The Social Relations of 'Abstract Expressionism': An Alternative History

The artists Milton Resnick, Hedda Sterne, Esteban Vicente, and Elaine de Kooning are unfamiliar to most even though they each played an important role within the "Abstract Expressionist" social world. In recent years some scholars of Abstract Expressionism have attempted to be more inclusive by adding artists who have been left out of the standard texts; however these authors have failed to provide an historical framework and a critique of the construction of this so-called movement that would account for the causes of their marginalization. To provide an alternative history, it is vital to strip away the various theoretical positions that have contributed to the false notion that a small group of artists comprised a modernist movement known as Abstract Expressionism. One means of achieving this is to look to the artists, particularly the ones who have not told their stories, for their perspectives. Most artists insist that they did not represent a movement. Friendships and social ties are the only commonalties they profess. Shifting the focus from the model of a movement to one of social interactions opens up the parameters and allows for more artists to be acknowledged for their participation within the artists' social world. In order to reexamine the artists' social world in the 1950s, historiographic methods were employed such as interviewing artists, investigating artists' statements and essays in the 1950s, reviewing the literature of the period, and examining published and unpublished correspondence. While my methodology is historiographic, the questions I am asking about the canon and marginalization are informed by feminist discourses which have attempted to provide more inclusive histories and questioned the power dynamics involved in canon formation. This dissertation challenges the standard version of Abstract Expressionism by both mapping and critiquing the books that have come to codify this "movement" and by incorporating "marginalized" voices in order to provide an alternative viewpoint. Looking at the period from a social perspective shifts the focus from a handful of male artists to a multitude of male and female artists interacting with one another and cooperatively fueling creative energy and artistic production.