The Hard Edge Painting Brochure GWDA 203 PREPRESS & PRODUCTION / KELLY WANG
01 CREATIVE BRIEF The Hard-Edge Painting_Brochure Hard-edge Painting Client The Art Story (Website) The Art Story is an educational 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2009 to demystify Modern Art and further art appreciation. The Art Story s vision is a world where the ideas and aspirations behind the wondrous art works are accessible to everyone to explore and be inspired by. The dedicated station helps millions of people each year understand and enjoy every style of art from Impressionism to Conceptual and Digital art. Background Hard-edge painting is a tendency in late 1950s and 1960s art that is closely related to Post-painterly abstraction and Color Field Painting. It describes an abstract style that combines the clear composition of geometric abstraction with the intense color and bold, unitary forms of Color Field Painting. Although it was first identified with Californian artists, today the phrase is used to describe one of the most distinctive tendencies in abstract painting throughout the United States in the 1960s. Content Synopsis, Key Idea, Most Important Art, Beginnings, Concept and Styles, Later Developments, Resources Target Audience People who work in Art / Design Program (Student, Instructor) The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 2
02 MoodBoard The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 3
03 STYLE GUIDE FONT : COLORS : Arial Regular ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 # f4db00 # 00b140 # ff1000 # 230081 # ffffff # 171719 Futura Condensed Medium R 244 G 219 R 0 G 177 R 255 G 16 R 35 G 0 R 255 G 255 R 23 G 23 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 B 0 B 64 B 0 B 129 B 255 B 25 # fa9104 # 1e9edf # f9c55f # c63f29 # 99a6c6 # cdd0d5 R 250 R 30 R 249 R 198 R 153 R 205 G 145 G 158 G 197 G 63 G 166 G 208 B 4 B 223 B 95 B 41 B 198 B 213 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 4
04 Folio Kelly Wang The Art Institute of Seattle The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 5
05 Folio Dichotomic Organization (1959) Artist: Lorser Feitelson Artwork description & Analysis: Feitelson's Dichotomic Organization could be called a hard-edged interpretation of a Clyfford Still painting. The sharp color forms and hot-vs.-cold themes recall Still's own brand of Color Field painting, while Feitelson's sense of dimension all make this a very unique work in the catalog of hard-edge paintings of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Jules Langsner once referred to Feitelson's work as containing "nothing ambiguous or fuzzily subjective." In other words, Langsner perceived Feitelson to be an artist with a stunningly clear vision, which was to create captivating art without any indication of the artist's perspective. Oil on canvas - Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 6
06 Final Design The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 7
07 Final Design 02,03 Content 04,05 History 06,07 Key ideas 08,13 Movements 14,15 Art collections 2 3 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 8
08 Final Design History of the term History Started: 1959 Ended: Early 1970s 1955 '60 '65 '70 The term was coined reaction to the more painterly by writer, curator and Los or gestural forms of Abstract This approach to abstract the quality of hard-edgedness, school of painting, but is also Angeles Times art critic Jules expressionism, adopted a painting became widespread for instance the Precisionists a generally descriptive term, Langsner, along with Peter knowingly impersonal paint in the 1960s, though California also displayed this quality to for these qualities found in Selz, in 1959, to describe application and delineated was its creative center. a great degree in their work. any painting. Hard-edged the work of painters from areas of color with particular Other, earlier, movements, Hard-edge can be seen to be painting can be both fi gurative California, who, in their sharpness and clarity. or styles have also contained associated with one or more or nonrepresentational. 4 5 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 9
09 Final Design Key Ideas Hard-edge abstraction was part of a general tendency to move away from the expressive qualities of gestural abstraction. Many painters also sought to avoid th shallow, post-cubist space of Willem de Kooning's work, and instead adopted the open fi elds of color seen in the work of Barnett Newman.Hard-edge painting is known for its economy of form, fullness of color, impersonal execution, and smooth surface planes.the term "hard-edge abstraction" was devised by Californian art critic Jules Langsner, and was initially intended to title a 1959 exhibition that included four West Coast artists - Karl Benjamin, John McLaughlin, Frederick Hammersley and Lorser Feitelson. Although, later, the style was often referred to as "California hardedge," and these four artists became synonymous with the movement, Langsner eventually decided to title the show Four Abstract Classicists (1959), as he felt that the style marked a classical turn away from the romanticism of Abstract Expressionism. 6 7 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 10
10 Final Design Later Developments In 1964 Langsner curated another exhibition, this time at the Pavilion Gallery (otherwise known as the Newport Pavilion) in Newport Beach, CA. Combining his original term with the subtitle assigned by Alloway, Langsner called this exhibition California Hard-Edge Painting. Included in the show were the original four from Four Abstract Classicists (1959), along with artists such as Larry Bell, Helen Lundenberg, and John Coplans. But this should not suggest that the term "hard-edge" was therefore an established reference point for years to come; it had to compete with several others that attempted to describe similar work in the period, including "One-Image painting," and "Systemic painting." Some curators therefore tried to avoid descriptive labels entirely, and in 1963 an exhibition entitled Second-Generation Abstraction was held at the Jewish Museum in New York. The show consisted of 47 works by nine artists: Al Held, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Miriam Schapiro, George Ortman, Paul Brach, and Raymond Parker. It was significant for its introduction of New York-based artists into the hard-edge school of abstract painting. Up to this point, the tendency was only associated with those California artists who were widely considered rebels from the New York School. Although the term "hard-edge" is helpful in describing the tendencies of the late 1960s, it had barely been launched before artists were also moving in new directions, and it fell from use as abstract painting explored new problems in the 1970s. 8 9 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 11
11 Final Design Concepts and Styles Although the four artists included in Langsner's show were very different, they were united by their use of clean, lucid composition, intense color, and lack of surface incident. They were also infl uenced by the sense of "wholism," or single, unitary composition, seen in the work of Barnett Newman and other color fi eld painters. Hard-edge abstraction differed greatly from its popular predecessor, action painting, in that the artists applied their paints very carefully and sought to avoid any suggestion of spirituality or soulful expression. Frank Stella is typical of those who might be described as hardedge painters, and who sought to avoid the high-fl own drama of action painting - like him, most felt that, by the mid 1950s, gestural abstraction becoming a manner that was being copied by legions of less talented followers, all of whom were pretending the anguish and existential insight. Many of the hard-edge painters also differed greatly from more traditional color field painters, because although their work employed color as one of its principle components, they were more preoccupied with design and structure. In fact, even though Kenneth Noland had been a student of Josef Albers, who famously espoused the "interaction of color," he and others like him often tended to employ colors that failed to relate in the way Albers envisaged. Frederick Hammersley's 10 11 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 12
12 Final Design Beginnings Los Angeles County Museum painting that was becoming Artwork description & Analysis In the late 1950s, the of Art, in 1959, which included popular in California. He Californian art critic, poet and artists Frederick Hammersley, bewlieved it recalled the Considered one of of Art. Benjamin's use of screens, the artist was doing psychiatrist Jules Langsner Karl Benjamin, John McLaughlin geometric abstraction of Piet Benjamin's signature somber blues, his sleek forms nothing more than playing with began to observe an emerging and Lorser Feitelson. It was Mondrian, Josef Albers, Ad paintings, Black Pillars and shadow play are now opposing colors and forms trend in abstract art that titled Four Abstract Classicists. Reinhardt and others. After has won new renown after considered emblematic of to create a visually engaging stemmed from color fi eld Langsner coined the term LACMA, the show traveled to becoming a centerpiece of post-war American style. picture. Oil on canvas - Private painting, yet tended to employ "hard edge colorforms" to England and Ireland, at which the recent traveling exhibition Although some of Benjamin's collection. clean lines and contrasting describe the paintings on time British art critic Lawrence Birth of the Cool, organized by color forms in Black Pillars hues. He chose to highlight this display and, more generally, Alloway subtitled the show the Orange County Museum recall the form of old television by staging an exhibition at the the new style of color fi eld California Hard-edge. 12 13 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 13
13 Final Design Artist: Frederick which was the presence of Artist: Lorser Feitelson 1960s. Jules Langsner once Hammersley Opposing #15 rich and saturated color, clean Artwork description referred to Feitelson's work as contains the visual symmetry lines, and fl at surface, and & Analysis: Feitelson's containing "nothing ambiguous often associated with post- a disregard for relationships Dichotomic Organization or fuzzily subjective." In other painterly abstraction and Color between the colors that could be called a hard-edged words, Langsner perceived Field painting, but it lacks any comprise the painting. All interpretation of a Clyfford Still Feitelson to be an artist with a sort of color interaction or this suggests the shift in painting. The sharp color forms stunningly clear vision, which balance. Hammersley pitted interests that took place as and hot-vs.-cold themes recall was to create captivating art Opposing #15 (1959) contrasting colors (mainly primaries) against each other, along with basic geometric forms that seem to have no Color Field painting ceded to Post-painterly abstraction; preoccupation with the expressive power of color Dichotomic Organization (1959) Still's own brand of Color Field painting, while Feitelson's sense of dimension all make this a very unique work in the without any indication of the artist's perspective. Oil on canvas - Nora Eccles business interacting. The gave way to interest in optical catalog of hard-edge paintings Harrison Museum of Art, end result displays one of phenomena.oil on linen - of the late 1950s and early Logan, Utah the defi ning characteristics of Collection of Jayne and Mark many hard-edge paintings, Murrel, Newport Beach, CA 14 15 The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 14
14 Final Design Kelly Wang The Art Institute of Seattle The Hard Edge Painting Brochure / GWDA 222 INTERMEDIATE LAYOUT DESIGN / KELLY WANG 15