CANADIAN AND AMERICAN ABSTRACT PAINTING: INTERSECTIONS IN THE WORK OF CLYFFORD STILL AND KENNETH LOCHHEAD
Katherine Meredith
Clyfford Still is at once a legendary figure in the history of modern art, and an unknown painter whose oeuvre has been tightly restricted from public access. Those who do know his work are familiar with Still as a leader of the Abstract Expressionist movement, and associate the artist with his immense and colourful abstract canvases. Although these represent his most significant and influential works, what is constantly overlooked when discussing Still’s career is the fact that he spent most of his youth in rural Alberta, where he began to paint. Born in North Dakota in 1904, Still’s family moved to Bow Island, just outside of Edmonton, in 1911. He lived there until he attended college in Washington State, although he returned to Canada during the summers as well as regularly throughout the rest of his life. Little is known of this part of Still’s career. This is partly because Still was a very private person who hid from the public, and who usually refused to comment on any of his art, as well as the strict conditions on his estate, left by the artist following his death in 1980. At Still’s wishes, his estate remained hidden from public access until an American city was willing to build a museum dedicated to his art and archives.
Consequently, for a very well-known artist of the twentieth century, there is little known of him, particularly during his early years as a figurative painter. In 2011, the Clyfford Still Museum in
Denver, Colorado opened its doors to house and present this large collection. The museum contains over 94% of the artist’s work.
Kenneth Lochhead was born in Ottawa in 1926. Lochhead studied at Queen’s University, the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. His extensive
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 study of art was complemented by trips to Europe and western Canada.1 He moved to Regina in
1950 to teach art at the University of Saskatchewan. Known for his colourful, geometric abstract works of the 1960s and 1970s, he has inspired generations of artists across Canada in the second half of the twentieth century. Because of his artwork, teaching, as well as his active role in the contemporary art world, he helped to give the Regina arts scene national status.
This exhibition will compare the careers of Clyfford Still and Kenneth Lochhead, as two abstract artists active during the same time period, both of whom had strong ties with the Canadian
Prairies. While the two artists are most renowned for their colourful, non-representational paintings, Still and Lochhead began with figurative paintings of landscapes and portraiture. The development of their styles will be compared and contrasted in the context of Post-War art, while noting Still and Lochhead’s relation to dominant art movements of the time in the United States.
Since Clyfford Still is only ever considered alongside other American artists, this exhibition aims to expose the Canadian side of the painter, and show how Still’s work is not similar to American artists exclusively.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 The Formative Years: Arriving at Abstraction with the Influence of Cézanne
Clyfford Still
PH-619-5
1920
Oil on canvas
Clyfford Still Museum
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Paul Cézanne
The Bay of Marseilles, view from L'Estaque
1885
31 5/8 x 39 5/8 in. (80.2 x 100.6 cm)
Oil on canvas
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number: 1933.1116 http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/16487
Paul Cézanne is considered one of the most influential artists of the nineteenth century and a major pioneer of modern painting. He is credited with bridging the gap between late nineteenth century Impressionism and early twentieth century Cubism.2 Generations of modern artists have affirmed their admiration of the painter; Matisse once proclaimed: “Cézanne, you see, is a sort of
God of painting.”3 He often inspired artists during their early careers, as they were developing
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 their own style. His influence continues for twentieth century artists around the world, including
Clyfford Still in the United States and Kenneth Lochhead in Canada.
Clyfford Still, who began painting in 1920 at age sixteen in Bow Island, Alberta, shows
influences of Cézanne in several ways. Because Still was a self-taught artist, he did not study
Cézanne in studio art courses like many painters have. Rather, Still studied his work on his own
time and in his art history classes, which led to him write his Master’s thesis in Art History on
the artist in 1935, entitled “Cézanne: A Study in Evaluation.” In his thesis Still mentions what he
admired about Cézanne, particularly how his forms were used for aesthetic function rather than
as representational tools, and for his liberated use of colour. He praises Cézanne just as the early
modern artists did, for being the founder of modern art: “For almost a third of a century Paul
Cézanne has been the most influential figure in modern painting. His letters alone have formed
the technical basis of one great modern school. He casually mentions geometric figures and
another school is born.”4
While it is a known fact that Still greatly admired Cézanne, saying that Cézanne directly influenced Still’s work is a much more subjective claim. Still was ethically opposed to the idea of artists having influences, and claimed that he had none, stating, “My work is not influenced by anybody.”5 As well, Still’s artwork is highly original and often shows an assimilation of several
artistic styles, therefore references to Cézanne are very subtle. This attitude of rejecting tradition
and recognizing the artist as an autonomous figure belonged to the two artists. Still admired
Cézanne’s character. Cézanne spoke on this topic, stating “the modern artist must forget
everything that came before.”6
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 In one of Still’s first landscapes of rural Alberta, PH-619-5 (1920), we see a grain elevator on an empty, flat plain. Thick brushstrokes suggest movement in the empty blue sky. The brushstrokes, palette and simplified geometric forms show similarities to Cézanne’s Impressionist period
(1883-1885), such as his landscapes in l’Estaque, including The Bay of Marseilles, view from
L'Estaque (1885). Both artists painted rural scenes with varied and thick brushstrokes, and yellow buildings with rigid, squared contours.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Clyfford Still
Untitled
1935
26 3/4 x 20 3/4 in. (67.9 x 52.7 cm)
Oil on canvas
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2001
Accession Number: 01.12 http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/hirshhorn-past-exhibitions/ - detail=http%3A//www.hirshhorn.si.edu/search-results/search-result- details/%3Fedan_search_value=01.12&collection=hirshhorn-past- exhibitionshttp://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/hirshhorn
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Paul Cézanne
The Boy with a Skull (Jeune homme à la tête de mort)
1896-1898
130.2 x 97.3 cm
Oil on canvas
The Barnes Foundation
http://www.barnesfoundation.org/collections/art-collection/object/5209/young-man-and-skull- jeune-homme-a-la-tete-de-mort
One major element that Clyfford Still admired of Cézanne and adopted himself was the recurring
theme of distortion.7 Whereas Cézanne used distortion in a geometric, proto-Cubist fashion, Still painted elongated, misshaped figures in his path to abstraction through a regionalist style.
Regionalism is a term applied to a group of American artists during the 1930s and early 1940s who depicted realistic scenes of life in the rural Midwest and the Deep South in the United
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 States.8 Several of Still’s early works of rural Alberta bear resemblances to the Regionalists’
nostalgic paintings of small-town America. As Still’s work evolved, however, the figures in his
scenes of farms and farm-workers become emaciated, tired and hunger-stricken, his characters
usually placed in a dark and eerie setting. envisioning the people Still had witnessed in Alberta
and Washington State during the Great Depression. This aspect of Still’s painting of the 1930s
steer his work closer to that of the Social Realists. Popular in the United States and Canada
during the 1920s and 30s, these were artists who drew attention to the everyday conditions of the
working class and the poor, while criticizing the social structures that maintained these
conditions.9
Still’s Untitled (1935), shows a face typical of Still’s work of the 1930s. The eyes consist of empty, black sockets, there is no nose, and the cheeks are bony and hollow with a straight black line for a mouth. The skull, resting on a limp hand, floats in front of a grey, hilly landscape. The figure, an overworked and starved labourer, references the Social-Realist aspect of Still’s work, while the distorted forms and dark, eerie landscape evokes a Surrealist style. Surrealism, a movement in literature and the visual arts during the 1920s and 30s, drew upon the subconscious to produce unexpected imagery of the imagination, free from reason and societal limitations.10
Still’s Untitled, 1930, also evokes the often dream-like images of the Surrealist painters, with his
unearthly scene of a figure in a landscape.
Cézanne also went through a phase of painting skulls, although for him it was a reflection of his
resignation to death at the end of his career, from 1898-1905. The Boy with a Skull (1896-1898)
was one of the first paintings of Cézanne’s to contain a skull. As well, Still’s painting is similar
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 to this work. The young man sits at a table with a skull, resting his head against his hand in a melancholic pose, in the same way as Still’s skull rests on its own hand. Distortion is present in
Cézanne’s painting, in the face, the fractured surfaces of the curtain and in the room’s perspective.
Clyfford Still
1937-8-A
Oil on canvas
49 1/2 x 36 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches (125.73 x 92.08 x 6.99 cm)
Gift of the artist, 1964
1964:5.1
Albright Knox Art Gallery http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/search/piece:1829/
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 Clyfford Still took the idea of distortion further and further, making only distant references to
figuration, until eventually his paintings became non-representational. His long, bony figures became steadily more exaggerated and abstract. Still’s painting 1937-8-A, (1937) shows his work just before a complete breakthrough into abstraction. The black and brown vertical shapes, rounded at the top, evoke bodies clustered together. The small yellow line in the tallest form gives the viewer a sense that it is a peering face. The shapes are fluid and loose, blending into one another. Figure and ground become increasingly difficult to distinguish. This painting marks a leap into abstraction; after a final large step in that direction, Still breaks through to non- representational works.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Kenneth Lochhead
Piazza Michelangelo
1959
59.7 x 99.7 cm
Oil on canvas http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/work_detail.html?languagePref=en&mkey=8516&title=Piazza+ Michaelangelo&artist=Lochhead,+Kenneth&link_id=23
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Paul Cézanne
Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves
1902-1906
65 x 81 cm
Oil on canvas
Private collection http://www.sai.msu.su/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/st-victoire/799/lauves-799.jpg
Since Kenneth Lochhead was educated in the visual arts, he studied Cézanne’s works extensively. At the Barnes Foundation he mentions his admiration for Cézanne during his student years: “I loved Cézanne paintings. Our lecturer and head of the education programme [...] would spend up to three hours analyzing one Cézanne of the collection. Wow, was that ever an eye opener.”11
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 From 1958 to 1959, Lochhead and his family spent eight months in Rome and another four
months traveling in Europe, where he saw Cézanne’s work in museums and galleries. Several
paintings, such as Piazza Michelangelo (1959) were conceived in Rome but completed in
Regina. This painting, typical of Lochhead’s figurative work in the 1950s, shows an Italian city,
emphasizing architecture and the monuments in a flattened, cubist way. The artist had a
fascination for monuments, which he depicted here in simplified, geometric shapes, rather than
in their original classical modeling. Just as Cézanne had done, Lochhead rejected the traditional
rules of single-point perspective.12 Lochhead creates a fragmented surface, using tilted planes and flattened volumes, resembling a mosaic. Lochhead emphasizes structure in his analytical approach to the scene, rather than an idealized or naturalistic method, similar to Cézanne’s idea of breaking down everything he saw into basic forms. In Cézanne’s Le Mont Sainte-Victoire
Seen from Les Lauves (1902-04), the landscape is broken down into small squares with flattened volumes, also resembling a mosaic.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Kenneth Lochhead
Minotaur
1961
182.2 x 122 cm
Gesso on Masonite
National Gallery of Canada http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/image.html?languagePref=en&url=/c/images/big/l/lochhead/loc19 7.jpg&cright=Kenneth+Lochhead&mkey=8522&link_id=23
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 In the following years, Kenneth Lochhead pursued this cubist style further, continuing to deconstruct his subject with only distant references to figuration. Minotaur (1961) is one of
Lochhead’s last “figurative” works, where a representational subject has all but dissolved. Wide, uneven strokes of white and grey paint are layered on top of a black base. The black form that is created protrudes on the top and in two narrow shapes off the bottom, referencing a minotaur; however, had the painting not contained this title, the viewer would not necessarily recognize the animal it depicts, or any figurative subject matter at all.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 Embracing Abstraction: Interactions with the New York School
Clyfford Still
PH-1071
1951
300 x 270 cm (approx.)
Oil on canvas
Clyfford Still Museum
Still’s distorted figures gradually became replaced by similar gestural, abstract forms. Once the artist finally embraced abstraction, his palette became brighter and more colourful. He also adopted a larger format for his canvases, for example, PH-1071 (1951) boasts a size of 3 by 2.7
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 metres, with a large zone of grey, surrounded by black, red and yellow. It is canvases such as this one for which Still is best known and most acclaimed. Clyfford Still’s work occupies a significant place in the first generation of Abstract Expressionism, an avant-garde art movement which emerged in New York following the Second World War. Also referred to as “The New
York School,” this small group of American artists shared some common assumptions but were never a formal association. This first generation of Abstract Expressionists thrived during the years 1943 into the mid 1950s. For the first time in history, following World War II, an
American art movement attained international status, thus shifting the centre of the art world from Paris to New York.
As Abstract Expressionism developed as an art movement, two distinct directions evolved in the late 1940s: gestural painting known as Action Painting, and Colour-Field painting. It is the latter group to which Clyfford Still belongs. Still developed this new type of painting based on immense canvases of simplified areas or “fields” of saturated colour. The intention of the
Colour-Field painters was visionary; they aimed to create an abstract art suggestive of the sublime.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Letter to Clement Greenberg, from Clyfford E. Still (page 1 of 3)
April 12, 1955
Archives of American Art http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/clyfford-e-still-letter-to-clement-greenberg-9430
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 A factor that likely made Still so recognized, specifically for his abstract paintings of the 1950s,
is the coincidence of his abstract work with the rise of art criticism as a discipline. Art critics
frequented the exhibitions and galleries and commented on contemporary artists’ work during
the 1950s and 60s, when Still was at the height of his career. The most influential art critic of the
twentieth century and the champion of modern art criticism is Clement Greenberg.13 In one of
Greenberg’s highly significant essays, “American Type Painting,” written in 1955, the critic
writes that unlike the other Abstract Expressionists, Still arrived at his mature style with almost
no allusion to Cubism.14 Following this essay, Still wrote Greenberg an angry letter, asking him not to comment on his work and stating that many of his comments were false, and he did not want any praise from the critic because other artists were becoming jealous. In the opening paragraph, the artist wrote to Greenberg: “After taking the venom of Barnett Newman’s jealousy for over two hours yesterday afternoon, it required some considerable control to see your last effort in an objective relationship.”15 Still had strong disdain for art critics and art institutions, denying most exhibition requests and disagreeing with critics’ statements. In an attempt to restrict interpretation of his work, Still removed all titles from his paintings in 1947 and never used another title again.16
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Barnett Newman
Joshua
1950
Oil on canvas
36 x 25 in. (91.4 x 63.5 cm)
Private Collection, Chicago http://xgfk10ggr.wordpress.com/m7-2/
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Mark Rothko
No. 5/No. 22
1950 (dated on reverse 1949)
Oil on canvas
9' 9" x 8' 11 1/8" (297 x 272 cm)
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gift of the artist
1108.1969 http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5047&page _number=9&template_id=1&sort_order=1
Greenberg named Still “one of the most original painters of our time,” and in his essay “After
Abstract Expressionism” (1962) the critic credited Still, along with fellow artists Barnett
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 Newman and Mark Rothko, as a major influence on the emergence of the new movement in
American painting known as Colour-Field painting or Post-Painterly Abstraction. 17 Although
Greenberg and other art critics frequently praised the artist, Still consistently refuted their
comments and embarked on a life-long campaign to restrict any interpretation of his work.18
Kenneth Lochhead
Blue Extension
1963
203.2 x 248.9 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Department of Foreign Affairs, Ottawa http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/image.html?languagePref=en&url=/c/images/big/l/lochhead/loc04
4.jpg&cright=Kenneth+Lochhead&mkey=8532&link_id=23
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Arthur McKay
Impenetrable Image
1963
Oil on canvas
University of Regina Collection http://www.sknac.ca/index.php?page=ArtistDetail&id=39
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Ronald Bloore
Green Painting
1960
Oil on hardboard
122 x 122 cm
Robert MacLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/work_detail.html?languagePref=en&mkey=56098&title=Green+ Painting&artist=Bloore%2C+Ronald&link_id=175
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 Kenneth Lochhead’s more cubist process to abstract art resulted in a geometric abstract style,
with cleaner, straighter lines and shapes than Still’s gestural paintings, but maintaining a large
scale, such as Blue Extension (1963). Just as Still was associated with a group of similar artists,
Lochhead was a member of the Regina Five painters, a group of abstract artists from Ontario and
Saskatchewan who took their name from the title of their exhibition at the National Gallery of
Canada in 1961, “Five Painters from Regina.”19 These five men, Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur
McKay, Douglas Morton, Ted Godwin, and Ronald Bloore, were considered to be at the forefront of Canada’s modern art movement at that time.20
In 1955, while in Regina, Lochhead initiated the Emma Lake Professional Artists’ Workshops with some fellow Canadian artists, which brought about a new interest in Saskatchewan art and helped propel it onto the international scene.21 Held in Emma Lake, a remote location in northern
Saskatchewan, these annual workshops offered practicing artists a means of breaking from the
artistic isolation they felt in the Canadian Prairies.22 By bringing in significant critics and artists
from outside the province, workshop participants felt they could establish stronger contact with
the art world at large, and in this way invigorate their own art.23 The workshops ran from 1955
until 1995. Over eighty artists and critics served as workshop leaders, most notably Abstract
Expressionist Barnett Newman, and critic Clement Greenberg, who gave advice to artists such as
Lochhead on their abstract painting. Lochhead’s non-referential works of the 1960s reflect the
New York aesthetic, and he was included in Greenberg’s 1964 “Post-Painterly Abstraction”
exhibition in New York.24 In an interview, Lochhead mentioned that he was criticized for his
Emma Lake Workshops by some of his colleagues, because many of his Canadian
contemporaries had an anti-American sentiment, but Lochhead always defended these sessions,
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 stating, “It was the best thing that ever happened in Canadian art- to open the doors to international concepts and ideas and biases.”25
Kenneth Noland
And Half
1959
Acrylic on canvas
Kenneth Noland Official Website http://www.kennethnoland.com/works/1950-1960.php
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 While Clyfford Still’s paintings of the 1950s helped to propel Colour-Field painting as a new art movement following Abstract Expressionism, Lochhead’s abstract work of the 1960s and 1970s bear resemblances to Colour-Field painting, which had recently established itself as an important movement in New York. American artist Kenneth Noland exemplifies Colour-Field painting with his circles, or “targets.” Noland was also featured in Greenberg’s “Post-Painterly
Abstraction” exhibition with Lochhead, and led an Emma Lake workshop in 1963. Paintings of the two artists show similarities in line and colour patterns. Lochhead’s multicoloured square in
Blue Extension seems like a square version of Noland’s target. Whereas Lochhead’s shape is anchored to the bottom edge of the painting, Noland’s circle is floating against a blank canvas.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Kenneth Lochhead
Cerulean Break
1972
238.8 x 185.4 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/image.html?languagePref=en&url=/c/images/big/l/lochhead/loc07 4.jpg&cright=Kenneth+Lochhead&mkey=8681&link_id=23
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Jules Olitski
Comprehensive Dream
1965
284.5 x 235cm
Acrylic on canvas
Ameringer Yohe Fine Art http://www.artcritical.com/2003/07/17/gallery-going-this-article-first-appeared-in-the-new-york- sun-july-17-2003/
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 Around 1970, Lochhead changed his style significantly to very soft, loose, and diffused areas of colour that thinly cover the enormous canvas. These paintings, such as Cerulean Break (1972), quite different from Lochhead’s geometric abstract work, closely resembling the work of Colour-
Field American artists such as Jules Olitski. An Emma Lake guest in 1964, Olitski abandoned heavily textured surfaces and evolved a radically innovative technique of spraying thin layers of coloured acrylic paint onto the canvas.26
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 The Mature Work
Clyfford Still
Untitled
1971
93 3/4 in. x 155 in. x 2 1/4 in. (238.13 cm x 393.7 cm x 5.72 cm)
Oil on canvas
Acquired 1975
Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Gift of the artist
75.39 http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/315#ixzz2FeP2ramt
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 Clyfford Still lived in rural Maryland from 1961 until his death in 1980. His mature paintings of
this period are looser, with smaller and more lightly applied brushstrokes. He maintains the large
scale, but often keeps large portions of the canvas bare. Untitled (1971), measuring roughly 2.5
by 4 metres in in size, depicts a near-monochromatic painting of loosely scattered white forms
across an off-white canvas. Throughout his entire career, but especially in large, horizontal paintings such as this one his paintings have been interpreted as a reference to a vast, sublime landscape and have sparked large debates about subject matter.27 Untitled (1971) may allude to
clouds, or snow in an empty sky. Despite mentioning his interest in nature during the beginning
of his career, later on Still denied any reference to landscape, claiming “I paint myself, not
nature.”28 Nevertheless, this element of Still’s work is seen as an “American” attribute. It has
been said that Still’s work is distinctly American because it portrays a vast empty landscape,
evocative of the American West where the artist spent a portion of his life.29 However, this type of nature or topography is evidently not unique to the United States. What is not considered is the pertinent fact that Still began to paint in the Canadian Prairies, where he first witnessed this type of sublime landscape, in his paintings of grain elevators, for example, This contradicts the claim of this “American” characteristic. If his paintings do in fact reference this type of landscape, it originates in his Canadian upbringing, not only in his life in the United States.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
Kenneth Lochhead
Mountain Path
1999
76.2 x 101.6 cm
Oil on canvas http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/image.html?languagePref=en&url=/c/images/big/l/lochhead/loc14
6.jpg&cright=Kenneth+Lochhead&mkey=8636&link_id=23
In the 1970s Kenneth Lochhead slowly re-introduced figurative subject matter into his painting.
First he added floral motifs to his colour-field canvases, which turned into still lifes and pictures
of gardens, and eventually became scenes of rural Canadian landscapes. Lochhead depicted
fields, farms, mountains, as well as snowy forests, among other Canadian nature scenes, such as
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 Mountain Path (1999). The painting shows a large amount of sky, evoking the vast and sublime landscape that is present in numerous forms across the country. Lochhead stayed with figurative painting until the end of his life, mainly landscapes, and some portraits. Most of these paintings were completed in Ontario; Lochhead moved to Toronto in 1973 and Ottawa in 1975 where he retired from teaching in 1990.
In conclusion, Clyfford Still and Kenneth Lochhead were two abstract artists, both with ties to
Prairie Canada, who showed similar developments in their careers. They began as figurative painters. Both artists admired Cezanne, who influenced Still and Lochhead’s pursuit of abstraction. Since Still was living in New York at the time he arrived at abstraction, and exhibited with other abstract artists, he was grouped in with American art groups: Abstract
Expressionism and Colour-Field painting. His work was made even more famous in the art world due to the New York art critics, who were very active at the time, especially Clement Greenberg who consistently praised Still’s work.
Lochhead, though removed geographically from the New York art world, had contacts with these artists and critics, through the Emma Lake Workshops he helped initiate in 1955. Lochhead also assisted in forming what became known as the Regina Five group of abstract painters, who also received praise from the usually ethnocentric New York critics. An interesting difference between the two painters is that while Still strove to prohibit any discourse on his work,
Lochhead sought commentary and advice from art critics like Greenberg. Another notable distinction is that Still began his career with Canadian landscape painting, but never again returned to figuration after the late 1940s. Lochhead, in contrast, experimented with abstraction
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 for approximately two decades but ultimately chose to depict the Canadian landscape in the majority of his mature work.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012 NOTES
1 “Kenneth Lochhead Obituary,” Ottawa Citizen, July 18, 2006, accessed December 20, 2012 http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=18520313#f. 2 Sebastian Smee, “Cézanne's World of Influence,” The Boston Globe, March 8, 2009, accessed December 21, 2012 http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/03/08/c233zannes_world_of_influence/?page=full. 3 Jack D. Flam, Matisse on Art (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995) 80. 4 Clyfford Still, Cézanne: A Study in Evaluation, MA Thesis (Pullman: The State College of Washington, 1935) 18. 5 David Anfam, “Clyfford Still’s Art: Between the Quick and the Dead,” Clyfford Still Paintings 1944-1960, ed. James T. Demetrion (New Haven: Yale University Press) 19. 6 Paul Cézanne, “Letter to Émile Bernard,” October 23, 1905, Cézanne’s Letters, ed. John Rewald (New York: Da Capo Press, 1976) 316. 7 David Anfam, Clyfford Still, Ph.D. Dissertation (Courtault Institute of Art, 1984) 49. 8 “Regionalism,” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, accessed December 20, 2012 http://0- www.oxfordartonline.com.mercury.concordia.ca/subscriber/article/opr/t4/e1431. 9 James G. Todd, “Social Realism,” Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, accessed December 20, 2012 http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.mercury.concordia.ca/subscriber/article/grove/art/T079466. 10 James Voorhies, “Surrealism,” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004). 11 Ted Fraser, “Kenneth Lochhead: Garden of Light [1948 to 2002],” (Regina: MacKenzie Art Gallery, 2005) Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, accessed December 20, 2012 http://ccca.concordia.ca/c/writing/f/fraser/fras001t.html. 12 Fraser. 13 Daniel A. Siedell, “Contemporary Art Criticism and the Legacy of Clement Greenberg: Or, How Artwriting Earned Its Good Name,” Journal of Aesthetic Education 36:4 (Winter 2002): 17. 14 Clement Greenberg, “‘American-Type’ Painting,” 1955, Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, ed. John O’Brian (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993) 228. 15 Clyfford E. Still, letter to Clement Greenberg, April 12, 1955, Archives of American Art, accessed December 20, 2012 http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/clyfford-e-still-letter-to-clement-greenberg-9430. 16 Neal Benezra, “Clyfford Still’s Replicas,” Clyfford Still Paintings 1944-1960, ed. James T. Demetrion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) 88. 17 Greenberg, 129. Clement Greenberg, “After Abstract Expressionism,” 1962, Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, ed. John O’Brian (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993) 133. 18 David Anfam, “Clyfford Still’s Art: Between the Quick and the Dead,” 18. 19 “Kenneth Lochhead Obituary.” 20 Kenneth Lochhead Biography, Kenneth Lochhead, accessed December 21, 2012 http://www.kennethlochhead.com/index_1.html 21 Kenneth Lochhead Biography. 22 Russell Bingham, “The Emma Lake Artists Workshops,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, accessed December 20, 2012 http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emma-lake-artists-workshops. 23 Bingham. 24 Norman Zepp, “Kenneth Campbell Lochhead,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, accessed December 20, 2012 http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/kenneth-campbell-lochhead. 25 “Kenneth Lochhead Videoportrait,” Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, accessed December 20, 2012 http://ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/lochhead.html. 26 “Jules Olitski,” The Art Story, accessed December 20, 2012 http://www.theartstory.org/artist-olitski-jules.htm. 27 Thomas Kellein, “Clyfford Still and New York: The Buffalo Project,” Clyfford Still 1904-1980 Buffalo and San Francisco Collections, ed. Thomas Kellein (New York: Prestel, 1992) 36. 28 Kellein, 39. 29 “Clyfford Still: Classic American Man of the West,” video, Smithsonian Institution, accessed December 20, 2012 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/videos/Clyfford-Still-Classic-American-Man-of-the-West.html.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anfam, David. Clyfford Still. Ph.D. Dissertation. Courtault Institute of Art, 1984.
Anfam, David. “Clyfford Still’s Art: Between the Quick and the Dead.” Clyfford Still Paintings 1944-1960. Ed. James T. Demetrion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. 16-26.
Benezra, Neil. “Clyfford Still’s Replicas.” Clyfford Still Paintings 1944-1960. Ed. James T. Demetrion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. 87-96.
Bingham, Russell. “The Emma Lake Artists Workshops.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emma-lake- artists-workshops.
Cézanne, Paul. “Letter to Émile Bernard.” October 23, 1905. Cézanne’s Letters. Ed. John Rewald. New York: Da Capo Press, 1976.
“Clyfford Still: Classic American Man of the West.” Video. Smithsonian Institution. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/videos/Clyfford-Still-Classic-American- Man-of-the-West.html.
Flam, Jack D. Matisse on Art. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1995.
Fraser, Ted. “Kenneth Lochhead; Garden of Light”. The MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan, January 29-May 23, 2005. Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://ccca.concordia.ca/c/writing/f/fraser/fras001t.html?hiSearch=lochhead.
Fry, Roger. Cezanne: A Study of His Development. Kessinger Publishing. 2004. Google Books. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://books.google.ca/books/about/Cezanne_A_Study_Of_His_Development.html?id=eqe4VA GnVUUC&redir_esc=y.
Greenberg, Clement. “After Abstract Expressionism.” 1962. Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism. Ed. John O’Brian. Vol. 4. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. 121-134.
Greenberg, Clement. “‘American-Type’ Painting.’” 1955. Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism. Ed. John O’Brian. Vol. 2. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. 217-235.
“Clyfford Still: an abstract artist in cowboy country.” Jonathan Jones on Art Blog. November 14, 2011. The Guardian. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2011/nov/14/clyfford-still-american- abstract-art.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
“Jules Olitski.” The Art Story. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.theartstory.org/artist- olitski-jules.htm.
Kellein, Thomas. “Clyfford Still and New York: The Buffalo Project.” Clyfford Still 1904-1980 Buffalo and San Francisco Collections. Ed. Thomas Kellein. New York: Prestel, 1992. 23-48.
“Kenneth Lochhead Obituary.” Ottawa Citizen. July 18, 2006. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ottawacitizen/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=18520313#f.
“Kenneth Lochhead Biography.” Kenneth Lochhead. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.kennethlochhead.com/index_1.html.
“Kenneth Lochhead Videoportrait.” Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art. Accessed December 20, 2012. http:// ccca.concordia.ca/videoportrait/english/lochhead.html.
“Regionalism.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://0- www.oxfordartonline.com.mercury.concordia.ca/subscriber/article/opr/t4/e1431.
Siedell, Daniel A. “Contemporary Art Criticism and the Legacy of Clement Greenberg: Or, How Artwriting Earned Its Good Name.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 36:4 (Winter 2002) 15-31.
Smee, Sebastian. “Cézanne's World of Influence.” The Boston Globe. March 8, 2009. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/03/08/c233zannes_world_of_influence/?pa ge=full.
Still, Clyfford. Cézanne: A Study in Evaluation. MA Thesis. Pullman: The State College of Washington, 1935.
Todd, James G. “Social Realism.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://0- www.oxfordartonline.com.mercury.concordia.ca/subscriber/article/grove/art/T079466.
Voorhies, James. “Surrealism.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.
Zepp, Norman. “Kenneth Campbell Lochhead.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed December 20, 2012. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/kenneth-campbell- lochhead.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
VIRTUAL EXHIBITION DESIGN
For this exhibition, I would like the web design to consist of a timeline, comparing Clyfford
Still’s career alongside that of Kenneth Lochhead, in relation to other historical events of the time. The events will be a combination of world history, art history, as well as American and
Canadian pop culture (sports, music, cinema, science, etc.), in order to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Because Still and Lochhead’s work was very relevant to 21st century Modern art practices in Canada and the United States, the timeline will provide a context for the artists’ work in a manner that is easy to understand. The timeline will start in 1904 at Still’s birth, and end in 2006 at Lochhead’s death.
The web page will consist of a table of three vertical sections or columns, with the timeline in the center, and the two artists on either side. This will allow viewers to compare the chronology of
Still and Lochhead’s career, which is particularly interesting due to similarities in the artistic development of the two artists. The center column will contain images and small amounts of writing in a list of events. The Still and Lochhead columns will contain mostly images and their captions, with minimal text marking major events in their lives. When the viewer clicks on an image or text, a new window will open and provide full captions to the image or a description of a specific event, as well as any comparative works by other artists. This way, the viewer has two choices to experience the exhibition: in an almost purely visual manner, or he/she may explore it further into the textual portion if desired.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012
The concept and layout of the web design is inspired from the interactive timeline at the Clyfford
Still Museum. As an intern in 2011, I chose the four categories and content for this popular
touch-screen timeline at the museum. When a visitor touches one of the “tiles” on the screen, it
opens a new window with a description of the event. Because abstract art is often less-
appreciated by non-art lovers due to its esoteric nature, the timeline is a popular point of interest
at the museum because all visitors can find an event they are interested in that they can compare
to a time in Still’s life. I believe that a similar, simplified version of this timeline would be an
excellent medium to present and compare the careers of two abstract artists, Still and Lochhead.
*Please see joint Excel spreadsheet with timeline template of exhibition.
Interactive Timeline at the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, Colorado. November 2011.
ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012