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aking his New York solo clebut in an exhibition at the lr{ilch

Times

reviewer Aiine B. {-ouchheim, who wrote that in Robinson's first malor l{ew

\brk exhibition

he presented "a fac:i.trity which atrtrows hin'r to nlove frorn a si.mplified

realisn'r in landscaped views tr: an imaginative semi-abstraction for his interpretation

of iazz themes." Refereneing a Frenctrr post-Impressionist, Louchheim continued, "the

simplification gives the best of the landscapes a serenity and solidity, as if done by an Americanized lMaurice] Utrillo." k{ost probab}y noting painiings like Billie tToliday Singing the Blues (no. 11) a*d.{tunp Bsnd (Pete Brazttn on Alta SaxJ (no. 12; s*e cover

and facing page), Louchheim had high praise for Robinson's art: "In the lazz thernes, Robinson irnposes a taut. excited line on splashin$ areas of bright color. He suggests the clanking noise of cymbals, the penetrating whine of the wind instruments and the beat of the drums with extraordinary vividness."l

Bcrn in Detroit in 1915, a resident of Kentucky Cuning his youth, and currenttry living in Virginia, ]ay Robinson earnectr a B.A. frolx Yale lJniversity in 7937 and attended Cranbrook Academy of Art, urhere he studied under the guidaRee of Zoltan Sepeshy, Charles Eames, and Harry Bertoia.

During Wortrd War IX, Idobinson r,r,orked in the Office of Strategic Services in Washir"lgton, D"C., as a [J.S. f{avy Yraining Aids Officer. tr{e reeeiveri a tr-eruis Comfort Tiffany Foundation FelXawship to travel to Africa in 195CI, and the Arnerican Academy of Arts and Letters and the hJationai {nstitrate of Arts and Letters purchased seven of tr"ris paintings thrcugh the Childe Hassam Fund for presentation to institutions. This exhibition includes his images of the 1940s iazz scene, his nonobjective paintings and constructions, and his urork about Africa ancl ather locales he has visited.2 j*y Rabtrrcon {eatures thirty-one works by the artist-sculpture, egg tempera paintings, drawings, oil paintings, and rxixed rnedia works-from the 1940s to the 1980s. Ali the works inf*y Rahinsan are CIn extendLed loan tc the Georgia h,{useum of Art frcm the co}lection of }ason Scheiell, h.4iarni, Florida.

Robinson's art dccuments a period of transition in Ainerican culture, a moment that reflects the critical impact of the dispXacement cf European artists by'l//orld War IT anel the pcpular emergence o{ American abstnact painting. F{is work announces itself in its diversity af styles and subjects, drawing on l:oth Europear:l and American influences" Abstraction dominated the art world in the mid- ta late

brought to America thr*ugh the work of European avant-garde artists sueh as Piet h{etredrian and Francis lricabia. The Eurcpean styles merged wittrr native 7948s,

I[sOVE: detail of Ckeeklist no. l4o *louse in

f&e !{/oods, }g4E

of transition in Arnerican crrltrrrGr a lrromtent that rellects the critical irnpact of tlre displacerrrent of ErrroPean artists by World War II and the poprrlar enrergence of Ifrrrerican abstract paintirlg't' American abstraction from ]ohn Marin, Marsden F{artley, and }chn S}oan and influenced artists including ]ackson Fo].}ock ancl Stuart llavis' Trained at CranbrookAcademy o{Art in the years prior to Worid War {I, }ay Robinsor"l }earned at one o{ the {ew institutions in the l"Jnited States dedicated to clesign. The Cranl:roclk ethcs, as taught by Sepeshy, Earres, ISertoia, and others, demonstrated an approach to art that valued tradition while utilizing avant*garde concepts of proCuction, form, and technique. These professors at Cranbrock had and a strong influence on Robinsoll's rnethods. Eames's interest in organic design

in materials haei an impact on Robinson's paintings and clther eariy works of art, and Bertoia's concentration Gn nlnn-rerous methods of working metai found its way into Robinson's cornpositions and color choices" During the thirty-six years ttr"rat Sepeshy spent at Cranbrook, he devetroped a distinctive use of egg terxpera. trn his 1946 treatise Ten'tyer* Painting, Sepeshy promoted the uni.que qualities of the medium: "In tempera, however, tr have found the possibitity of cornbining the quatrities of . . . other media' It may be used witl:l the transparence and translucence of watercoior. It r:ray be used with a fine cr6ss-hatching of lines so that the eye inixes ar"ld btrends the eolcrs twodimensionatrly on the surface. trt has the 'body' for applicatior"l in Layers; yet, when applied in a certain way as prire coi.ors, no layer hides the layers rlnderneath""3

Egg tempera became a favorite rnedium for Roi:inson, too, in lhe early 1940s, for exarnple tn Art Schoal Mgdel (1941; no" 1), executed while

Xre

attended Cranbrook"a

The translucence cf tempera, the cross-hatching of lines, and the layers of color

ail appear in Robinson's paintings of the 1940s" Three of the ffilore significant paintings, Camposition in Red t1946; no. 3), Forws in Grny-Creen Space {1946; no. 4), and Gold sttd Siluer Coins {,7946; no" 5), plus a trrandfutr of other works in this exnribition have egg tempera as tl're prirrrary rnedium" These three tempera paintings, along with ?ttrotir:n in Dark Space (19a6; no. 6) and l:::'f' :.j: ,:ri ' l twenty other wonks by Robinson, all appeared in the exhibition lvlustutrt o/l/nru-Objectiae Paiw.ting at the Solornon R. Guggenheim Foundation in hlew York in eartry 1947.5 Art critic Ctreinent Creenberg, writingtn Pnrtisan Reaiew, describes the rneaning of American non*objective art ancl its culturai importance: "The l"listory of avant*garde painting is that of a progressive sunrencler to the resistance of its meelium; which resistance consists ehiefly in the ftrat picture plar"le's denial of efforts to 'hole through' it for realistic penspectival space. In making this surrender, painting not anly got rid nf imitation-and wi.th it 'literatsvs/-Sst also cf realistic imitation's corollary con* fusion between painting and sculpture." Of particular relevance to appreciating Robinson's non-objective wcrks is GreenbergS's descrii:ti*n of the act of abstraction:

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&s{l$tr; datail of Checklist no. 5, 6old and Siirer Coins, 194S

"Line, which is one of the rnost abstract e]"ements in painting since it is never found in nature as the definition of contour, returns to oil painting as the tl-lird color between two other color are&s. {Jnder the inftruence o{ the square shape of the canvas, forms tend to be geometrical-and sirnplified, beeause simplifieation is also a part of the i.nstinctive accomrncdation tc the rnedium. But rncst irnportant of all, tl"le picture plane itself grows strrallolt'er and shallcwer, flattening out and pressing together the fictive pnanes of depth until they meet as one upon the real and material plane which is the actual surface of the canvas . . . . Where the pair"lter stiil iries to indicate real objects their shapes flatten and spread in the dense, twodin-lensional atmosphere. " 6

Two more egg tempera paintings on gessoed paneis from 1946, Spuyten Duyvil (Ltpper Tip of Mnnhsttsn) (no. 9) and Sururl-onl (no. 8), emr.erge from Sepeshy's influence and Rcbinson's tirne in bJew York. \n Spuyten Dwyail, cloud,s and sky dosri-

nate rncst of the lmage. The skyline of }dew York, the F{udson River, and its banks form the backgrour-rC of the bottom of tl:re painting. Itrobinson's prirnary subject is a

bit of grass, stretciring its arm- and handtike sten-rs into the cloudy sky. In a painting that resonates with the destruction wrought by World War II and ttrre opening of the atomic age, Suraiucl depicts lonely clurnps of grass amid massive rock forms.

riTlre translrrcerrce of terrrpera, all appear in Robinson's paintings of the 194Os-"

Robinson's drawings of the 194ils jazz scene and his nan-obiective cor:epositions shnw him not as an illustrator but as a master draftsrnan. {n both graphite and ink, these drawings articulate stronglv trtc]binsol1's absotrute ccntrol in selecting the ccrreet

ccmposition and focrrsing his i.d"eas. He exhibits an unelerstanding tltat cor:-tposition depends on the management of object retrationships, on tire nlanipulation o{ forms, and on a clear sense of unregulatecX space. In Qwality !,fiitsic Shop, W*shittgtorr, D.C' (7943; nn" 2), his undated study Sidnetl Csttett f ttzz Bnnd (no" t3), arac{ his preparatory wcrk {gr Billie ttatiday Singing the Blues t1947; nos. trO and 1l), drawir"rg operates as a way for hin"l to capture the m.on-rent anC tc preserve the memory of the seene, the music, and the emotions. {n a letter in which he recatrls his process, Robinsrin lt'rites, "&{any times { made sketches-rnainly af the p}ayers, the surrounelings af t}ie plaee where they were playing, and the instrurnents; but mainl,rr it was ail in my rnind and meil"lol"y. Then { could compose the seene as { goi to painting anct let everYthing take a nattirai course so aS tc be spontarteous, like the music itsel{."7 In the early 1950s, Robinson executed a series of works based cn sct:nes an<X pe{;p1e in i'ris native state of Kentucky" t{is grand{ather, a "w}"ree}er-dea}er" and sheriff, drove him "all over, any ptrace, for as lang as X wanted to work driwn there."E Three urorks frcn'r 1953, Frasperous Ftzrwer (no. tr9), made c,)f carved and inc:i.seel wood; Wtite Mule (no" 22i, a rrixed media cornp*sition; anc- DeeT: tlolloru (no. 18), an cil anel encaustic on panel with metal, f*r examptre, reflect the ernoticns, memories, and experiences o{ I"ife in KentuckV" Robinson notes that "'White hdule' is another namc for moor"lshine {wii}r a kick like a mule) whiskey . . . . This compositicr:u is not it"rter"rded

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IIT: detail of

Cheetrql{st no. }1, EiJJie SJoJjcfay.Singringr f}!e &.{ues, 1947

a-s

a chart but as semi-descnipti*n, a semi*abstract scene of an aspect of }ife." Deep

{{entueky landscape, "the iines of hitris, rcugh eclged by trees, r-ario:-ls elements . . . such as owls, eabins, hi-lrnan figures, a chimney shape . . . rr.orked into the paint surface . . . . {t is sirictly a mood piece, trving to c*lrvey the sornbEr r:rooC o{ t}re hiils ancX peop}e rvav back in."e Xn Sstwrd*ry lf4qfuf it: Albnnq, KEntucky (7952; LTolltntt represents the

capture the ililtomtent and to preserve tlre lraertlory of tlre scene, the rnrrsic, and the ertrotions.t' of ttrre larger eompositicns in this exhil:ition, a tent revivai preacher offe:::s a fire-anrtr-1:rin"rstone ::ant. Robinscrn abstracts anc* ccnepresses severaL episcdes {rom the Saiurday night events he o1:serveei-traffic, the ercwd, the sermon-into a singne ccn"rpasition. He d,isplayed his rvorks from the "Kentucky series" in tlt o exhibitions at the &,{ilch Galleries in }derv York in tr953 and tr954. {n 1955, again at the &,trlLch Galtreries, R*binsan exhiirited art he had created baseel on his travel,s to tl"re Belgian Congo (now the Demccratic Republic of the

no.

16), one

Congc) and, other parts of Africa, funcleC lry o Tiffany Fetrlowship" nn the brocl-rure for the exhibiti*n, Rr:binsern described the series of works as "based on a few of the drarryings maeie last year in Frer"lch West Coast territory, the Betrgian Congo,

and Ruanda Urundi [sic]."10 lungle Viltage Congo (1950; no. 15), metal and enarnel on board, resulted from the travel afforded by that prestigious fellowship" Robinson continued the use of metal in later works, including his lapan Series #9 (n.d.; no.29), a construction that uses copper, gold, and fired enamel" Other works

from trater in Robinson's career, including Colony (ca. 1982; no. 28) and Winter Pesce {1975-74; no. 30), use both gold and silver leaf to enliven the abstract surfaces and content of his constructions.

Jay Robinson seeks to engage the vitatr aesthetic issues of his tirne in his art. FIis works proclaim his fundamental concern with conveying rneaning through constructive order and abstraction. Robinson's paintings, drawings, mixed media works, and scuiptures reflect his instinctive feeling for his environment and enrich our experience with the genuine aura of Africa, small Kentucky towns, and the New York jazz scene.

Parrl Manogtterra Curator of Americnn Art

NOTES Aline

B.

Louchheim, "4 Artists Display W'orks ai Saions,"

]ay Robinson's frn*r

Bil.lie HoLidttt

Silging the Blues

rnras

Nezrt York Tizrcs,

Decernber 4, 1948.

featured in Conin.g Homt: Atnerium Pa.intbrys,1930-1950,

the Schaen. Col.le*ion, exh. cat. (Athens, CIA: Georgia

Museum o{ Atl,20A3), 270-71

.

Zoitan Sepeshy; 'l'empero Paiuting (Nerv York and l-ondon: American Studio Books, 1946), 13.

For more Design

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ern

Cranbrook Academl, of Art durirrg i{obinson's time there, see Robert Judson Ciark et

a1.,

Atnerica: The Crnnhraak Visian 1925'1950, cxh. cai. (Nshi York: Harry NI. Abrams, 1983).

pamphlet for the loan erhibition Museum of Non-Objectiae Po.inting, Februarv 12,1947, Solomon Cuggenheirn Forrndation, lderar York.

See the Ii..

Clement Greerrberg, "Tirwards a Ner,r,er Laercoirn," Prrytisltt llei;ieto 7 (no. 4, iuly-.August 1940): 296-310, anci republisheci in Charles F1;irrison and Paul Wood, ecis., ,4rt iu T'heory,1900-1990 (C)xfr:rci, UK: Blackn'ell, 1992) I-etter from ]ay Robinsorr to Jason Schoen, June 10, I987, Schoen Collection, Miami, Fiorida' Letter lrcxn Jav Ilobinson

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Jason Schoen, jgne B, 1988, Schoen Collection, Miami, Florida.

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Irartial support for the exhibitions and progran-rs at the Georgia Museum o{ Art is provided by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, tlre Frienrls of the Museum, and the Georgia

Council for the A.rts through the appropriations of the Ceorgia Ceneratr Assembiy. The Council is a partner agency of the ldational Endo.,r,ment for the Arts. Indivicluals, foundations, and corporations provide additional support through their gifts to the Arch Foundation and the University of Georgia Foundation.

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