Exhibition News: "Figures and Faces" now on view at Orleans Modern Art
Figures and Faces: Lithographs and Small Works
September 21 - November 6, 2024
Exhibition curated by Sam Tager
Text by Libby McMahon
In the early half of the 20th century, George McNeil was in the vanguard of the American Abstract Expressionist movement. He sought to derive sensation and meaning from pure color and form relations, constantly challenging the limits of absolute abstraction.
In the 1960s and 1970s, McNeil’s work took a dramatic transformation. The existential condition of man became a major concern for the artist. McNeil recognized his work increased its power when depicting a human undertone or significance and he “took all he knew about abstraction and applied it to figuration.”
Although McNeil did not consider himself a figure painter, faces and figures emerged in his work. Those suggestions of anatomy filled a missing piece, making his abstract work whole.
The field of psychology became legitimized during McNeil’s transition into figural abstraction. McNeil stated, “crudeness is attractive to me.” Such shock and extremity of human emotion provided McNeil with the sense of organic life he hoped his art would reflect.
In 1970, McNeil began making lithographic prints. His prints defied the standards of the zinc plate, expressing scenes in a painterly language.McNeil prints often took the form of distorted faces. An enlarged yellow head fighting to balance on the minute strength of a wrist sized neck, or a bright red face determined to push through the oppressive blackened cobalt background, express the psychological quandary of human existence. McNeil’s work from the 1960s and 1970s lay a clear path for his most esteemed creations to unfold. The bold, bright colors of his contorted figures would soon evolve into youthful abstractions of discos and city life.