Press for "Figures and Faces" at Orleans Modern Art

Bermuda, 1972, Color lithograph, 20 x 22 1/4 in. (50.8 x 56.5 cm)

The Provincetown Independent

An Abstract Expressionist Turns to the Figure: George McNeil Found Existential Intrigue in the Human Body

By Abraham Storer Oct 16, 2024

A show of paintings, ink-wash drawings, and lithograph prints currently on view at Orleans Modern Art captures a transitional moment in the career of George McNeil, an early participant in the abstract expressionist movement of the 20th century.

Although McNeil’s artwork retained the physicality of abstract expressionism, he rejected its fidelity to nonobjective painting. In Dancer #22, he paints a woman with an arm raised. The paint crudely defines the figure. Although he crossed the line into representation here, it’s clear that McNeil is excited about the material possibilities of paint moving across a surface. The painting hovers in a dynamic territory by applying the language of abstract expressionism to figuration.

Peter Kalill, who is both an artist and the owner of Orleans Modern Art, points out the way that McNeil incorporated a range of finishes in the painting: a flat earthy red sits against a passage of thick glossy white paint. McNeil’s physical manipulation of the paint is evident throughout —  colors bleed together in pools of dried turpentine; other areas are splattered with globs of thick paint. Yet the figure remains as a persistent presence, gently raising her arm, palm upward, amid all this material chaos. This tug of war between the image of a figure and the vigorous exploration of paint and ink guides the whole exhibition.

Curated by Sam Tager, these pieces tell the story of McNeil’s embrace of the figure as a vehicle for making images and exploring existential concerns. Among McNeil’s peers — many of them central figures in the history of American abstraction — a controversy revolved around the question of whether abstract art should make reference to the observed world. It was an issue that divided McNeil from his early teacher Hans Hofmann and many other artists associated with Provincetown, where McNeil summered between 1948 and 1962 and kept a disciplined schedule of painting in the morning and swimming in the afternoon.

Read the full article here.