Gesture: Abstract Expressionists

From brushstrokes to drips and palette knives to spray cans, this lecture explores the role of the artist’s mark in several iconic paintings from the 20th- and 21st-century collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Muscarelle Museum of Art. While abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, whose bold, energetic and seemingly messy applications of paint are best known, a wider range of artists experimented with similar techniques. From European avant-garde artists experimenting with brutal brushstrokes of German expressionism and the loose, automatist lines of French surrealism, to African American artist Norman Lewis’ explorations of black and gray tones, the marks of these artists register an array of responses that run the gamut from playful to political.

About the speaker:
Sally Bowring, a native New Yorker presently living in Richmond, taught painting at Virginia Commonwealth University from 1982-2018 and is now a full-time artist. She is active in the art community as an artist advocate, having chaired the Public Art Commission for the City of Richmond 2008-2010 and served as a member of 1708 Gallery. She is an adjunct instructor at the University of Richmond and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Bowring is represented by Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA and Blue Print Gallery, Dallas, TX.

This lecture is free and open to all. It will take place at the Williamsburg Library at 515 Scotland Street.

Presented in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Williamsburg Contemporary Art Center.

HANS HOFMANN | American, 1880-1966 | Color Poem No. 1 (detail), 1950 | Oil on canvas | © Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York | Bequest of Doris Piper Lamberson | 2003.003