Mark Rothko and the Development of American Modernism 1938-1948 Author(s): Jonathan Harris Source: Oxford Art Journal,

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ofAmerican Modernism Mark Rothkoand theDevelopment 1938-1948

JONATHANHARRIs

C.. . negation in thevery is inscribed ofmodpractice in whichartappearsto itself as theform as a ernism, value ... thatnegativity does not appear as a practicewhichguarantees meaningor opens out a space forfreeplay and fantasy ... but, rather, negation appears as an absolute and all-encompassing fact, which once begun is cumulativeand something a fact whichswallows uncontrollable; meaningaltogether... We have an art in which ambiguity whichis on theverge ofproposing becomesinfinite, and does propose- an Otherwhichis comfora vagueness,a mere mysticism of tably ineffable, sight.' T. J. Clark: 'ClementGreenberg's TheoryOf Art', Critical vol.9, no. 1, September 1982.1 Inquiry, 'Abstractart cannot be disposed of by a simpleminded evasion. Or by negation. We can only artby assimilating disposeofabstract it,by fighting our waythrough it.Whereto? I do notknow.Yet it seemsto me thatthewishto return to theimitation ofnaturein arthas been givenno morejustification thanthedesireofcertain ofabstract artto partisans itintopermanency.' legislate ClementGreenberg: 'TowardsA NewerLaocoon', Partisan vol. 7, no. 4,July-August Review 1940.2 'It was withthe utmost reluctance thatI foundthe could not servemy purposes... But a time figure came whennone ofus could use thefigure without it.' mutilating Mark Rothko, at thePratt Institute.3 speaking This article is an attempt toconsider and drawattention to an early 'moment' in the career of Mark Rothko,a conjuncture roughlyspanningthe ten yearsbetween1938and 1948,and as suchinvolves a consciousshifting ofscrutiny the'classic' awayfrom or paradigmatic painting producedin the 1950sand 1960s- the celebrated fields of colour' in 'floating suchworks as Untitled (1954)or Orange, RedAndRed (1962). I shallargueherethatthebasis for Rothko's later, characteristic can be found by paintings* examiningthe historicaland political contextin whichhe foundhimself from the late 1930sto the late 1940sand byconsidering theworks ofartwhich he produced duringthose years. In that ten year period it is possible to track the path Rothko followed from an (alwaysambivalent) commitment to a pictorialrealism found,for example, in his
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Subway(1930s) (Fig. 1), to the adoptionof what is commonly acceptedas his 'abstract' format, with his painting Multiform (1948) (Fig. 2). This decade contains, then, the works of the 'break', when Rothko, as he himself said in 1958,'withtheutmost reluctance' found that'thefigure could notserve' his purposes. The 1950s saw the rise of the Abstract Expressionist artists to institutional and critical dominance in America.This processwill be discussedshortly, because Rothko is generally understood bothas lone geniusand as exemplary 'colour-field' painter. The elaborationand institutionalisation of Modernist as a critical theory occurredduringthe orthodoxy 1950s and 1960s and, therefore, in the 1940s the of Rothko'sworksand ideas in various enveloping forms of Modernistexplanation was stillto occur. Indeed, Clement Greenberg, the most influential critic committed tothesupport ofartists likeJackson Pollock and MorrisLouis in the post-war period, can be foundin 1940 vacillating towards, but not necessarily arriving at, an abstract newerLaocoon.4 Althoughit is possible to agree that 'Modernism' (witha capital 'M') has a verybasic genericconas a cluster oftheories, sistency ideas and aphorisms ('art-for-art's sake', the beliefthat modern art is made forno particular social purpose,thatit exists and should be judged 'on its own terms'), this cluster is no monolith or statute: 'Modernism' draws on a myriad ofphilosophical bases,withtheoretical

Fig. 1. Mark Rothko Subwa MarkRothko.

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Fig. 2. Mark Rothko: Multiform,1948. Pace Gallery.

reflexivity rangingfromthe rhetorically 'rigorous' 'ModernistPainting'5) to the rhetori(Greenberg's callyloopy (Hilla Rebay's anticipation of the 'har- in monicconvergence' God was a Modernist her article'The Beauty Of Non-Objectivity'6). In relation to Abstract Expressionismand Mark Rothko'spaintings, threereasonably distinct forms of Modernismhave been presented and stillhold critical sway.ClementGreenberg believedthatArt should developin an almost'scientific' or 'clinical' way: modernpaintings shouldexaminethemselves as material formsand procedures,not produce 'images' of the world,but refer to themselves as unique and irreducible forms of material, cultural and cognitivecreation. Greenberg's 'technical', almostpuritanical for disregard pleasureas a necessarycomponent ofhis critical also debarred activity anyfanciful concern for themetaphysical orspiritual dimension ofArt.'Harold Rosenberg, in an influential article firstpublished in 1952, stressedthe productionprocess of those he called the 'action painters',arguingthat as a vital formof creative activity the act of applying paint involvedboth and spatialdimensions temporal and was therefore relatedto thebasic existential intimately conditions of human beings. Following Jean-Paul Sartre' s philosophicaldirection elaboratedwithinthe tortuouspagesofBeing AndN;othingness, Rosenberg saw the paintingactivity as necessarily relatedto the possibilities ofhumancreation and hencecentral to theweighty concept offreedom.8 As willbe shownin what follows, freedom became forRosenberg,for
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Rothko himselfand for many other Modernist critics and laterhistorians, definedessentially in a negative way: freedom from politics, freedom from havingto represent the world and freedomfrom whatThomas B. Hess has called 'thecollective ethos or style'.9 Apart fromthese two fairlyspecificpositions, which shared at least the idea of separatingthe activity ofpainting from thatwhichwas regarded as extraneous,a broader admixture of Modernist writings has seen Rothko's paintingsas abstract works which raise, embody or imply mystical, or transcendental metaphysical themes:the lifeof humanbeings in relation toquestions ofThe Infinite (God, Life/Death, This is certainly etc).10 the more popular articulation of Modernism,elaboratedin exhibition catalogues, coffee-table monographs and and television newspaper programmes. Withinthis ofeulogies, plethora itis significant however, to note thatelements drawnfrom Greenberg's and Rosenberg's seminal essay have some place, and again tendto stress thenatureofRothko'spainting as an autonomous process and product.As a teeming pond of ideas, then, Modernism constitutes the dominantmode of understanding modernart and Rothko'swork.Though diverseand in no sense a coherentor intended project,Modernism is the model or paradigm on which most explanatory critics, curators and arthistorians drawto describe and evaluateRothko'spaintings and thoseofother Abstract artists. Expressionist This article is an attempt notonlytolocatehistoricallyand politically the conjuncture whichsaw the developmentof the negativemodels of freedom impliedin Modernist criticism, but also to explain Rothko'srejection offiguration and his adoptionof theabstract withwhichhe is now dominantly style associated. It will become clear that these two are closelyrelated, developments thoughI wantto stresstheir particularhistoricalcontiguity rather than any necessary or a priori theoretical articulation. The transcendent, and univermetaphysical salisingqualities attributed to Rothko'spaintings, and recently in writers eulogised bypastand present the catalogue forthe Tate GalleryRothkoexhibition,must also be seen as the productsof a very particularhistoricaland social moment in the of the Americanavant-garde." history That 'transcendence',so exaltedby Modernist historians and was thetranscendence critics, ofa particular political and ideological conjuncture, where what was at stakewas the possibility and desirability ofartand artists and organisationally beingexplicitly engaged in politicalstruggle of and debate. The attraction thistranscendence to themiddleclass has been well characterised byT. J.Clark: The bourgeoisie has a smallbutconsiderable interest, I believe, in preserving a certain myth of the aesthetic consciousness, one where a transcendental ego is given something appropriate to contemplate in a situation
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of anddeformities the pressures from detached essentially because theclassin is considerable Thatinterest history. areas(sincethedeclineofthe has fewother question and sacred) in which its accountof consciousness phrased."2 canbe at all compellingly freedom Rothko's career,ratherthan being rehearsedad can achievement, spiritual as a triumphant nauseam and from theruinsoftheSocialist be seenas a retreat in Americain thelate 1930s Communist opposition as ofcorporate capitalism thefinal victory and from developsocialand historical ofAmerican themotor celebrationof 'American ment. The chauvinistic by Modernistcriticsand Abstract Expressionism' historians and of Mark Rothko's location within of the Cold War and the U.S. that,in the context dominanceof the economic,politicaland military ofwhatwe contradiction 'Free World',was a direct know of Rothko's and JacksonPollock's political and hostile whichhad been anti-nationalist beliefs, society.13 and dominanceofcapitalist to theinterest politicsof that to recoverthe specific To attempt and 'moment'in the 1940sand to relatetheculture politicsof the Depressionto thatof the Cold War the historical reasons may enable us to understand the the of and dream 'unhistorical', idea why the so became the transcendental 'timeless' and of previously politicallyappealingto a generation in America. committed artists The so-called 'Triumphof AmericanPainting', announcedby IrvingSandlerin 1970 was, in fact, and institutional domiof the critical the triumph nance of Abstract Expressionism,both as an 'high', ModernistAmericanstyleand as 'official', for a universal and international thelatest paradigm for condition One necessary modernartmovement. ascenand military thiswas the economic, political the Second World dencyofthe United Statesafter theinauguration ofNew York War,whichpermitted capitalforthe avant-garde Cityas the international economic and the hub ofmodernart'sproduction, legitiexhibition and critical institutional exchange, The dominance of American Abstract mation.14 Expressionism,produced through such crucial facilitating agenciesas the Museum ofModernArt (MOMA), the Guggenheim Museum and the of BettyParsons,Sam Kootz and dealing galleries workduring (whoall handledRothko's SidneyJanis whatmight appearto the 1940sand 1950s)involved be a paradox. On the one hand, Abstract ExpresAmericanart, sionismwas hailed as a distinctly 'declineofcubism'15 about by theterminal brought of European artists.On the other and therefore ofa as thedevelopment hand,itwas also celebrated ofany independent styleand sensibility Modernist nation.It was seen both as the glorious particular of American of an indigenoustradition flowering of and as the latestinstantiation Modernistartists Paradoxicalalso is avant-garde. the trans-national PaintoftheTriumphofAmerican thepresentation ing both as an undeniableZeitgeis1, a teleological
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and yetalso as a happyand unexpected imperative, Emily result of the collision of circumstances. thislatter emphasiswell: Wasserman represents tobelieve have beenfarfetched Intheearly 1900sitwould be American artwould that within fifty years a distinctly audience.16 byan international accepted andadmired Whatwas impliedin thisprocessoftheacceptance, by Europe, of the arrivalof American Abstract of as the next authenticgeneration Expressionists Modernist artists? 'Acceptance'meansboth'to take willingly'and 'to concede'. The acquiring of 'consent'can be a messybusiness.The conceptof Antonio bytheItalianMarxist hegemony developed Gramscientailedthe processof securingconsent, for bothrhetorical persuasion and coercion, through a particularidea or end. Laws are proposed as ofrespect); yetin theabsenceof reasonable(worthy For Gramsci, compliancetheymust be enforced. whicha was a politicalprocessthrough hegemony socialclass 'nationalises' itself: whena set particular of specific economic,social and ideologicalvalues and beliefsbelongingto a particular class, whose material interests they serve, are generalisedas interests within a particular 'national'or 'universal' or dominating In replacing the values and society. beliefsof otherclasses, those that are generalised become hegemonic: represented and believedto be 'in the national interest'and constituting what Gramscicalled a 'commonsense'.17 This is what happened to American Abstract the 'New York School' and Mark Expressionism, Rothko's paintings:propagatedby MOMA, the and booksofarthistorians, of thewritings catalogues the sales pitch of dealer galleries, and, as critics, recent historicalresearch has shown, the tacit economicsupport ofC.I.A. backedagencieslikethe arts magazine Encounter and the more open of the State Abstract U.S. Department, patronage was as Expressionism represented theparadigmatic high Moderniststyleof the 'Free West' afterthe to the censorCounterposed Second WorldWar.18 ofSovietSocialist Realism banality shipand stylistic enforcedby Stalin after 1934, the paintingsof Rothko, Pollock,de Kooningand Newmanbecame 'weapons of the Cold War', vehiclesfor cultural and signsof 'cultural The democracy'.19 diplomacy involvement of the C.I.A. is discussedin detailby David and Cecile Shapiro: mostheavily Abstract becamethestyle Expressionism for reasons that U.S.] government, dispensed byour[the in a 1967 were in part W. Braden byThomas explained thetitle 'I'm GladTheC.I.A. that appeared under article' for a executive secretary oftheMuseum OfModern Art short period inthelate1940s, joinedtheCentral Intelligence Agency as supervisor ofcultural activities in 1951, and remained as director of thisbranchuntil1954. Recognising that congressional approval ofmany oftheir projects wasas likely 'as the John Birch society's approvTHE OXFORD ART JOURNAL-

is Immoral' in the Saturday Evening Post . .. Braden,

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of his the 'mystery' Rothko's case in particular, Rothko's paintings seem to exlude paintings.23 polysemy,their ontological and epistemological Cold War against communismhere and abroad ... wherehave theycome from? ineffable: significance cue fromhis Braden,possiblytakinghis aesthetic Rothko's What does theirdense opacityrepresent? of theexport supported years, MuseumofModemArt ofeither theprisms readthrough paintings, post-war Abstract Expressionismin the propaganda war ... existentialistaesthetic or Rosenberg's Harold totheC.I.A. and supportive available bymoney Backed Clement Greenberg's rigorous formalism still becamea branch Braden's Expressionism, ofAbstract and unyielding: remain- to most - mysterious abroad and sending Congress meansofcircumventing profound and meaningless; and meaningful intervention.20 federal without art-as-propaganda vacuous; activeand immobile;an openingand a to showhis reluctance well-known closure. Rothko's through critics, because he thought partly In this respect the paintingsand individualistic paintings, weremade oftheAbstract Expressionists triedto 'fix'and close theirsignifistatements theirwritings, Marshallplan', an to form partoftheU.S. 'cultural cance, can be explained more adequately by designed to complementthe ideologicaloffensive examining the political and historical context whichtheU.S. intervention Expressionists) and financial Abstract Rothko(and other industrial wherein the dynamise topropup and eventually orchestrated opted for,were propelled toward and came to withwhichhe capitalistnations of WesternEurope against the painting 'accept' thetypeofabstract ofNew In the context threats (and promises) of Soviet communism.21 and theyare now identified. oftheWest', FreeStyle as the'universal the Represented York between1938 and 1948 can be identified the large agitatedcanvassesofJacksonPollock or circumstances which led Rothko to say, in his of colourbecame emblems fields Rothko'sfloating statement entitled 'The Romantics Were beacons ofliberalAmerican society: ofthefreedom Prompted': and creative unfettered activity of individualism, in has to be pulverised ofthings The familiar identity risk, proposedas possibleonlyin a truedemocracy. our with which associations thefinite to destroy order That the U.S. Governmentinvolved itselfin ofourenvironment.24 enshrouds every aspect society variousopen or tacitways withthe rise to instituExprestional and criticaldominanceof Abstract associationsand the familiar What were the finite sionism is now relativelywell-known- this identityof things which Rothko wished to see of Abstract revisionist period in the historiography as comforAre theyto be understood pulverised? was largelyconfinedto the midExpressionism ofan abstract an abstract rejection tablyunspecific, HiltonKramer, artcritic Times 1970s.The New rork tangible social and historical world,or as minutely on thewriters and relatedto be situation an attack launched also predictably, had foundthemartists betweenthe U. S. who addressedthe relationship onwards? themid-1930s selvesin from and on the artists Expressionist Stateand Abstract and 'risk',celebrated 'freedom' existentialist The magazine,whereMax editorialboard of Artforum been grasped more had by Harold Rosenberg, Kozloff and Eve Cockcroft'sarticles appeared. of as a situation Clement Greenberg by accurately Kramer's riposte, entitled 'Muddled Marxism that in alienation. argued Writing 1948,Greenberg thoughpredictat Artforum', replacesArtCriticism is to itself, nakedand revealed alienation, 'isolation, A handfulof a polemic.22 able, was too vociferous of our true which the under age reality thecondition in an artsmagazine,and eventhe publicaarticles is experienced... Isolation is, so to speak, the book in 1983,was tionof SergeGuilbaut'slengthy This was ofhighartin America.'25 condition natural unlikely to destabilize critical and institutional a positionclose to the one Rothkoalso adopted in - as theTate Gallery's exhibition recent orthodoxy 1948: And in any case, the and cataloguedemonstrates. of revisionist argument left intact the leitmotif is difficult for tohisactivity ofsociety The unfriendliness orthocritical and Modernist Abstract Expressionist Yetthis canactas a lever toaccept. theartist hostility very doxy in general:the beliefthat the value of these ofsecurity and from a false sense Freed for true liberation. indepenabsolutely worksofartcan be established hisplastic bank theartist canabandon book, community, were whichthey within ofsecurity.26 other forms ofthecircumstances dently justas he hasabandoned and acclaim.If support producedand gainedcritical The Rothkotwo specific things. value (or 'quality') is, within Modernist terms, 'Society'meantfor to socialor historical whatcould be called thedouble unrelated explanation twosensesindicate logically genealogywhich linksa in the period 1938 to 1948 alienationwhichhe felt -save with a formalist on witha Mondrianor a Matissefrom In thelate 1930s,Rothko,employed Rothkopainting (and after). member an active who are seen as constiofartists theNew Deal FederalArtproject, earliergenerations -then addinga few pantheon theModernist tuting of the Artists'Union and the AmericanArtists' the involving determinations (perhaps) surprising Congress against Racism and Fascism, holding not one beliefs,was involvedin a prounsettled socialist-anarchist C.I.A. or the State Department and in ofquality oftherecognition iotathecertainty longed argumentwith and against the organised with suchorganisahe becameinvolved ingMedicare', of Labour Researchand the tions as the Institute intheAmerican as fronts ofChurches Council National
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Left's advocacy of socialistrealism as the proper painting, as stylisticvehicle for revolutionary dictated by the Comintem and representedin the Americaby the editorial positionof ArtFront, thisradical oftheArtists' Union. Within newspaper ofleft-wing groupsand and artistic 'society' political Rothkofoundhimself, along withother affiliations, at odds with Stalinistpolitical artists, profoundly Ten yearslater,in 1948, and culturalorthodoxy.27 Rothko along withPollock,Newman and Gottlieb, transfixed was apparently by the threatof worldwide nuclear annihilationand by the gathering in America.28 ofanti-subversive momentum hysteria of speech, of painting- of The verypossibility at all, in this communication adequate referential context- was feltto be jeopardized. Pollock's drawing War (1946 or 1947) was one of the last works beforehis celebrated'drip' period, which or conventional imagery contained anyrecognisable BetweenaboutJune 1947 and spatialcomposition. 18, de Kooning April1948 RothkopaintedNumber in 26A,1948,paintings and PollockNumber Painting ofrepresentaor iconiccontent whichthereferential tionwas expunged.In 1947the U.S. StateDepartofEducationhad announcedits'Zeal ment'sOffice in August For AmericanDemocracy'programme; the American Federation of Teachers produced and counter how to understand showing pamphlets At ofworldcommunism'.29 'the strategy and tactics about the same timeJ. Edgar Hoover and Tom thesoorganised Clark,theU.S. Attorney-General, called 'Freedom Train', a patrioticmuseum-onwheels touringthe nation, to coincide with the coming electionin 1948. The day that Congress debated the implementationof the Truman Marshall Plan, the National Guard conducted a a 'lobbying' bombingraid on Washington, practice to makethemilitary's viewpoint designed technique obvious. Guilbaut on the matterof U.S. security arguesthatalthoughRothko'sand Pollock's work it was intended to be expressive was non-figurative, about the stateof the of a subjective state:anxiety worldin the nuclearage.30 Loathingthe groupsof uncritical artists who had moved towardsa totally theSecond for theU.S. Government during support mounting WorldWar and the nationalchauvinism to theuse Rothko'sresort after thewar in America, forhis paintings oftitles to ancientmyths referring from Antigone (Fig. 3), in 1941,was partofa strategy contemto transcend the oppressive forattempting Rothko's porarypoliticaland ideologicalcontext.31 in what was expressed sense ofpersonaloppression amounts to a plea in 'The Romantics Were 'It really ofendingthissilence is a matter Prompted': one's arms ofbreathing and stretching and solitude, again.' At about the same time as Rothko wrotethis, Rene d'Harnoncourt,curatorat the Museum of Modern Art,announcedthathe regardedmodern Democracy symbolofAmerican artas theforemost -a symbol of 'infinitevariety'and 'ceaseless
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>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~iO

Private collection. Fig. 3. Mark Rothko:Antigone.

32 The senseofimmobility, constriction exploration'. and mutenesswhich Rothko and othersfeltwas being presentedby d'Harnoncourtand later by curatorsand historians, as an many othercritics, indexofthehealth , vitality and optimism ofthenow most powerful nation-state on earth.It is no coincidence that the hegemony of high American modernism and its internationalising critical doctrine celebrating the fecund creativityof U.S. democracywas accompanied by the simultaneoushegemony ofArthur Schlesinger's politicalliberalism and the structural-functionalist sociology of Talcott Parsons , which extolledthe virtuesof integrationand harmony, with the American nation-state as theculmination of again represented world historyand civilisation.33 D'Harnoncourt's article perhaps representsthe firstinstitutional validation of modernism's critical in the hegemony UnitedStates, thevalidation whichwas to empower materially throughthe dealing and curatorial - thebelief ofmuseumsand artgalleries practices thatAbstract Artequalled Freedom. Donderoe vowed tohwec aeemny orgnsto ifg Aeitcad If the coupling of Moderism with American anmommunists amongt intsemembers,leveng ciftheyl nationalism thevehicleofAbstract through Expressionism a hecoplanned state of upmthe are. undentified' wand to 'clea affairs, represents paradoxical the historical claims to given avant-garde's neutrality evenopen and to national eniefieald,t including thihejr system'.35 the the vru.s.o chauvinism, hostility situation was further confused the fact that while by d'Harnoncourtwas celebratingAbstractExpresGovce ernms epeent's formalrs invstigationaolCmuns sionism's essential 'democratic' nature, other members ofthe government, such as Congressman abstract artas George Dondero,werecondemning 'shackledto communism'.34The idea thatmodern art was alien and therefore subversive had been a and artists belief heldconsistently byartcritics going in backtothefirst showings ofEuropeanmodernism

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in America, whichhad started withtheFish activity in 1931,had alwaysbeen intimately Committee tied The of culturalorganisations. to the investigation Dies Committee,which became the House UnCommitteeafterthe Second American Activities World War, investigated communistswho were activein the New Deal Federal Music, reportedly and ArtProjects in the late 1930s, Theatre,Writing thesigning ofthe activeafter and became especially Nazi-SovietPact in August 1939. Those investigationsand 'publicidentifications' (prosecutions being as being a memberof the Communist impossible, Partywas nevermade illegal) of supposed subversives withinthe Federal Art Project - of which Rothkowas an employee- eventually contributed to the discrediting and abolitionof the Projectin 1942, although it was effectively destroyed as nationalschemein 1940.36 The eventsin New York around the FederalArt Project,the Museum of Modem Art,the Artists' Union, the American Artists'Congress and the newspaperArtFrontin the late 1930s providethe other context for Rothko'ssocialand understanding political alienation. Withtheend oftheFederalArt Project, mostofRoosevelt's New Deal policieswere superceded by national productionfor the war It was emphatically effort. this re-energisation of private corporate capitalism (especially weaponsand munitionsproduction, subcontracted by the U.S. Government), rather than Roosevelt's Stateinterventionist 'New Deal' policies, deployedduring the 1930s,whichled to the economicrecovery and then supremacyof the USA afterthe war.37 The American Artists' ofwhichRothkowas a Congress, had attempted to support member, boththeFederal Art Project and what it regardedas the socialist 'state-managerial' aspectsoftheNew Deal, whileat thesame timecomingto terms withthedominance of Stalinismboth in the SovietUnion and in the communist ofwestern parties Europe and America. WithRoosevelt'sdefactocapitulation to the power and interests of corporatecapitalismand to the right-wing's mordantattackson the New Deal's welfare programmes- and especially on the ofcultural funding activity through the FederalArt Project - the American Artists'Congress was slammed as a Stalinistcoterieand in 1940 split over the issue of supportforthe Soviet internally invasionof Finland,the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Moscow show-trials of 'the LeftOpposition', and a host of otherissues with rockedthe organisedAmericanLeft.38 The supportforSoviet socialist realist in Americaalso came under painting attack: the politicaland artistic orthodoxy establishedby the Comintern, controlled from Moscow, was assailed both by the rightwing and by the followers ofTrotsky in America. Therewerestrident calls forthe 'return to the aesthetic', forthe end of whatwas called 'social painting' and for theartist to createwithout constraining reference or adherence to politics, ideology, nationalism or anything else.39
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which the artistwas supposed to This freedom, conditionforthe proexperienceas the authentic as ductionofGreatArtand whichis stillcelebrated the conditionenabling Rothko to paint, was an and relative sortoffreedom. It historical extremely theconstraints from of ofartists meantthereleasing the AmericanArtists Conthe FederalArtProject, gress and the AmericanCommunistParty.This to return the artist to the so'release' was intended in other tothepatronage called'free market'; words, This was the and entrepreneurs. ofthecorporations Rothkofoundhimself in after 1940. situation inthelate and affiliations beliefs Rothko's political terra 1930s and early 1940s are still relatively into refer to cognita, thoughit is commonforwriters him as an 'anarchist'and even more common for to point out his historians modernist committed to socialist realism.' It is knownthathe opposition Union,thathe was an activememberoftheArtists' and agitated attended alongwith monthly meetings theCityofNew Yorkto build a JacksonPollockfor to showtheworksoffederally municipalartgallery Rothko also attackedthe newsemployedartists. because ofwhathe saw as itsslavish paperArt Front devotion to Stalinist cultural dogma. He was partof theAmerican a dissident Artists' Congroupwithin ofdebateon gress whichcalledfor a greater diversity both political and artisticissues. Led by Meyer arthistorian thenteaching Schapiro,theTrotskyite at Columbia University in New York, the group Adolph includedother artists suchas MiltonAvery, and the de Gottlieb, Jose Creft,Ilya Bolotowsky 4 writer Lewis Mumford. On April1940theAmerican Artists' Congresspassed a motionsupporting the U.S.S.R.'s invasion ofFinland.Large groupsof and writers, artists bothin and outsidetheAmerican from theCongressand Communist Party, resigned Gottlieband Rothkocalled for Avery, Bolotowsky, ofa neworganisation. Two months later thecreation the Federationof Modern Paintersand Sculptors was createdand, in an inauguralstatement, condemned any artistic nationalism as detrimental to of modernart.41 the development The splitin the Congress was to some degree engineered and encouragedby PeytonBoswell, the editorof Art Digestmagazine,who forsome monthshad been pressuring thosehe regarded as the'trueliberals'to takecontrol from thosehe calledthe'artpoliticians'. Boswell singled out the artistsStuart Davis and JeromeKlein as 'Stalinists' and he claimedthatthe American Artists' undertheir leadership, Congress, comparedwiththe Ku Klux Klan. Boswell linked togetherthe production of 'experimental'and 'progressive' by which he meant abstractto artists withtheir need fora 'liberalorganisation' paintlook after their interests. This 'experimental' because it ingwas defined as authentic artprecisely excludedpolitical reference. Boswellclaimed: bytheAmerican The 'social democratic' paintings shown might be just Artists' Congress at their lastexhibition
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Art?42 butarethey ratic,

that,but are theyArt?... They may be everso democ-

to thatheld by similar a position This was probably Rothko at about the same time, but Rothko's like that of Jackson Pollock and committment, nonBarnettNewman, was to a non-doctrinal, to be emintendedby the artists realistpainting, blematic of an anti-State capitalist and thatRothkosupIt is likely politics. anti-totalitarian called in the 1938 manifesto portedthe arguments by Art', written 'Towards a Free, Revolutionary Leon Trotskyand Andre Breton, aided by the A Diego Rivera.43 Mexican artistand communist year later, in August 1939, Clement Greenberg a neofrom position thispolitico-aesthetic theorised Trotskyiteperspective,in his influentialessay In thishe arguedthat and Kitsch'.44 'Avant-Garde providedthe only art and the avant-garde abstract elementin a world threacriticaland progressive massculture, poisonsofcapitalist tenedbythetriple Communism. Stalinist Soviet Fascism and German however, for cultural orthodoxy, Rothko'scontempt socialist at doctrinal directed was not uniquely to writers tend Modernist aesthetics,although Cultural of the As co-chairman it thisway. present Committeeof the Federationof Modern Painters to wrote and AdolphGottlieb Rothko and Sculptors, inJune 1943: theNewrorkTimes andonly that is crucial subject that thesubject We assert insult beliefs itmust embodies those ifourwork quently to interior decoration, attuned whois spiritually anyone of over themantle, pictures of pictures thehome, pictures socialpictures, prizepurity-in-art, theAmerican Scene, theWhitney Academy, theNational winning potboilers, trite tripe, theCorn-Belt buckeyes, Academy, Academy, etc.45 of Boswell,and laterthatofd'HarThe liberalism order was of a different and Schlesinger, noncourt rejectionof both from Rothko's comprehensive and politics. aesthetics and regionalist nationalist Rothko also rejectedand scorned the Similarly, as 'aesthetic to whathe regarded committed artists formalism',those belonging to the American in 1936. formed Artists Abstract group, validaacceptanceand critical The institutional was no autopaintings tion of Rothko'spost-war as suchin itis often presented maticprocess, though The declineof art.46 ofAmerican histories standard 'social painting' and the appearance and then dominance of abstractart has been presentedin Yet whatin as an inevitability. Modernist retrospect fact characterisedcritical discourse in America theSecond WorldWar was a duringand evenafter strongbelief in what can be called 'democratic of prescription to stylistic : a resistance eclecticism' evil of totalitarian any sort,seen as the particular societies.For a period betweenthe dominanceof Expres1930s 'social painting'and 1950sAbstract
46 is valid which is tragicand timeless... Consematter

sionism,'Good Art' was not identified in termsof stylistic regularities, formal devices or gestural predelictions. 'Good Art' was considered to be definedin termsof the presenceof skilland technique and could be identified in any style. Forbes Watson,the editorof TheAmerican Magazine ofArt, arguedin 1939: The pureabstractionist, thebitter urbancommentator, themanwhogoesbackto thefarm, mayall be equally goodandequally bad as artists.47 NathanielPousette-Dart, writing in the magazine ArtandArtists of Todayin June 1940,said thatthe choiceofanyone style wouldreduceAmerica to the condition ofGermany or theSovietUnion: is atthemoment ina very America condition for healthy thatit has no one individual thevery reason or group it.InAmerica, theartists still have of freedom dominating wemust anditistheonething expression toretain48 fight Two yearslater,the CityArtMuseum in St Louis, called Trends in Missouri,organisedan exhibition American Painting of Today.The catalogue author no less than seven claimed to be able to identify different in AmericanArt:'realism','romanstyles ticism', 'expressionism', 'fantasy', 'surrealism', This diversity was 'abstraction' and 'primitivism'. ofAmerican as thedefining proclaimed feature art, an 'inescapabletruth about theAmerican painting', to the 'individuality' of the artist. relating directly the abolitionof the FederalArt Only monthsafter we hear thatthe artist 'createsforhis own Project, sake and forthosewho follow him,but he does not sake'.49 paintfor society's There is, then,in the early 1940sin America,a betweencoupling critical discourse whichoscillates and uncouplingpoliticalliberalismwith abstract itself art:howa democracy shouldrepresent (toboth its own citizensand to the outsideworld)is, fora socialist while,indeterminate. Opposed to doctrinal abstract artcan be represented as a symbol realism, of freedom and choice. But at the same time,the withabstraction is articulation of U.S. democracy witha diverse'equality'of tempered by its linking The resistance to different of representation. styles in Americahad also been a tradistylistic orthodoxy to the development of an indigetional resistance nous Modernism:whatThomas Hart Bentonhad in called 'Ellis Island Art'.50 American highculture themid1940sis thuspulledtwoways- backto the 'New Deal' and America'sparochial, domestic selfand forward examination to the 'Great Society'of the 1950s and America'srepresentation of itself as thesignoftheFreeWorld. The Museum ofModernArtitself, thepantheon of European 'Moderns' in the 1930s,was not sure about the possibility of an authenticmodern art emerging in America. Alongwithsocialist organisationslikethe American Artists' Congress, MOMA
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supported the continuationof the Federal Art Projectand believed itsabolition would be a serious blowtoAmerican culture.5" It can be argued,in fact, that MOMA activelyignored and discouraged Americanmodernist artists in the 1930s.Excluding anyindigeneous artists from the Cubism AndAbstract Artshowin 1935and leavingout theabstract paintings and designs submittedby federalartists - for including some laterAbstract Expressionists theNewHorizons In American Artshowthefollowing theMuseum's attitude year, provoked theAmerican Abstract Artists groupto picket and leaflet theinstitution in 1940.In theprevious year,MOMA's Art in Our Time exhibitionhad presentednineteenthcentury Americanartists, and a fewfrom the early twentieth, along with works by Picasso, Braque, Leger and otherEuropean artists. As late as 1948 mostcritics preferred whatwas called a 'moderate' form ofmodernart- comfortably 'School ofParis'; Emily Wasserman's Best of Art index, which publishedselectedworksfrom among 50,000considered, includednotone from Newmanor Rothko, Gottlieb.Artistswho are now firmly located as primarily 'pre-war',such as Philip Evergoodand Stuart Davis,wereincludedinstead.52 While the AmericanAbstract Artists grouphad

been formed in 1936,Rothkohad helpedto organise another groupcalled 'The Ten' in theprevious year. This included de Kooning, Gorky,Pollock and Gottlieb.Known also as the 'Whitney dissenters', theTen gainedthereputation ofbeingrevolutionary outcasts, despisingboth the art establishment and the social realist left orthodoxy alike. Rothko'sown 1930s canvases - those that survived the massive destruction of Federal Art Projectwork - show murky, rather indeterminate interiors and studies of attenuated figures, done in a loosely'expressionist' mode and resembling,in mood, the urbanalienationscenesofEdward Hopper and the Soyer Brothers. A recurrent and popularthemeat thetime with New Yorkartists was thesubwayscene(Fig. 4), showing alienated figures moving pastor standing in Like Interior doorwaysor stationplatforms. (1932) (Fig. 5), theyare as sombreand rectilinear as his post-warabstractions. Along with the artistsBalcombeGreeneand GeorgeMcNeil,Rothkohad agitatedfor Art toconfront Front aesthetic debatesmore openly and especiallyto considerthe issues surrounding abstract art.According to Dore Ashton: Rothkoloathed everything that smackedof social realism; fulminated against suchfavoured as Joe figures

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Estate of Mark Fig. 5. Mark Rothko: Interior. Rothko. he regarded as little and William whom Gropper, Jones better than cartoonists.53 Boswell,from ArtDigestmagazine,also argued,in December 1939, that the so-called 'proletarian underofa proper school'was misled.In thepursuit ofrealism thedanger ofRothko'srejection standing intothe to avoid is thatofcollapsinghis opposition by Boswelland later propagated politicalliberalism and historians. of modernist critics by generations Rothko's political position at this time can be antilibertarianism, describedas an anti-capitalist a rejectionof Soviet Comstatistand involving corporate GermanFascismand American munism, capitalism.54 in his painting Rothko'sadoptionof abstraction from 1948 onwards was not equivalent to the abandoningof 'content'.As he argued in the New rorkTimes: aboutnothing as a goodpainting Thereis no suchthing
... This is theessenceofacademicism.55

whichdenieda range another position as a 'content' of possiblefigurations. Backed intoa corner, away fromthe dead ends of socialistrealism and the dominant cultural formsof American capitalist to and acceptanceofwhat society Rothko'sconsent such as Orange became his classicabstract painting, Andrellow (1956),can be seenas theconsequenceof 'a a radical negation of other,arid alternatives: of negation and refusal... not an unstrategy reasonable response to bourgeois civilisation'.57 With the decline in 'democraticeclecticism'in painting and criticismin America during the period 1938 to 1948 and the later institutional empowerment of a de-politicised 'aesthetic and Rothko's discourse',AbstractExpressionism paintings achieved dominance and paradigm not as a formalist status.Modernist theory, purism in the 1960s,but developedby ClementGreenberg ramblas a heterogeneous, aphoristic, tautological, achieved ing,metaphysical, eulogistic hagiography unconthelevelofa 'commonsense': conventional, tentiouscriticaland humanistwisdom, as deepseated as our convictionthat the earth rotates around the sun. By 1939 Boswell was arguingthat Europe had to the long 'tossedthe torchofcreative experiment In February of extendedhand ofAmericanartists'. to aesthefollowing yearhe announced'the return Tower did have itspoints'.58 thetics': 'thatold Ivory theRightand theMiddle, Artwas to be for theLeft, and themiddleclasshad thebesttastein Art.Moreover,it had the buyingpower.NationalArtWeek in 1940and in 1941 replacedtheFederalArtProject ofI.B.M. corporaThomasJ. Watson,thepresident tion, took over as chairman.The artistElizabeth in 1973,said thatit Olds, speakingin an interview was around thistimethatartists began to 'smudge a recogthatrepresented outanypartoftheir picture nisable object. That would be illustration, they said.'59As earlyas 1938 Chaning Pollock,the art critic forTheAmerican declared: The true want artist doesn't to be encouraged. He is an internal combustion engine. For everygreat artist I'll show produced byspoonfeeding, you500whofound their ownnourishment.60 In 1941, Rothko'sAntigone, the first of the Greek myth paintings,arguably began the flight from realist representation and sethimon theroad to the classiccolour-field paintings, thetranscendent pools oflight he was to paintuntilhis deathin 1970.From - Omen titles archetype Of TheEagle,Synran Bull Rothko'sprogressive expulsionof representational specificity was indexed throughthe designation Untitled and thenby serialnumbers and colours. A timehad come,Rothkosaid, when'none ofus could use the figure withoutmutilating it'.61 The passingoftheFederalArtProject and thepassingof figuration in the workofRothkoand otherAmerican artistsin the 1940s constituted a somewhat
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Five years later, in 'The Romantics Were his forms in paint Prompted', he said thatalthough anyparticular visible 'haveno direct association with and theprinciple experience, in themone recognises passion of organisms'.56 What can be called by vitalism', whichis supported Rothko's'aesthetic through which the popular 'modernist metaphysic' his paintingsare understood,can be seen from
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ambiguous and empty'triumph',both for thousandsofartists wholostall economicsecurity and for the AbstractExpressionists, those one-timedissidents,soon to be installedand institutionalised as theofficial, high-cultural producers oftheascendant American Empire.

Notes
1. Clark's articleand the debate that followedbetweenhim and Michael Friedis includedin theanthology Pollock e After: TheCritical Debate, edited by Francis Frascina, Harper & Row, London, 1985 pp. 47-88. 2. Also publishedin theabove anthology, pp. 35-46. 3. First published in an article byDore Ashton in The NewYork Times, 31 October 1958.This and otherstatements by Rothkoare includedin theTate Gallery catalogueMarkRothko, London, 1987,pp. 76-89. 4. See note2. 5. First published in Arts Yearbook, no. 4, 1961.This is includedin the anthology Modern Art & Modernmsm, edited by Charles Harrisonand FrancisFrascina,Harper& Row, London, 1982,pp. 5-10. 6. Firstpublished as an exhibition catalogue forthe Solomon R. collectionof non-objective Guggenheim 1937. This is also paintings, includedin theanthology Modern Art& Modernzsm, pp. 145-148. 7. Greenberg was little interested in the subjectivity oftheartists he as significant. This is perhaps regarded illustrated byhisstatement at the end of the Open University 'Modern Art & Modernism' television interview whenhe observed that'Pollockwas fullofshit,likeeveryone else.' 8. Rosenberg's article,'The AmericanAction Painters' was first vol.51, December 1952. This is reprinted in publishedin ArtNeews, Harold Rosenberg:The Tradition ofthe New,Horizon,New York,1959. 9. In De Kooning, New York,1959,p. 36. GeorgeBraziller, 10. One ofthemoreinteresting accountswithin thisrubric is Robert Rosenblum's TheNorthern Romantic From Tradztion: Friedrich To Rothko, Thames and Hudson, London, 1975. 11. Arguably, the Tate Gallery'sreproduction of critical articles by RobertGoldwaterand David Silvester, in 1961,demonstrates written thatnot onlyRothko'spaintings but also their'proper'sensitive interare regarded and evaluation as 'timeless' and unchanging. pretation 12. T.J. Clark:'Arguments A ReplyTo Michael AboutModernism: Fried',first publishedin ThePolztzcs editedby W. J. T. ofInterpretation, ofChicago Press,Chicago and London, 1983.This Mitchell, University articlein also included in the anthology The Critical Pollock e After: Debate, pp. 81-88. 13. As Pollock said in 1947: 'The idea of an isolated American so popularin thiscountry painting, duringthe 1930s,seemsabsurdto mejust as theidea ofcreating a purely orphysics American mathematics wouldseemabsurd. . . thebasic problems ofcontemporary painting are ofanycountry'; includedin theanthology editedbyH. B. independent Art: A SourceBook by Artzsts Chipp: Theorzes of Modern e Critics, ofCalifornia and Los Angeles,1968,p. 546. University Press,Berkeley 14. See SergeGuilbaut'slengthy ofthisprocess,HowNew York study Stole the Ideaof Modern Art: Freedom Abstract ColdWar, Expressionism, e the ofChicago Press,Chicago & London, 1983. University 15. This was thetitle ofClementGreenberg's 1948article, published in Partzsan Review vol. 15,no. 3, March 1948. 16. EmilyWasserman: TheAmerican Scene: EarlyTwentzeth Century, New York,1975,p. 1. Lamplight, 17. For a seriesofinteresting and different accountsoftheworkand of Gramsci'sideas, see Chantal Mouffe significance (ed.): Gramsci e Marxzst Theory, Routledge& Kegan Paul, London, 1979. 18. A collectionof articlesdealingwiththisprocessis includedin Pollock TheCritical e After: Debate, pp. 89-183. 19. See Eva Cockcroft's article'Abstract Expressionism, Weapon Of The Cold War', in theabove anthology, pp. 125-133. 20. David and Cecile Shapiro'Abstract The Politics Expressionism: of ApoliticalPainting',first publishedin Prospects 3, edited by Jack Salzman,1977,and includedin theabove anthology.
TIlE

21. See Christopher Lasch's article, 'The Cultural Cold War: A Short History oftheCongress For CulturalFreedom',in theanthology edited byBartonJ. Bernstein: Towards A Neew Past:Dissenting Essays inAmerican New York,1969,pp. 322-359. History, Vintage, 22. Publishedin TheNewrorkTimes, 21 December1975. 23. The relationship between theworks ofRothko and other Abstract Expressionist artists and the involvement of the C.I.A. is not a simple causal one. Attackson the attemptsto link the two have usually in accusingthosewho asserta definite consisted relationship ofholding to a 'conspiracy theC.I.A. 'planned' or evencommistheory' whereby sioned artists to produceabstract paintings forcovert use by the U.S. State.This is damagingly to caricature theaccountsand arguments put and others.For a difficult forward by Cockcroft thoughenlightening oftheproblem ofcausationin relation toworks ofart,see Art discussion & Language: 'Portrait Of V. I. Lenin', in the anthology Modernism, editedby CharlesHarrisonand Fred Orton,Harper Criticism, Realism, & Row, London, 1984,pp. 145-169. 24. FromRothko's in 1947,republished statement in theTate Gallery catalogue, pp. 83-4. 25. From 'The SituationAt The Moment',Partisan Review vol. 15, no. 1;January1948,pp. 81-84. 26. From'The Romantics WerePrompted', op cit. 27. For an informative accountofRothko'sactivities in the 1930s, see Dore Ashton's About Rothko, Oxford University Press,New York,1983. thefirst three ofSergeGuilbaut'sHow 28. See, in particular, chapters & the NewYork Stole the IdeaofModern Art: Abstract Freedom Expressionism, ColdWar. 29. ibid.,pp. 146-147. 30. Max Kozloffoffers a similaranalysisin his article'American The Critical Painting Duringthe Cold War', in Pollock e After: Debate, pp. 107-123. was the Artists' 31. Such a group of patriots Council forVictory, in 1942who,according to their ownclaims,were'alivewith established bestworks'. their soulsto producetheir whichstirs patriotism ModernArt article 32. Fromd'Harnoncourt's 'Challenge& Promise: & Society', Art News,November1949,quoted in SergeGuilbaut'sHow Modern New York Stole the Idea of Art,p. 189. The Vital Center: 33. See Arthur ThePolitics Schlesinger's ofFreedom, RiversidePress, Boston, 1962 and AnthonyGiddens discussionof in TheConstitution structural-functionalist American sociology ofSoczety, Polity Press,Cambridge,1984.This is also discussedin Culture, Media, editedby StuartHall, DorothyHobson, AndrewLowe and Language, Paul Willis,Hutchinson, London, 1981: 'This was the period - the theories and models. 1950s- of... massivedependenceon American functionalist and integraButAmerican sociology.. . was systematically It had abolished the categoryof contradiction: tive in perspective. It and of "tensionmanagement". instead,it spoke of "dysfunctions" and predispositions claimed the mantleof a science.But its premises werehighly ideological', (p. 20). in H. B. 34. Dondero's speech in the U.S. Congressis republished Chipp's Theories ofModern Art,pp. 496-497. in investigating interested the newly 35. Dondero was particularly David Fredenthal, establishedArtists Equity League and the artists and Mitchell WilliamHayter Siporin- all ofwhomhad been involved withtheLeftin Americaduring the 1930s. 36. See R. D. McKinzie's accountof the declinein supportforthe FederalArtProject in his TheNewDeal ForArtists, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973, chapter9, 'ReliefArt on the Defense 19381943'. 37. See Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy'saccount of thisin Monopoly and Social Order, Economzc Modern Capital:An Essay on theAmerzcan ofSurplus:Militarism and Reader,New York, 1968,'The Absorption Imperialism', pp. 178-217. on theLeft, 38. For an account of this,see Daniel Aaron: Writers Oxford University Press,New York,1977. 39. See Peyton Boswell, editorial, Art Digest, May 1940,'Shelving the American Scene'. 40. See Dore Ashton:About Rothko. 41. Their statement reads: 'We condemnartistic nationalism which negates theworld traditions ofartas thebase ofmodern artmovements.' 42. Art Digest, editorial, May 1940. 43. See the extract from thisin H. B. Chipp: Theorzes ofModern Art, pp. 483-486: 'The aim of thisappeal is to finda commongroundon

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to thebetter and artists, writers all revolutionary whichmaybe reunited theliberty ofthatartitself artand to defend bytheir therevolution serve We believe that aesthetic, against the usurpersof the revolution. ofthe mostvariedsortcan find and politicaltendencies philosophical, here a common ground. Marxistscan march hand in hand with rejectthe reacprovidedboth partiesuncompromisingly anarchists, by Joseph Stalin . . .', p. 486. spiritrepresented police-patrol tionary positionwas expressedin a short BarnettNewman's anti-capitalist ago fifteen years 1962,whenhe said: 'Almost inAmerica, in Art statement me to explainwhatone ofmy challenged [i.e. 1947]Harold Rosenberg mean to theworld.My answerwas thatifhe could possibly paintings it would mean the end of all state and otherscould read it properly That answerstillgoes.' and totalitarianism. capitalism 44. First published in PartisanReview vol.6, no. 5, Fall 1939. pp. 21-33. & After: Debate, TheCritical in Pollock Reprinted pp. 77-78. in theTate Gallery catalogueMarkRothko, 45. Reprinted intheTwentieth Painting see BarbaraRose: American 46. For instance, three. Century, Skira,London, 1980,chapter December1938. ofArt, Magazine 47. American 1940. Art& Artists June-July ofToday, 48. 'FreedomOf Expression', Of Today', CityArtMuseum,St 49. 'Trends In AmericanPainting T. Rathbone. by Perry Louis, 1942,written duringthe sometime 50. Bentonhad rejectedParisianmodernism had period 1916-1920and, along withGrantWood and J. S. Curry, in American movement whatbecame knownas theRegionalist formed in thesortofsceneswhichRothkoabhored. specialising painting, 51. In a letterwritten by the presidentof MOMA, A. Conger

in early oftheFederalArtProject, to HolgerCahill,director Goodyear, 1939. Art, StoletheIdea ofModern 52. See Serge Guilbaut's How New York p. 183. p. 31. Rothko, 53. About 54. There is no reasonto suppose thatthispositionchangedin the who had adopted 1950sor 1960s.AlongwithPollockand otherartists artcan be seenas a post-war stancesin the1930s,Rothko's oppositional ofhis negation ofpolitical and social realities. continuation p. 78. catalogue, 55. In theTate Gallery 56. Ibid.,p. 84. A Replyto Michael About Modernism: 57. T. J. Clark: 'Arguments 1983 editedby W. J. T. Mitchell, ofInterpretation, Fried',in ThePolitics & After: Debate,p. 82. At this Pollock The Critical and in the anthology tosaythatmyaccountofRothko's painti- in no way pointitis prudent corswhich presentsitselfas 'full' or 'complete' in termsof tP 'influenced' his workor the rangeofideas whichhe c,ew on - either or after the war. It has examinedRothko'sworkas a seriesof before negationsand refusalspartlyin order to counterthe banalitiesof and praise which stresshis workas an incessantparade of criticism positivities. 58. Art May 1940. Digest, of Archives recordedin the BereniceAbbottarchive, 59. Interview New YorkCity. Art, American 60. In The American, c.1938, clipping found in the Archivesof American New YorkCity. Art, p. 86. catalogue, 61. In theTate Gallery

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