Art fair: Frieze Masters: American Abstract Artists

ACA Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition investigating the arc of American Abstraction from the 1930s to the 1970s as part of Frieze Masters. Opening October 15, the fair presentation will feature paintings and works on paper by prominent artists associated with the New York School of Abstract Expressionists and the American Abstract Artists.

Founded in New York City in 1936, the American Abstract Artist group was a predecessor to Abstract Expressionism and contributed to the development and acceptance of abstract art in the United States. This presentation includes geometric, biomorphic and gestural abstraction by a wide range of founding members including Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Balcomb Greene, and Gertrude Greene among others. The exhibition also features later members; Irene Rice Pereira, Mercedes Matter, and Ad Reinhardt; in a compelling intergenerational exhibition that demonstrates the dynamic and enduring force of early abstraction in America.

The gallery’s pioneering interest in progressive American art was established early on in exhibitions featuring, and often introducing, the work of Rockwell Kent, Alice Neel, Barnett Newman, Irene Rice Pereira, David Smith, and Charles White, among many others. In 1935, ACA hosted the inaugural meetings of the American Artists’ Congress (AAC), the influential precursor to the Federal Art Project (FAP) and Works Project Administration (WPA), federal programs that aided American artists and funded public art projects throughout the depression. In the 1960s, ACA Galleries established its first foreign branch in Rome, and the ACA Heritage Gallery in Los Angeles and New York City, signaling a vital foray into 19th and early 20th century American and European art.