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Tag: Abstract Expressionism

(Abstract Expressions about) Diebenkorn at the de Young

Monday the 30th is the final day of the de Young’s museum’s Diebenkorn in Berkeley retrospective. In the past I have not much cared for abstract expressionism.  The color field work just seems labored and pious.  Figurative work like William de Kooning overblown to the point of painful, and without much emotional connection.   Jackson Pollack or Sam Francis is fun to look at but not worth too much contemplation (though the latter has a retrospective in Sacramento next year which I’ll probably go to.)

Something about Seawall 1957 – the featured painting on the sides of many buses in San Francisco caught me – this was recognizably the California coast – I’d guess the view from the Great Highway in San Francisco – but beautifully abstract, and expressionist. OK I’m in.

Where’s the Cliff House?