Four magnets of paintings currently hanging in our galleries for the Dialogue and Defiance: Clyfford Still and the Abstract Expressionists exhibition.
Clyfford Still withdrew his paintings from the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1951, refusing to participate in a market prioritizing the fame of an artist and the price of their artworks. The following year, he surprised many by agreeing to participate in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art. His rationale for doing so was because the curator, Dorothy Miller, agreed to show Still’s works together in their own gallery. As Still saw it, his work could be viewed on its own terms and not in direct comparison to other artists—but visitors could still see the scope of American painting in the mid-century. Even with his turn away from the art world, Still saw himself participating in something larger and remained in dialogue with his contemporaries.
This exhibition considers the nuanced ways in which Clyfford Still was part of an artists’ community in the late 1940s and early 1950s, despite his protestations to the contrary, and how his paintings, through their scale and composition, promote ideas of community.
