis (1923–1994)
- Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)
- Sam Gilliam (born 1933)
- Joe Goode (born 1937)
- Robert Goodnough (1917–2010)
- Al Held (1928–2005)
- Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017)
- Hans Hofmann (1880–1966)
- Wolfgang Hollegha (born 1929)
- Ralph Hotere (1931–2013)
- John Hoyland (1934–2011)
- Paul Jenkins (1923–2012)
- Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015)
- Paul Klee (1879–1940)
- Ronnie Landfield (born 1947)
- Pat Lipsky (born 1941)
- Morris Louis (1912–1962)
- Brice Marden (born 1938)
- Henri Matisse (1869–1954)
- John McLaughlin (1898–1976)
- Howard Mehring (1931–1978)
- Mary Pinchot Meyer (1920–1964)
- Joan Miró (1893–1983)
- Piet Mondrian (1872–1944)
- Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
- Barnett Newman (1905–1970)
- Kenneth Noland (1924–2010)
- Jules Olitski (1922–2007)
- Blinky Palermo (1943–1977)
- J. S. Parker (1944–2017)
- Ray Parker (1922–1990)
- William Perehudoff (1918–2013)
- William Pettet (1942–2019)
- John Plumb (1927–2008)
- Larry Poons (born 1937)
- Paul Reed (1919–2015)
- Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967)
- Jack Roth (1927–2004)
- Mark Rothko (1903–1970)
- Kikuo Saito (1939–2016)
- John Seery (born 1941)
- David Simpson (born 1928)
- Richard Smith (1931–2016)
- David G. Sorensen (1937–2011)
- Frederick Spratt (1927–2008)
- Albert Stadler (1923–2000)
- Clyfford Still (1904–1980)
- Frank Stella (born 1936)
- Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891–1978)
- Anne Truitt (1921–2004)
- John Walker (born 1939)
- Neil Williams (1934–1988)
- Peter Young (born 1940)
- Larry Zox (1937–2006)
See also
- Abstract art
- Abstract Imagists
- Concrete art
- Hard-edge painting
- Lyrical abstraction
- Modern art
- Post-painterly abstraction
- Warming stripes (data visualization technique using the color field concept)
- Washington Color School
- Western painting