Page 30 - January_2016_Life_In_Naples_Magazine

599 NINTH STREET NORTH SUITE 309 | NAPLES, FL 34102 | 239.261.2637
ASK THE ARTSPERTS NEW YORK, NEW YORK
by Juliana Meek and Kristine Meek
Dear Artspert:
Why is New York City considered the center of
the art world?
Signed,
Big Apple Art
Dear Big Apple Art,
New York City wasn’t always considered the
center of the art world. It garnered that distinction established and traditional MET. With
by 1955 from the previous destination for art
lovers – Paris, France. Paris had controlled the art it needed to take control of the art world.
scene since the advent of French Impressionism
in the 19th century. This movement was a radical
change in the way art was created and appreciated
and it is this very type of occurrence in the art
world that causes a shift not only in the artwork
but also in the geographical location of where
artists tend to congregate.
French Impressionism broke the long held
“rules” for what constituted art just the way the
New York School of “Abstract Expressionism”
did in 1951. Post-war American art struggled to
find what direction to turn after two decades of
control by the “American Regionalists” such as
Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Clarence
H. Carter, Adolf Dehn, Aaron Bohrod,
Reginald Marsh, and John Stuart Curry. By
1951 the direction was pointed forward by
the likes of Adolf Gottlieb, Franz Kline,
Mark Rothko, Jimmy Ernst, Ibram Lassaw,
Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollack, Robert
Rauschenberg and scores of others. This new
art also played a political role perfect for the
McCarthy era of anti-communist sentiment.
The communist countries of Russia, China,
and of Eastern Europe encouraged artists
to created very mundane realistic images of
workers providing for the common good.
TOP MIDDLE
“BISTRO, MADISON AVE” BY JESSICA “GAPSTOW BRIDGE, CENTRAL PARK” “THE CITY EARLY SPRING”
DARYL WINER,WATERCOLOR AND BY JOHN FALATO, OIL ON PANEL,
INK, 22” X 30” 11” X 14”, 2014
www.harmonmeek.com
While here in America, artists were free
to paint any way they chose and to break
conventional rules of art.
With this new wave of artists came
new museums and hundreds of new
art galleries, mostly centered in the
metropolitan New York City area. In
the early 1950’s, there already existed
the foundation of a few prominent
galleries that had survived depression
and war years. There were also the three
modern museums: Whitney, MOMA,
and Guggenheim along with the well-
this solid foundation, New York had all
By 1960 this new wave of artists
would be followed by successive decades-
long New York art movements which
kept attention flowing in and out of the
city. These were: “Pop art,” “Op Art,”
“Minimalism”, “Color Field,” “Photo-
realism,” and “New Realism” all in
subsequent movements since the 1960s.
New York City was the measuring stick
for all art by 1970. “If you can make it
in New York you can make it anywhere”.
Images of New York City’s varied
environment have enabled artists to
focus on whatever they liked from graffiti
art on subways and walls to paintings of
Central Park. If this inspires you to get
a taste of New York in Naples, January
11 – 22 Harmon-Meek Gallery will
have the one-women exhibition of New
York artist, Jessica Daryl Winer, as well
as a special group exhibition of paintings
depicting scenes of Central Park.
Sincerely,
The Artsperts
BOTTOM
BY BALCOMB GREENE, OIL ON CANVAS,
48” X 60”, 1979