Claudine Humblet

I was surprised to find this in the university library in my Romanian town. A heavy box with 3 volumes with some of my favorite abstract artists and many other goodies! An academic candy box, if I can say so: the chapters are bundled with tons of quality reproductions, all while each of them ends with a huge bibliography and footnotes, usually at least 2 pages and several columns long. The concept is quite satisfying: Humblet manages to unify "dots" that were initially paired in various isms with difficult terms such as Post-Painterly Abstraction, Hard-Edge Painting, Shaped Canvas Painting, etc. Quite a lot of the artists in those categories and even some (quasi?)minimalists such as Agnes Martin are what make up the category called by Humblet "New American Abstraction". Which is, needless to say, hardly descriptive, but it is a legit umbrella (if one can say so) with artists that indeed breath the same air. Fortunately, no exaggerations here like the ones practiced a long time ago by Greenberg (American-Type Painting? Really?). The American more-or-less-geometric abstractionists and organized abstract expressionists were all both rooted in European abstract art tradition and innovative in comparison. Humblet does not fail to emphasize the role of "intuition" that practically made the likes of Noland or Feitelson not just "formalist", but also with a sense of "fun", most obviously deemed sometimes by the titles of their works and by some of the playful choices of composition.
My only grips with the book is that it doesn't manage to say everything that could have been said about certain artists such as Noland (but, then again, it's just a chapter, not an entire book) and that especially the selection of artists in the third volume feels a bit awkward, don't know how to describe... let's just say there are some really minor artists there that still get some credit - and, well, all I can say is thanks for the rare reproductions.… (mais)

I was surprised to find this in the university library in my Romanian town. A heavy box with 3 volumes with some of my favorite abstract artists and many other goodies! An academic candy box, if I can say so: the chapters are bundled with tons of quality reproductions, all while each of them ends with a huge bibliography and footnotes, usually at least 2 pages and several columns long. The concept is quite satisfying: Humblet manages to unify "dots" that were initially paired in various isms with difficult terms such as Post-Painterly Abstraction, Hard-Edge Painting, Shaped Canvas Painting, etc. Quite a lot of the artists in those categories and even some (quasi?)minimalists such as Agnes Martin are what make up the category called by Humblet "New American Abstraction". Which is, needless to say, hardly descriptive, but it is a legit umbrella (if one can say so) with artists that indeed breath the same air. Fortunately, no exaggerations here like the ones practiced a long time ago by Greenberg (American-Type Painting? Really?). The American more-or-less-geometric abstractionists and organized abstract expressionists were all both rooted in European abstract art tradition and innovative in comparison. Humblet does not fail to emphasize the role of "intuition" that practically made the likes of Noland or Feitelson not just "formalist", but also with a sense of "fun", most obviously deemed sometimes by the titles of their works and by some of the playful choices of composition.
My only grips with the book is that it doesn't manage to say everything that could have been said about certain artists such as Noland (but, then again, it's just a chapter, not an entire book) and that especially the selection of artists in the third volume feels a bit awkward, don't know how to describe... let's just say there are some really minor artists there that still get some credit - and, well, all I can say is thanks for the rare reproductions.… (mais)