Page 38 - Studio International - May 1968

Greenberg and The Group : a retrospective view

Part 1

Barbara M. Reise
Mr Clement Greenberg has been a controversial figure most of his work to the public for the first time, with De Kooning's and Krasner's
life, a Guru to some and a Satan to others. His art criticism— in juxtaposition with paintings by acknowledged French masters like
especially on American painting and sculpture after World War II— Braque and Picasso. As such, it provided Greenberg with the 'dis-
has been so intelligent, perceptive, biased, and influential that every- covery' of Pollock,8 acquaintance with artists whose work was to
one concerned with contemporary art seems to take some sort of receive attention in his writings, and a corroborative reference for
stand in relation to it. In Britain his collected essays in Art and Culture his championing of young American artists against the dominance
and articles on 'After Abstract Expressionism' and 'Post Painterly of the 'School of Paris' in the eyes of the artists and taste of the art-
Abstraction'2 have been read avidly (or suspiciously) by those want- world. 9
ing to know What's Been Happening in American Art; and the But however indebted was Greenberg to Hofmann's formal vision
admiration and scathing disgust recently expressed respectively by and to Graham's artistic discoveries, it was Greenberg alone whose
Edward Lucie-Smith and Patrick Heron in Studio International3 are journalism championed Pollock, Gorky, De Kooning, Smith, and
examples of reactions to Greenberg which have developed into a Robert Motherwell to the public at large in the 1940s. Their work
family squabble in America. There, disagreements with Greenberg's dominated his writings at that time and he seemed only peripherally
criticism by other critics like Harold Rosenberg, Robert Goldwater, aware of concurrent activity of other young artists like Rothko,
and Max Kozloff4 have been paralleled by attacks from artists like Still, Newman, Baziotes, and Gottlieb who were more closely involved
Dan Flavin, Robert Smithson, Robert Irwin, and Allan Kaprow ;5 with the French Surrealists than with the Graham-Hofmann circle."
rightfully the focus of these attacks is on the un-critical and dogmatic When the work of the artists known as the 'first generation' Ab-
propagation of Greenberg's ideas—especially on the part of those stract Expressionists began to receive international acclaim in the
critics who are his closest followers: Sidney Tillim, Jane Harrison 1950s, the quality and courage of Greenberg's insight was recog-
Cone, Rosalind Krauss, and above all Michael Fried. Who is this nized as well. He was asked to organize or write prefaces to exhibi-
man, why has he become so important, how true are his pronounce- tions of the artists' work for academic and commercial galleries, both
ments : these are questions which require a retrospective view of in America and abroad. He organized major exhibitions of paintings
Greenberg, his style of criticism, and his influence in the American by Pollock,11 Gottlieb,12 and Newman ;13 he contributed introduc-
art world. tory essays to the Hans Hofmann exhibition at the Kootz Gallery in
From Greenberg's first art-criticism for The Nation in 1943, his 1958, and to Betty Parsons' 1955-56 group show of 'Ten Years' work
writings have been prose essays deeply committed to the formal and by the Abstract Expressionists associated with her gallery. His role
historical significance of the art he discussed. His previous experience easily shifted from the alienated critic writing art columns for intel-
as editor of Partisan Review, involvements with Marxist thought, and lectual magazines to an Impresario in the New York art-world
acquaintance with students of Hans Hofmann prepared him to be a judged by his commitment to a specific type of art and respected for
champion of American avant-garde painting in journalism which its ultimate (commercial and influential) success. As such he took on
would reach a broad public.6 His involvement with Marxism gave the character of a Prophet in the New York art world. Artists like
him an historical sense which committed him to the avant-garde, con- Anthony Caro, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland sought his
verted him to 'abstract' art as a revolution against the established criticism and advice,14 and gallery directors sought his predictions;
American taste for nationalistic narrative paintings, and gave him an when Greenberg selected the 'Emerging Talent' exhibition at
15
evolutionary concept of history allowing him to see the 1940s immigra- Samuel Kootz Gallery in 1954, Louis and Noland were included.
tion of European artists as historically establishing New York as the By the mid-fifties Greenberg's critical style was clearly different
artistic centre of the future. The teachings of Hofmann on the pure from that of Harold Rosenberg, his chief rival as an interpreter of
plastic mechanics of painting gave him the tools for formal analysis Abstract Expressionism. Rosenberg had become involved with the
of colour, line, planes, and their 'push and pull' of space in the art of Abstract Expressionist painters in the later 1940s, as a poet through
Matisse and Kandinsky, and especially in Cubism—and a vision of the Surrealist circle, and in terms more of artistic collaboration be-
artistic form as embodying its own relevance.' And Hofmann hind the scenes than of public discussions of exhibited works; he
students like Lee Krasner opened the way to Greenberg's acquain- wrote introductions to some early important group exhibitions
tances with young American artists like Pollock and De Kooning organized by Samuel Kootz16 and contributed to 'little magazines'
after their joint inclusion in the McMillen Gallery's 1942 exhibition with which the painters were involved.17 As a practising poet writing
of 'French and American Painters'. to a private and sympathetic audience, his style was metaphoric
This important exhibition was organized by John Graham, a rather than didactic, and he was naturally concerned more with the
painter and theorist who was friends with David Smith, Arshile character and context of the creative act than its resulting pictorial
Gorky, Willem De Kooning, and Stuart Davis in the 1930s. It form. Writing of a shared experience, Rosenberg was little help to
brought together Graham's friends and presented Jackson Pollock's more prosaic souls outside that experience; he was no help to critics
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