U.S. Painting: Some Recent Directions.
New York: Stable Gallery, [1955]. Broadside (26 x 19.5 in.), twice-folded into four panels (13 x 9.75 inches). A Bradbury Thompson-designed catalogue for the remarkable group show at Stable Gallery (Nov. 29 - Dec. 23, 1955); organized to correspond with Thomas Hess' exposé on a new generation of American painters for Art News Annual ("U.S. Painting: Some Recent Directions"). The exhibition featured a total of 59 works from twenty-one artists, including: Elaine de Kooning, Robert de Niro, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Larry Rivers, and Robert Rauschenberg, who here exhibited one of his earliest combines and is credited as being of "inestimable help" in the show's preparation. Each of the artists represented in a grid of b&w portraits, imposed opposite a lengthy text by Hess: "In one sense the younger artist can be compared to a pair of mirrors, set back to back, reflecting simultaneously an image of the past and of the future—the point where the light of history is more concentrated. In another sense, the younger artist is a breaker of historical mirrors—the contemporary instant of creation for which past and future are equally absurd. The mirror of his art is fixed in front of his own eyes." Some tenderness to glossy sheet at fold-lines, with faint stains to text section, but nonetheless a well-preserved copy of a scarce document; better than very good. With only a single OCLC record located in North America (Frick).
Item #31555
Price: $750.00