Please join us to celebrate the opening of

GLORY OF THE WORLD
Color Field Painting (1950s to 1983)

Sunday, November 19

3 pm Conversation With Canadian Collector David Mirvish
and Bonnie Clearwater on Color Field Painting

Free for members | $16 general admission
*Ticket includes day-of Museum admission until 3 pm*
*Opening Reception ticket sold separately*

4 – 6 pm Members Opening Reception
Free for members | $25 for non-members

This exhibition explores a tendency in mid-twentieth-century American abstract painting in which vast areas of color appear as the dominating force. Although this type of painting was prefigured in the work of previous generations of abstract painters, such as Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, it is identified with artists including Frank Bowling, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, Frank Stella and Alma Thomas, among others. Color field painting was but one of several art movements that emerged in America during the early 1960s, including Pop Art, Minimalism, Op Art, Photorealism, hard-edge abstraction, and the Black Arts Movement, to name a few. Although critics tended to categorize the color field artists based solely on their shared formal characteristics, each artist approached their process from a distinct perspective, while maintaining an awareness of each other’s innovations.

The exhibition’s title Glory of the World, takes its cue from Frank Stella’s writings on Hans Hofmann’s abstract painting Gloriamundi (1963): “Hofmann proved that the straightforward manipulation of pigment can create exalted art…Glory of the world this painting surely is, and glory of the world his painting surely was and is.” Like Hofmann, the monumental color field paintings in this exhibition arouse a sense of wonder and discovery.

Curated by Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, the selection of paintings focuses primarily on the earlier years of color field beginning in the 1950s with Frankenthaler’s large stain paintings and ends in 1983 when post-modern and imagist painters began to dominate the art scene. In recent years, another young generation of artists has rediscovered color field painting, which makes this exhibition especially timely. The exhibition will be augmented with a hard-cover, full-color book published by Skira.

Glory of the World: Color Field Painting (1950s to 1983) is sponsored by Suzi and David Cordish, Stephanie and Howard Krass, the Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant Fund of the Community Foundation of Broward and Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Fort Lauderdale.

Top Image: Alma Thomas, A Fantastic Sunset, 1970. Courtesy Anonymous. © 2023 Estate of Alma Thomas (Courtesy of the Hart Family) / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Bottom Image: Helen Frankenthaler, Hint from Bassano, 1973. Courtesy Audrey and David Mirvish, Toronto. Photo by Michael Visser. © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Major support for exhibitions and programs at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is provided by the David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation Endowment, the City of Fort Lauderdale, Wege Foundation, Community Foundation of Broward, Lillian S. Wells Foundation, the Broward County Cultural Division, the Cultural Council, the Broward County Board of County Commissioners, the State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts, Spirit Charitable Foundation, Fosco Family Foundation and the Moss Foundation. NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is accredited by the American Association of Museums.