Jack Youngerman: Folding Screen Paintings
July 24–September 18, 2005
Jack Youngerman (American, b. 1926), Fire/Orange II, 1978. Acrylic on
linen, 72 x 144 x 12 in. Courtesy Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York.
Photo: Gary Mamay |
In the 1970s, the artist Jack Youngerman made a series of paintings on linen and directly on wood panel that were joined to form folding screens. These large-scale works with vibrant, pulsating images will be on view together for the first time at The Parrish Art in Southampton in the exhibition Jack Youngerman: Folding Screen Paintings, organized by Alicia Longwell, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education.
This series of folding screen paintings came at a significant juncture in Youngerman’s work when he seemed to be searching for a more expansive way to depict broad areas of unmodulated color with a controlled palette of two or three colors. Youngerman said that he has “sought to widen the possibilities for painting,” and this commitment to exploration and discovery has been a potent attribute of his artistic practice.
Jack Youngerman in his Bridgehampton studio, 2005.
Photo: Gary Mamay |
Essential to Youngerman’s work is the idea of “world art.” He was inspired by the use of screens in Chinese and Japanese tradition, attracted by their functional as well as decorative aspects. Another source of inspiration was a six-month excursion to the Middle East, where he visited Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. He was struck by the carved wooden panels that screened the windows of houses, which permit inhabitants to see out but not be seen from the street. In works like Tabriz and Samarkand, whose titles conjure ancient cities and cultures, viewers will see how the interplay of shape and space creates a forceful dynamic.
Long Island’s East End also directly influenced Youngerman’s artistic practice. Arriving in the 1960s, he was deeply stirred by the defining presence of water and space – this effect and the physical properties of the screens are apparent in works like High Tide. Hung on the wall or zigzagging in space, they defy Clement Greenberg’s dictum that painting must be flat.
While growing up Youngerman was exposed to art only minimally. Following his stateside service in World War II, he took advantage of the GI Bill and went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and spent much of his time exploring the history of art, from the cave paintings at Lascaux to the first showing of Matisse’s cut-outs in Paris and the studios of Brancusi and Arp.
After returning to the United States in 1956, he settled in lower Manhattan at Coenties Slip with a group of other artists that included Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, and Agnes Martin. Painting in a formalized abstract style influenced by his time in Paris, he continued to build on the bold departures of American artists such as Robert Motherwell and Clyfford Still, using nature as a referent for organic form, a course that would hold his interest.
Work table in Jack Youngerman's Bridgehampton studio with
maquettes for folding screen paintings Fire Orange II (1978)
in background, 2005. Photo: Gary Mamay |
Youngerman’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, the Museum of Fine Art, Houston and The Parrish Art Museum.
In conjunction with the exhibition and the museum’s ongoing series of “Artist Talks,” Youngerman will give an informal talk at The Parrish Art Museum on Thursday, August 11 at 6:30 p.m.
Jack Youngerman: Folding Screen Paintings complements the exhibition Romantic Modernist: The Life and Work of Norman Jaffe, Architect. Both offer an enlightening look at the creative life on the East End of Long Island. Chronology and proximity link the two contemporaries who are also connected by shared sensibilities—an openness to diverse influences and a wide-ranging quest for visual inspiration. The two shows will remain on view through September 18.
The presentation of the exhibition Jack Youngerman: Folding Screen Paintings has been made possible, in part, through generous support from The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation and Helene B. Stevens.
>>Romantic Modernist: The Life and Work of Norman Jaffe, Architect >>
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