Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 @ Whitechapel Gallery
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at Whitechapel Gallery is a call to attention. It is a rallying cry that dispels historical misconceptions regarding the role of women in the evolution of abstract painting. It not only provides a re-evaluation of the significance of gender in the reading of the Abstract Expressionist movement but also a reinterpretation of its development through an examination of its global expansion. Through this, it shares the stories and practises of women artists from the United States and Europe to South Africa and Asia.
Wook-Kyung Choi, Untitled (detail), 1960s Acrylic on canvas, 101 x 86 cm. Wook-Kyung Choi Estate and courtesy to Arte Collectum.
Eighty female voices are introduced to the public through a conversation of colours, textures, shapes and feelings that crosses the walls of Whitechapel Gallery, involving viewers in an immersive aesthetic and learning experience. The discourse between the protagonists of the exhibition is rooted not only in the variety of emotions that characterised their practices and creative gestures but also in their lived experiences. The places where they lived, the cultures they knew, and the techniques and procedures they could assimilate. All of these elements create a novel combination of styles, signatures, identities, and characters that produce a heterogeneous environment that piques the viewer's curiosity and interest in this unique melding pot of artistic expression.
Helen Frankenthaler, April mood, 1974. Acrylic on canvas, 152 x 434 cm. Courtesy: ASOM Collection.
The dialogue opens with a work by Helen Frankenthaler. Renowned for the invention of the soak-stain technique, she is one of the few well-known female artists whose works feature in the show. The immersive large-scale painting April mood (1974) is one such example. It immediately establishes the spirit of the exhibition’s itinerary through a combination of colours and tones that, when merged and diluted with water, impact the unprimed canvas in different directions as currents of pigment, building a map of colours and feelings that will permeate across the subsequent rooms.
Left: Tomie Othake, Roxo (Purple), 1966. Oil on Canvas, 135 x 55 cm. Right: Tomie Othake, Untitled, 1960. Oil on canvas. Image: Diego Ibarra Garcia.
As a response to Frankenthaler's energetic and inspiring actions, in the same room, one can find the works by Tomie Ohtake. Her creations bring to the conversation at Whitechapel Gallery a sense of order and homogeneity by still being emblematic of the Abstract Expressionists’ innovative practices. Born in Japan and growing up in Brazil because of the breaking up of the Pacific war, she can combine conflict and harmony within the same work. Roxo (Purple) (1966) and Untitled (1960) are covered by heavy, multi-layered brushstrokes of an amalgamation of colours that generates a deep purple section that emanates obscurity and fear. By contrast, the white background seems to be searching for its position on the canvas. The complexity of the relationship between the two colours is emphasised by the compact texture and consistency of the layers of paint, which constitute the main subjects of her works.
Fanny Sanín, Oil No. 4, Oil on canvas. Image: Diego Ibarra Garcia.
Contrasting with Ohtake’s works, Oil No. 4 (1968) by Fanny Sanín is an eruption of different colours and geometric shapes. She was born in Columbia in 1938 and moved to Mexico to pursue her studies and graduate. There she encountered the Rupture Generation and took the occasion to explore the techniques evolving in Paris and New York during the 1960s. The mixture of cultures and traditions with the apprehension of new creative gestures and styles influenced her artistic identity, which is recognisable in this work. Thus the substantiality and uniform qualities inherent in the paint’s materiality perfectly balance the strength found in defining the geometric shapes in the piece.
Lee Krasner, Bald Eagle, 1955. Oil, paper, and canvas collage on linen. 196.6 x 130.8. Image: Diego Ibarra Garcia.
Across important and highly regarded movements in Art History, including Abstract Expressionism, it comes as no surprise to the modern-day scholar that it was traditionally dominated by men - in this instance, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Thus works by women artists, some wives of these male superstars from Britain and America, complete the social and geographical picture: Gillian Ayres, Lee Krasner and Elaine De Kooning. Individually and as a group, they are examples of the identity in acting on the canvas and creating different atmospheres and sensations characteristics of each artist. While Ayres’ Break-Off (1961) combines well-distinctive forms and tones, Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) is a compacted and chaotic collage of geometric figures and traits that together compose a quasi-mimetic pattern.
Elaine de Kooning, Untitled, 1950. Oil on paper on canvas. Image: Diego Ibarra Garcia.
The similarity between Krasner’s work and that of her husband, Jackson Pollock, is evidence of the shared inspirations and techniques that facilitated the spread of Abstract Expressionism. Whether he has inspired Krasner or vice versa is not an important question. She contributed actively and significantly to the development of the movement in the same manner as her husband, despite not receiving the same recognition and success.
It is unbelievable to be welcomed in a display that features so many unique works, and what is even more impressive is that they were all done by women artists. How could we have missed out on so much? Where have all of these works been for the past century? The show raises just as many questions as it answers.
Left: Janet Sobel, Untitled, 1948. Mixed media on canvas board. Right: Janet Sobel, Illusion of solidity, 1945, Oil on canvas, 68 x 109 cm. Image: Carolina Lorenzini.
When one encounters Janet Sobel's works, the conversation becomes more complex and, in some ways, more intriguing. Two stunning paintings on the tonality of pink provide a sense of dispersion and uncertainty. As one reads the story of Ukranian painter Janet Sobel, new insights into the origins of action painting are revealed; she was the first to place the canvas on the floor and drip paint using glass pipettes with precise accuracy. Her works were exhibited in 1944 at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery Art of this Century in New York. At that time, her artworks were defined as “primitive” or made by a “housewife” by Clement Greenberg. [1]
Only after ten years after the exhibition, Greenberg disclosed that Jackson Pollock recognised the originality of her practice, meaning that he could have been inspired precisely by her. Now, we try to consider female artists who should have had the same reception as their male counterparts.
However, instead of pursuing a career and receiving public acclaim, her name fell into obscurity, and her practice was only recently recognised. Was it because of these negative reviews? Or was it about the powerlessness of admitting that has been a woman to trace the history of action painting? Nevertheless, without sure answers to this question, her inclusion in Action, Gesture, Paint further enhances a much-needed shift in Art History. Its intervention provides access to Sobel’s stunning creations and her essential role in inventing one of the most adopted and appreciated artistic practices of all time. This is one of the many opportunities in which Action, Gesture, Paint helps to eliminate this gender-driven barrier. It assists us in learning the names of female abstract painters from around the world who contributed to the expansion of abstraction in the twentieth century.
Fundamentally the exhibition has a dual historical and social purpose: it traces the trajectories of Abstract Expressionists in the twentieth century by placing female artists as protagonists. It enables us to reinterpret Abstract Expressionism and the feelings of a cultural and historical period through the lenses of these women. Concurrently, it is evidence of the historical disparity between men and women and a tribute to the struggles of women artists to be acknowledged by the public and remembered on an equal level with men. One cannot leave the show without feeling a sense of responsibility. We are given the opportunity, now more than ever, to restore the recognition and acclaim women artists couldn’t enjoy in their past, and we want these to last. So, let them eat paint!
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is on view at Whitechapel Gallery until May 7, 2023.
Footnotes:
Sandra Zalmat, “Janet Sobel. Primitive modern and the origin of abstract expressionism”, Woman’s art journal, Vol. 36, No. 2, (Winter 2015), 20-29.
Carolina Lorenzini
Reviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED