Works in the Exhibition West Coast Edward Dugmore James Kelly Abstract Expressionist Art 1960-C, 1960 San Andreas, 1955 Oil on canvas Oil on canvas Selections from The Menil Collection 80 x 93 inches 853/8 x 663/4 x 11/4 inches Gift of Herman Spertus Gift of Sonia Gechtoff Sonia Gechtoff Walter Kuhlman Untitled, 1956–57 Untitled, 1959 Pencil on paper, mounted on board Oil on canvas 61 x 40 inches 601/8 x 50 inches Gift of the artist Bequest of Jermayne MacAgy James Kelly Clyfford Still October 3, 1959 Untitled, 1946 Oil on paper Oil on canvas 281/2 x 221/2 inches 51 x 327/8 inches Gift of Sonia Gechtoff Bequest of Jermayne MacAgy James Kelly Clyfford Still October 4, 1959 1947-H, no.2,1947 Oil on paper Oil on canvas 221/2 x 281/2 inches 631/8 x 403/4 inches Gift of Sonia Gechtoff Bequest of Jermayne MacAgy James Kelly October 5, 1959 Oil on paper 221/2 x 281/2 inches Gift of Sonia Gechtoff Cover: Sonia Gechtoff, Untitled, 1956–57. Pencil on paper, mounted on board, 61 x 40 inches. The Menil Collection, Gift of the artist. The exhibition is funded in part by the City of Houston. THE MENIL COLLECTION The Menil Collection 1515 Sul Ross Houston, Texas 77006 713-525-9400 March 31–July 9, 2006 www.menil.org fter the Second World War New York City emerged to rival Inarguably, the most influential of the artists Douglas recruited was AParis as a center of artistic innovation due in large part to the Clyfford Still, who permanently joined the staff of the CFSA in 1946. advent of the first distinctly American movement, Abstract Many of the artists who enrolled in CSFA did so using the tuition Expressionism. Combining the influences of Surrealism, European money granted to ex-servicemen by the GI Bill. Older than the typical abstract movements, and non-western art, the movement was not art student, they brought the experiences of war to their painting, and defined by a single style, but rather by an emphasis on the act of perhaps more importantly, a determinedly anti-authoritarian attitude, painting itself and thus on the painter as an individual. Often charac- which eschewed any single theoretic or aesthetic program. While terized as ‘heroic’ due to its large scale and energetic brushstroke, Douglas resigned from the faculty of the CSFA in the summer of 1950, abstract expressionism became a symbol of American freedom and Still moved from the Bay Area shortly thereafter, the influence of celebrated as eagerly in popular press as it was by professional art individualism espoused by the Abstract Expressionists remained vital. critics. Although so closely associated with the city that its adherents Well into the 1950s, younger artists from the area continued to were often referred to as the “New York school,”Abstract Expres- reinterpret the ethos of the action painters in personal ways. sionism reached well beyond the confines of Manhattan. The group The CSFA was not the only force in play in San Francisco. While of artists exhibited in “West Coast Abstract Expressionist Art: Douglas revamped the school, Jermayne MacAgy, as director of the Selections from The Menil Collection” illustrate the extent to which Legion of Honor, organized an astounding array of exhibitions. Her this movement took hold across the United States. first “Contemporary American Painting” exhibition included works by Like New York and all great cities, San Francisco (and its over 200 artists. She was noteworthy for both her dramatic installations surrounding “Bay Area”), has long occupied a unique place in the and the broad scope of her interests, which extended to everything world’s imagination. It was known by the mid-twentieth century for from modern and contemporary, to ancient, non-western, and folk its geographic beauty, cosmopolitanism, and tolerance for radical art. The eclectic exhibition schedule she organized included, among lifestyles, and it remains so today. It was not, however, known as a numerous others, “Boxing and Wrestling in Art,” “Objects of Utility: center for the visual arts. California in general was deemed too isolated, 1951 BC–1951 AD,”and “Period Pieces, an Exhibition of Packaging.” too far away from New York or Europe to produce artwork of any A few of the many modern artists she featured were Joseph Albers, significance. Despite its reputation, however, by the early 1940s, the William Baziotes, Joseph Cornell, Robert Motherwell, Georgia O’Keeffe, Bay Area boasted a small, but progressive group of artists and institu- Jackson Pollock, and Dorothea Tanning. tions committed to the ideals of modern painting. Together Douglas and Jermayne MacAgy made a distinct mark on Central figures in the development of this emerging art scene the art of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1955 John and Dominque de were the art historians Douglas and Jermayne MacAgy, who arrived in Menil hired Jermayne to direct the museum of the Contemporary Arts San Francisco in 1941. Recently married, the couple moved from Ohio Association (now the Contemporary Arts Museum) in Houston and where they had both been active at the Cleveland Museum of Art. later to chair the art history department at the University of St. Thomas, Douglas was invited to be a curator at the San Francisco Museum Houston. The de Menils developed a profound relationship with of Art, while his wife, Jermayne, took a job at the California Palace Jermayne MacAgy, who would strongly influence both the building of the Legion of Honor. In 1945, Douglas was appointed director of and displaying of their collection. Three of the paintings included in the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA, now the San Francisco Art “West Coast Abstract Expressionist Art” were left to The Menil Collection Institute), which at the time was suffering from declining enrollment when Jermayne died in 1964. The remaining six works were gifts to the and financial difficulties. Determined to revitalize the struggling museum selected over the years by its founding director, Walter Hopps, institution, Douglas assembled a first-rate faculty of local and visiting a native Californian and kindred spirit to the visionary aesthetic of artists, and established a direct link to New York by inviting Ad Jermayne MacAgy. Reinhardt and Mark Rothko to teach summer sessions at the school..