Exhibition - Post War American Art: The Novak/O'Doherty Collection

LOCATION: Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork - a contemporary building set in the gardens of the University College.

Post War American Art: The Novak/ O’Doherty Collection

I almost missed this exhibition and it was well worth a visit, so I feel fortunate that I was able to  just catch it before it ended in early July. 

BACKGROUND: Part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s National Programme featuring a rich collection of 76 artworks - paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures and prints from the New York art scene of the 1950s and 60s. 

Brian O’Doherty, Irish artist and author and Barbara Novak, American art historian built up the collection, acquired through friendships with American artists of the 1960s and 70s and bequeathed it to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It is a story originating with O’Doherty’s frustration at the lack of access to new trends in art, for art students and the general public in 1940s and 50s Ireland, triggering his re-location from Dublin to New York.

SPACE  The exhibition was divided between two separate areas of the building. This section contained, amongst others, the first artwork (below). This was displayed in a windowless enclosed space in the centre of the building. The only natural light to enter the room was from the entrance door. The room was illuminated by low background and brighter directional lighting. To me this combination had the effect of setting up an ambience of being present in some inner sanctuary.

Jasper Johns - Hatteras

Jasper Johns Hatteras, 1963 

Lithograph 104 x 75 cm

The Novak/O’Doherty Collection

Loan, The American Ireland Fund, 2008

I focused in on a monochromatic lithographic print by Jasper Johns named Hatteras (1963) . A prominent feature of this is a semi-circular arc taking up  a large part of the left side of the picture. Its white background looks dazzling against its surrounding hazy border. The words red, yellow and blue are stenciled horizontally, on three deep horizontal bands and are partially hidden by the large arc. An imprint of a hand and a forearm – very like an x-ray image, sweep across the arc horizontally from the left side and there is a mark at the top like a long blob containing a shape, suggestive to me of another arm imprint. On the lower right hand side is a dark dense tangle of frenzied random lines, looser around the periphery where it encroaches onto the edge of the arc. Another darker limb like shape appears from the lower side of the arc into the tangle of lines. These marks contrast with the relative bright white plainness and transparency of the central area of the large background – this is where my attention is drawn to most. Johns produced a series of variations on a target theme – the target being the semi circle (also changing in design from one piece to the other) was employed frequently in his work.  


 Wolf Kahn - Sea Blue
SPACE: This strikes me as a bright airy space. It is a long curving l-shaped room with high ceilings and plain white walls.  A combination of recessed striplights and spotlights were focused on the artworks. Large floor length windows divide the display spaces giving pleasant elevated views of the trees and parkland outside. The natural theme of the painting appeared to be well suited to the setting.

wolf kahn Sea Blue, 2000

Pastel on paper 33.7 x 43.8 cm

The Novak/O’Doherty Collection

Loan, The American Ireland Fund, 2010

The first thing to catch my attention about this seascape was how isolated and anonymous it looks and could pass for many different coastal locations.

I find it quite ambiguous, in the sense that I can't make out a natural correlation between the grey overcast sky and the large section of intense blue of the sea; in a real landscape I would expect a blue sky with a bright blue sea such as this, or, with a grey sky, the sea to be much less intense in hue. There’s even what appears to be an atmospheric mist hanging over the distant bay, is it low cloud rolling in or is it reflected light from the sky? 
From the corner of  the lower left side are what could be dark shadows, carried over onto the headland.  To me these effects blend the sea, sky and land effectively, helping to draw my attention to those areas, in particular the area bordering onto the mist (or reflections) over the upper part of the sea.

The close study of this landscape has led me to ascertain that it is less about realism and more to do with an experience of colour and light. On reading a couple of articles about the artist's work, my theory perhaps isn't too unlikely.