8.
Frank Bowling, O.B.E., RA (b. British Guiana, active in England and the U.S., b. 1935)
Untitled, c. 1980 left
Untitled, c. 1980 right
mixed media on canvas
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones
Frank Bowling once said, “I get closer and closer to believing that as an abstract artist you are trying to unearth your whole self with maximum openness.” Before turning to pure abstraction in the 1970s, Bowling’s work featured representational imagery, including his mother’s variety store, figures, interiors, and maps of Africa and South America—often situated within colorful abstracted environments. His work emphasizes color and experimentation with materials, including layering pigments and embedding objects into the paint. Bowling’s abstractions reflect a persistent interest in landscape and the evocation of light. Sometimes his color choices and exploration of light reflect his longtime interest in the landscapes of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. Sometimes they reflect his memories and impressions of the light in British Guiana.
Born in British Guiana (today Guyana) in South America, Bowling moved to London in 1953 where he trained at the Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Throughout his distinguished career Bowling has divided his time between studios in London and New York. In 2005 he became the first black artist elected to the Royal Academy, London. Three years later he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.).
9.
Dorothy Dehner (American, 1901 - 1944)
Watershapes
1951
watercolor, ink, and wash on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Dorothy Dehner Foundation for the Visual Arts
10.
Stanley William Hayter (British, active in France and the U.S., 1901 - 1988)
Sea Myth
1946 - 1947
mixed intaglio on paper
Museums Collections, Purchase, Art Subcommittee of the Cultural Activities Committee
The swirling, sinuous lines and biomorphic shapes seen here reveal master printmaker Hayter’s longstanding interest in Surrealism. In 1926 he established the artists’ cooperative Atelier 17 in Paris where he worked with leading artists of his day, including major Surrealists Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, and André Masson. There he explored Surrealist techniques including automatic drawing, possibly reflected in this print. Automatic drawing is produced by letting the hand move freely, sometimes with the artist’s eyes closed, and was meant to express the subconscious – often full of provocative innuendos.
In response to rising political tensions in Europe, in 1939 Hayter joined many avant-garde artists in exodus and moved to New York. There he taught a course at the New School for Social Research called Atelier 17 and established a new artists’ workshop in Greenwich Village. It was around this time that Dorothy Dehner (on view nearby) learned printmaking from Hayter. His theoretical writing, teaching, and the exhibition entitled Hayter and Studio 17 mounted by MoMA in 1944 had a tremendous impact on many of the artists associated with Abstract Expressionism, including Lee Krasner (on view nearby), Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko.
11.
Shuvinai Ashoona (Inuk, b. 1961)
Untitled Geometric Abstract #9
1999
ink on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Frederick & Lucy S. Herman
12.
Hale Aspacio Woodruff (American, 1900 - 1980)
Monkey Man #2
1974
charcoal on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones
13.
Rufino Tamayo (Mexican, 1899 - 1991)
Woman Running in the Night
mid-20th century
pen and ink on paper
Museums Collections, Gift in Memory of Edward Leeson
Tamayo’s mid-twentieth century modernism draws on his interest in figurative Expressionism, Surrealism, the work of Pablo Picasso, poetry, and psychology. In the 1940s he began exploring what he called “somnambulist” – or sleepwalking – themes. The ambiguous form in this drawing is suggestive of a human figure and the title evokes this type of mysterious nocturnal behavior, often laden with psychological implications.
Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Tamayo lived and trained as a young man in Mexico City before moving to New York in 1936. He had a robust and internationally successful career as a painter, printmaker, draughtsman, muralist, and teacher.
14.
Hayward Louis Oubre, Jr. (American, 1916 - 2006)
Silent Sentinel
1947
etching and drypoint with roulette on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones
The sinuous lines and biomorphic forms in Oubre’s print take on a Surrealist quality in this mysterious composition. Sculpture played a large role in Oubre’s career, and the importance of line in this print calls to mind his use of thin wire in his practice as a sculptor. Often his constructions can appear like three-dimensional drawings.
Oubre was from New Orleans and studied art at Atlanta University with Hale Woodruff (on view nearby). He earned an M.F.A. from University of Iowa in 1948, one year after the date of this print. Oubre went on to become an important mentor and teacher himself, teaching at Florida A&M University, then at Alabama State College (now Alabama State University), and Winston-Salem State University. Floyd Coleman (on view nearby) was among his many students over the years.
15.
Leo Laskaris (American, 1917 - 2007)
Root Forms
before 1950
charcoal on paper
Museums Collections
The title and biomorphic form seen here encourage the viewer to think about this drawing in terms of landscape. However, the ambiguity in the composition leaves room for subjective interpretation.
Laskaris called himself “a conceptual painter. Painting for me is a combined expression of ideas and emotions – ideas on a universal level and feelings on a mystical basis. This expression finds its inspiration in nature, whether it be light, atmosphere or organic forms.”
Born in Newark, Laskaris’s father owned a beloved establishment, Deluxe Luncheonette, on Main Street. A graduate of University of Delaware, class of 1939, Laskaris earned a degree in agronomy, but an elective course in art history inspired him to become an artist. He later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Amédée Ozenfants School of Art in New York. Laskaris became well-known regionally as the designer of Newark’s city seal, and as a muralist. His first murals were commissioned by the Newark Trust Co. in 1954, with subsequent commissions from UD (Blue Hen Mosaic in Willard Hall), and a Greek Orthodox church in Wilmington.
16.
Leo Franklin Twiggs (American, b. 1934)
Low Country Landscape
1974
batik
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones
This title ties Twiggs’s composition to the landscape of his native South Carolina. His work demonstrates how abstraction can relate to a representational genre. The horizontal, scar-like line suggests a horizon, the red splotch at center-left might evoke the sun, and the mottled form at the center might imply foliage. Simultaneously, these elements can be perceived as abstract.
Twiggs is renowned for using batik. In this process, the artist applies wax coating to fabric and uncoated areas are then dyed. Twiggs has explained, “I began experimenting with batik as a painting medium in 1964. From the outset my aim was to control the viscosity of the dyes and orchestrate the crackles to make them work as plastic elements in the design of my paintings. It is a long and tedious process but, like jazz, it embraces improvisation and contemplation, important elements in my creative efforts.”
Twiggs trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and earned his M.A. from NYU, where one of his teachers was Hale Woodruff (on view nearby). Twiggs was the first African American to earn a doctorate from University of Georgia, and later became a professor at South Carolina State University.
17.
Carl Christian (American, b. 1954)
Evening in Summer
1999
wet mixed media on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones
18.
William Austin Kienbusch (American, 1914 - 1980)
Blighted Pines #2
1950
casein, gouache, and ink on paper
Museums Collections
This composition evolved out of the genre of landscape. It foregrounds the importance of color and experimental process to the production of abstraction. In a 1978 letter sent to curators at University of Delaware, Kienbusch provided insight into his incorporation of color:
“I under-painted the picture in a middle value grey. I did this with most pictures
in order to have a tone to build up… After I had finished the pictureI was amazed
to find that all the remaining grey areas had turned “optically” almost blue. This
of course is a normal physical reaction (surround a color intensity by a grey and
the grey will turn into its complementary), but I had never seen it so demonstrated
to such an extent. Every art student is taught all this!
As for Blighted Pines #2 – the title, after forest fires, the dead pines, spruces,
etc. turn a burnt orange, or even a bright orange. Often, when fields are
deliberately burned over in order to grow blueberries, a stray pine will be
burned and turn orange. Anyhow – I love the color orange!”
19.
Julia Woods Andrews (American, 1919 - 2002)
Roots
before 1955
etching with color aquatint on paper
Museums Collections, Purchase University of Delaware, Art Projects Subcommittee, 1955
20.
Lee Krasner (American, 1908 - 1984)
Primary Series: Pink Stone (also called Rose Stone) top left
Primary Series: Blue Stone top right
Primary Series: Gold Stone bottom
1969
three lithographs on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Sanford Robertson
When seen together these gestural compositions become a meditation on the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow. Krasner produced this lithographic series in an edition of one hundred and a special edition of fifteen sets featuring embellishments to the designs and an accompanying poem by Richard Howard. The poem is a rumination on the relationship between Krasner’s art and dreaming.
Krasner was a central figure in Abstract Expressionism in the mid-twentieth century and these prints demonstrate many elements associated with the movement such as splatter, staining, and a sense of the artist’s hand in action when applying the pigment to the stone. In interviews, Krasner frequently talked about how her art intertwined with her biography. As a student at a number of different art schools, she explored styles ranging from Social Realism, to Fauvism, to Cubism, to Surrealism. In 1937 she studied with Hans Hofmann (on view nearby). She was already a serious artist by the time she met Jackson Pollock in 1936. They were married in 1945. For many years it was a frustration to Krasner and a struggle in art history to evaluate her career on its own terms beyond the shadow of Pollock.
21.
Hans Hofmann (American, b. Germany, 1880 - 1966)
Untitled
1953 - 1955
oil on canvas
Private Collection
Hofmann was one of the most important artists associated with Abstract Expressionism. This richly colored, gestural painting from the early 1950s was made at a high point of excitement surrounding the movement. The canvas demonstrates key methods and aesthetics associated with Abstract Expressionism, including an array of textures, different thicknesses of paint impasto, drips, splotches, and various forms of brushwork and mark-making. Hofmann was among the earliest artists to experiment with these techniques in the early 1940s.
He was as famous as a theorist and teacher as he was as a practicing artist. Born in Bavaria, Hofmann was exposed to some of the most radical modern art movements of the early twentieth century in both Germany and France, including Cubism, Fauvism, and Surrealism. In 1915 he opened his own art school in Munich, where he taught until 1930 when he moved to the U.S. He settled in New York in 1932 and one year later founded the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art, where he taught Lee Krasner (on view nearby) among many others. In the U.S. he was critical in conveying theories of modern art already prominent in Europe to American artists and audiences.
22.
John W. Feagin (American, b. 1929)
Untitled
1968
acrylic on canvas
Museums Collections, Gift of Paul R. Jones
23.
Lily Deitchman Ente (American, b. Ukraine, 1905 - 1984)
Untitled #1
c. 1950
pink alabaster
Museums Collections, Gift of Bernard & Paulette Esrig
Ente’s undulating stone sculptures can seem enigmatic. Upon first glance they might be mistaken for natural stone shaped by erosion. Ente embraced full abstraction early in her career, but she also made semi-abstract forms with curves honed to suggest figures or faces. She let the forms of the stone guide her decisions and the color was fundamental to her interest in the material.
Ente and her family fled their native Ukraine in 1918 or 1919, to escape anti-Semitism and the strife of WWI. They eventually reached the U.S. in 1923. It was not until the early 1940s that Ente began experimenting with sculpture at the urging of her bohemian sister-in-law, who gave Ente her first lump of clay. Ente became an ambitious self-taught sculptor and worked in clay, terra cotta, plaster, wood, and stone. She started sculpting in stone in the 1950s, the experimental phase when she made Untitled #1. The sense of amorphous smoothness that characterizes much of Ente’s work reflects her interest in modern sculptors including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Constantin Brancusi.
