Todd Herman, Chief Curator: When
you arrived in New York City in the
mid 1950s, Abstract Expressionism was
the dominant style. As a ?gural artist in
that climate, did you face a number of
obstacles?
Sig Abeles: I resented the very concept
of a dominant style and its power to
wipe clean other exciting, and truly deep
and meaningful art. While Abstract
Expressionism surely did elevate New
York as the new center of art, instead of
Paris – and yes indeed, the art was damned
exciting, too – there was just so much
damaging fallout. Terri?c representational
painters were now ignored, not shown
or written about again; seriously, major
?gures and their careers were marginalized,
even destroyed. I honestly felt like I was
living in an art dictatorship, not unlike the
Chinese Cultural Revolution – Greenberg’s
way or the highway. Art is not nor never
was fashion to me; I cannot consider
putting on new stylish clothes that are
not natural to me. Recognizing that I was
not destined to be an innovator within
the art world, I guess I dug in, looked to
my heroes – Rembrandt, Goya, Kollwitz
– and worked and hoped to go deeper, to
be honest, to spill my guts and draw what
grabbed me from life around me, best I
could. If some interpret that a defense,
well so be it. I have to be as true to my
conviction of the high calling of visual
imagery that hopefully has resonance with
other human beings.
I welcome an art world now, without a
dominant style. Good art of all sorts of
approaches can be recognized today and
I feel it is a healthy, more open climate to
make and view art.
TH: When we asked you to curate An
Artist’s Eye, what were your thoughts? Were
you familiar with the museum’s collection
of modern and contemporary art?
SA: Truthfully, I very seldom get such a
phone call. I am something of a collector
myself, so choosing others’ art and just
how it might aid or add to my experiences
is something of a second nature to me.
(As my hero, the artist Lucian Freud says,
“I go to art and museums the way some
go to doctors, for help.”) I have often
thought about curating and collections
of art and objects, mixing up eras and
approaches; good things go well with
good things. I saw this opportunity as a
challenge for my passion and involvement
with art, contemporary and modern. And
in truth, I had little idea what the scope of
this project was until I leaped into it.
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