ALFRED LESLIE abstraction 1951–1962
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ALFRED LESLIE abstraction 1951–1962
ALL AN STONE PROJECTS 3
Produced on the occasion of: ALFRED LESLIE, Abstraction 1951- 1962 October 29 – December 24, 2015 Allan Stone Projects 535 West 22nd Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10011 Tel: 212-987-4997 Fax: 917-421-9895 info@allanstoneprojects.com www.allanstoneprojects.com President: Dorothy Goldeen Director: Bo Joseph Cover (Detail): The Black Line, 1960-61 Oil on canvas 78 1/4 x 80 1/4 in., 198.8 x 203.8 cm Back cover (Detail): Gildo the Moor (Rose), 1951 Mixed media oil and collage on board 9 1⁄8 x 12 1⁄8 in., 23.2 x 30.8 cm Signed and dated viewer’s upper left Catalog © 2015 Allan Stone Projects All works © 2015 Alfred Leslie All Rights Reserved Design: Ernesto Aparicio Photography: Joe Protheroe All rights reserved under international and Pan-American copyright conventions. No part of this digital catalog may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from Allan Stone Projects.
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PREFACE Alfred Leslie: Abstraction 1951–1962 features paintings and works on paper by one of the seminal artists of the New York art world in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Early in his career, Leslie was a Abstract Expressionist who experimented ambitiously with collage, grid compositions, and gestural and geometric abstraction. The incorporation of chance and control, of hard and soft, of active and passive modes, express the artist’s singular reaction to the explosive aftermath of abstract art in Postwar America. Following major breakthroughs led by Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, and others, Leslie explored Abstract Expressionist and proto-Pop styles. His technique portrays a balance between vigorous expression and hard-edged control, featuring loaded brush strokes against architectural compositions as in The Black Line, 1960–61 (p.25). He played with form in the collage Gildo the Moor (Rose), 1951, (p.9) where ripped black paper is haphazardly stapled together, its exposed edges creating layers of line and space. The provocative titles to his works often refer to galvanizing moments politically, socially or culturally. For example, Gildo the Moor (Rose) refers to a Roman warrior who led the rebellion against the Emperor Honorius in 398 a.d. Arrivato Zampano, 1959, (p.21) is named after the brutish protagonist in Federico Fellini’s film, La Strada, 1954. Leslie’s wide-ranging artistic activities, including filmmaking and writing, served as the context for many of his artworks that came out of this fervent period. Allan Stone stated in his essay on the artist that these works “epitomize the power and dynamic of postwar American abstract painting.” 1 Leslie’s visceral approach to art making is best described as “embodying the zeitgeist of the time.”2 Alfred Leslie was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1927. After serving in the U. S. Coast Guard, he studied at New York University under the G. I. Bill, and later at Pratt Institute and the Art Students League. His work was selected by Clement Greenberg for the New Talent exhibition at the Kootz Gallery in 1949, and a screening of his film Directions: A Walk After the War Games took place at the Museum of Modern Art. In the 1950’s, Leslie was included in the historic Ninth Street Show, curated by Leo Castelli, had five solo shows at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, and was included in the Museum of Modern Art’s Sixteen Americans exhibition, all the while receiving great praise for his more geometric variety of Abstract Expressionism. In 1962, Leslie fully turned to large-scale figuration often in grisaille. His work is in collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago among others. He lives and works in New York City.
1 Stone, Allan. “Painter of the Loaded Brush,” Alfred Leslie, 1951 - 1962: Expressing the Zeitgeist. New York: Allan Stone Gallery, 2004. p. 3 2
Ibid., p. 4 5
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PAINTER OF THE LOADED BRUSH Allan Stone
Originally published in Alfred Leslie: Expressing the Zeitgeist, 2004
in 1952, harold rosenberg wrote his influential essay
quadrant was delineated by broad exuberant brush strokes with much
on action painting to describe what his friends Pollock, de Kooning,
splattering. Indeed the work seemed to celebrate the splattering
and Kline were doing. The canvas was the arena in which the artist
which counterpointed the somewhat geometric division of the canvas,
acted, and the act of painting was more important than the painting
thereby establishing a classical dialogue in the work. The net result
itself. The act of painting was emotional, impulsive, unplanned,
of these controlled splatter paintings is a sense of balance between
spontaneous, and unrehearsed.
exuberant freedom and restraint.
However, it has by now become clear that this theory of action
Alfred Leslie’s work has an indisputable signature: the architecture,
painting never could apply to painters like de Kooning, Kline and
the wielding of the loaded brush, and the consistently present double
Pollock because these painters were highly calculating when it came to
vertical bands. Whether it is a large oil on canvas or a miniature
applying paint to canvas. De Kooning would try any number of paint
collage, Leslie’s work is immediately identifiable. Leslie has the ability
passages on a stack of vellum and once having chosen one treatment,
to impart scale much like Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. His
he would carefully transcribe that passage onto the canvas in order
small works have great scale and his large works an even grander sense
to achieve the effect of spontaneity. This is not action painting. It
of scale. This combined with Leslie’s color sense created a powerful
just looks like action painting, but it is planned, highly calculated and
body of work that epitomizes the power and dynamic of postwar
definitely not spontaneous.
American abstract painting.
Kline as well took great pains to create the look of spontaneity,
While I always found Leslie’s artwork compelling, I knew little else
and used very conservative techniques like graphing his larger canvas
about his other interests. I was a young art dealer caught up in the
to reproduce exactly a smaller sketch, or using a projector to enlarge
excitement of the emerging art of the time. The cultural, political, and
a smaller image and tracing the outlines of the strokes in pencil, and
social environment was embroiled in the enthusiasm and optimism of
then carefully painting over the pencil lines so none would show.
change. As I reflect on the times and Alfred Leslie’s life, I am amazed
Pollock in his drip paintings carefully wove the matrix of his line
to find how many pulses Leslie had his finger on.
—the technique was tightly controlled although no brush was used.
Alfred Leslie through his filmmaking, which started in the late
The artists who seemed to take Rosenberg’s theory of “action
1940s, was part of the incipient American underground independent
painting” to heart were Alfred Leslie, Norman Bluhm and Michael
film movement. His 1959 work, Pull My Daisy, made in collaboration
Goldberg. The work of all three abstract expressionists depended
with Robert Frank is considered the first independent film accepted
heavily on a loaded brush and energetic execution.
into the National Film Archives. Leslie’s studio was a cultural
This exhibition is devoted to the work of Alfred Leslie from 1951
center, always open and filled with art happenings and events. His
to 1962. Leslie’s energy has always fascinated me. I remember the
literary involvements were broad, from his own writing to the 1959
first moment I saw one of his paintings at the Martha Jackson Gallery
publication of The Hasty Papers, a compendium of literary, political and
in the early 1960s. The canvas was divided into quadrants and each
artistic thinking. Leslie collaborated with the writers who are today’s literary giants: Sartre, O’Hara, Ginsberg, and Kerouac. De Kooning described The Hasty Papers best when he called it “a snapshot of us all.”
Untitled, ( DE TAIL) , 1959 Mixed media oil and collage on board mounted to wood 10 1⁄8 x 15 3⁄4 in., 26 x 40 cm
Leslie took the unusual path from abstraction to realism, so many may not know of his early abstract work. In the time period that this exhibition examines, 1951-62, Alfred Leslie may have been not so much in touch with as actually embodying the Zeitgeist of the time. 7
Gildo the Moor (Rose), 1951 Mixed media oil and collage on board 9 1⁄8 x 12 1⁄8 in., 23 x 30 cm
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Untitled, 1953 Mixed media oil and collage on board 10 3â „8 x 8 1â „8 in., 26 x 20 cm
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Untitled, 1953 Mixed media and collage on paper mountedon board 15 1â „2 x 12 1â „4 in., 39 x 31 cm
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Untitled, 1954 Mixed media oil and collage on linen mounted to board 7 7â „8 x 8 3â „8 in., 20 x 21 cm
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Four Panel Green—Big Green, 1956-57 Oil on canvas 144 x 166 in., 366 x 422 cm
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Untitled, 1957 Mixed media oil and collage on paper 17 1â „2 x 14 1â „2 in., 45 x 37 cm
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Narses, 1959 Mixed media oil and collage on paper 18 x 20 in., 46 x 51 cm
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Oval Collage, 1959 Mixed media crayon, gouache and collage on paper 20 x 17 3â „4 in., 51 x 45 cm
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Arrivato Zampano, 1959 Oil on canvas 76 1â „4 x 80 in., 194 x 203 cm
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Untitled, 1959 Mixed media, oil and collage on board 18 x 20 3â „4 in., 46 x 53 cm
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The Black Line, 1960-61 Oil on canvas 78 1⁄4 x 80 1⁄4 in., 199 x 204 cm
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OPPOSITE PAGE
Untitled, 1960 Mixed media oil and collage on paper 25 x 19 in., 64 x 49 cm
Untitled, 1959 Mixed media oil and collage on board mounted to wood 10 1⁄8 x 15 3⁄4 in., 26 x 40 cm
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Cough Control, 1961-62 Oil on canvas 96 1⁄4 x 72 1⁄4 in., 245 x 184 cm
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ALFRED LESLIE selected chronology
October 29, 1927
two other international group exhibitions feature Leslie’s
Alfred Leslie born in New York City.
work: Young Americans at Musée d’Art Moderne de la
1945–49
Spoleto, Italy.
After serving in the United States Coast Guard from
Leslie also works with writing, music and set design.
1945-46, Leslie studies at the Art Students League in
Towards the end of the 1950s, Leslie writes The Chekhov
1947, and from 1947-49 with Tony Smith and William
Cha-Cha, a literary work that Leslie states, “can be seen
Baziotes at New York University.
as a poem, a novel, or a play, a multi-purpose work.” In
Ville de Paris in France, and Fifteen American Artists in
In 1949, the critic Clement Greenberg chooses Leslie’s work for the New Talent exhibition at the Kootz Gallery in New York City. Concurrent with the exhibition, Leslie releases his third film, Directions: A Walk After The War Games (he started directing in 1945). It is shown at a special screening at The Museum of Modern Art.
Papers, Leslie shows new work in The Museum of Modern Art exhibition 16 Americans and the Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition Project I: Longview Foundation Purchases in Modern American Painting and Sculpture and completes his movie Pull My Daisy. Pull My Daisy—co-directed with Robert Frank, recited
1951-59
by Jack Kerouac from his play The Beat Generation and
In 1951 Leslie is part of the legendary 9 Street Show at the
featuring Allen Ginsberg—becomes a landmark in what is
9 Street Gallery in New York.
then the incipient American underground film movement.
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Leslie has his first solo show in 1952 at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York City. Other solo shows at de Nagy follow in 1953, 1954 and 1957. The Robert Keene Gallery in Southampton, New York, shows Leslie’s work in one-man exhibitions in 1957 and 1958. Leslie’s work is also included in various American museum exhibitions: Recent Work by Young Americans, organized by The Museum of Modern Art in 1954, Artists of the New York School: Second Generation at The Jewish Museum in 1957, the Annual Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1957, the Pittsburgh International at the Museum of Art at the Carnegie
It will later be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry and inducted in 1996. 1960-65
In 1960, Leslie publishes The Hasty Papers, an edgy, anarchic commentary. Received with enthusiasm by the artistic and literary communities, The Hasty Papers features works by artists, poets, critics and politicians. Although the Establishment at the time dismisses the review, many of the contributors—among them, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac— will come to be considered twentieth-century masters.
Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1958 and again at
The same year, Leslie also exhibits his work alongside
both The Jewish Museum in New York in 1958 and the
John Chamberlain at the Martha Jackson Gallery; and
Whitney Museum’s Annual Exhibition in 1959.
participates in Sixty American Painters, 1960: Abstract
In 1957 Leslie’s work is part of a traveling exhibition organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York for the Metropolitan Art Museum in Tokyo, called Fourth International Art Exhibition: Japan. In 1958, Leslie is part
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1959, while working on his literary magazine The Hasty
Expressionist Painting of the ‘50s at the Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in V Bienal in São Paulo, Brazil, and in a group exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
of another exhibition in Japan, The International Art
In 1961, he has solo shows at the Martha Jackson Gallery
of a New Era, U.S.A., Japan, Europe, which opens at the
and at the David Anderson Gallery in New York, and
Takashimaya department store in Osaka. The same year
his work is included in the exhibition American Abstract
Expressionists and Imagists at the Solomon R. Guggenheim
In 1968, Leslie receives a grant from the National
Museum in New York.
Endowment for the Arts. He participates in In Memory of
In 1962, Leslie is featured in the exhibition 4 Amerikanare:
My Feelings: Frank O’Hara at The Museum of Modern Art
Jasper Johns, Alfred Leslie, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard
in New York.
Stankiewicz at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm,
In 1969 he receives the Guggenheim Fellowship, and has a
Sweden. He has a solo exhibition at Holland Goldowsky
solo exhibition at the Goldowsky Gallery in New York.
Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. After working more than 15 years as an abstract painter,
1970s
in 1962 Leslie begins to change toward realism, resulting
In 1970, Leslie’s work is included in 22 Realists at the
in his multi-horizoned, large Grisaille portraits. Leslie
Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
becomes known as an artist who does not follow trends,
In 1971, Leslie receives the Academy Award in Art from
but rather as somebody who sets them. His move to figurative painting is greeted with everything from excitement to resentment.
the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work is featured in Younger Abstract Expressionists of the 50’s at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and in
Leslie releases the movie The Last Clean Shirt, a collab-
Leslie, Thiebaud, Pearlstein at the Hayden Gallery at the
oration with Frank O’Hara, in 1964. The movie is screened
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge,
at the Lincoln Center Film Festival in New York, and
Massachusetts. He also has a solo exhibition at the
wins an award for Best Experimental Film the same year
Goldowsky Gallery in New York.
at the Film Festival in Bergamo, Italy.
In 1973, his work is included in the Whitney Museum of
In the same year, his abstract and his realist works are
American Art’s Biennial Exhibition.
featured in different museum exhibitions. His abstract work is featured in the 1965 exhibition American Collages at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition includes his Grisaille paintings in 1965 and 1967.
In 1976, a solo traveling exhibition that originates at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is included in the XXXVII Biennale di Venezia in Italy. Leslie’s work is exhibited in 30 Years of American Printmaking at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. In 1976
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and 1977, he has a solo exhibition at the Museum of
In 1966, Leslie’s studio burns down—destroying all his
Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois (catalogue essay by
paintings as well as his film masters—just as the Whitney
Robert Rosenblum).
Museum is about to give him a one-man show featuring
In 1977, Leslie’s work is included in Nothing But Nudes
the Grisaille paintings and just as one of his films is being
at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York,
considered for the New York Film Festival. A few months
in Drawings of the 70’s at The Museum of Modern Art in
earlier, Frank O’Hara, one of Leslie’s good friends, is killed
New York and in A View of the Decade at the Museum of
in an accident.
Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1967, Leslie starts work on what he later titles The Killing Cycle, a collection of five major canvases and
1980s
nearly a hundred studies depicting the death of Frank
Leslie’s work is included in the 1980 exhibitions The
O’Hara. (He will complete The Killing Cycle in 1981, and
Fifties: Aspects of Painting in New York at the Hirshhorn
in 1991 the works will be featured in the exhibition
Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.,
Alfred Leslie: The Killing Cycle at the Saint Louis Art
American Portrait Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery
Museum in Missouri).
in Washington, D.C., and in American Drawings 31
in Black and White at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York features his paintings in the 1981 exhibition An American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection. Two traveling exhibitions in 1983 and 1985 follow: 100 Views
Selected Public Collections
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian
Along the Road: The Watercolors of Alfred Leslie, originating
Institution, Washington, D.C.
at the Oil and Steel Gallery in New York, and American
Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, Indiana
Realism: The Precise Image, originating at the Isetan
Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
1990s
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
His work is featured in the 1991 retrospective exhibition, The Power of Form: Alfred Leslie’s Art, 1951–1991 at
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
the Joseloff Gallery at the University of Hartford,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Connecticut. In 1994, Leslie receives the Award of Merit
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Medal For Painting for lifetime achievement from the
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
American Academy of Arts and Letters.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
2000s
Washington, D.C.
In 2000, Leslie’s painting is exhibited in Picturing the Modern Amazon at the New Museum of Contemporary
Neue Gallery der Stadt Aachen, Aachen, Germany Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia,
Art in New York City. His feature-length movie The
Pennsylvania
Cedar Bar is released in 2002.
The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
In 2004, Leslie received a solo exhibition of his early
Museum de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
work at Allan Stone Gallery accompanied by a catalog
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The
with an essay written by Allan Stone.
Netherlands
Alfred Leslie currently lives in New York City.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota Washington Art Consortium, Washington Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
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ALL AN STONE PROJECTS
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