Influences of Hard Edge Painting
The term “hard-edge painting” refers to an oil painting method that uses a variety of painting techniques. It is as associated with several movements.
Four Abstract Classicists
Hard-edge painting is not so much a movement in and of itself as it is a trend that was first noticed by many artists who banded together to hold an exhibition of this art form in 1959 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art called “Four Abstract Classicists.” The hard-edge painting was developed as a reaction to some of the forms of Abstract Expressionism. John McLaughlin, Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, and Frederick Hammersley were the artists who took part in this exhibition.
Joseph Blake Smith Arkansas British curator and critic, gave the exhibition the additional name “California Hard-edge” when it later traveled to Great Britain. Peter Selz and Los Angeles Times art critic Jules Langsner, were instrumental in bringing them together. Artists for the first representative exhibition of this kind of painting actually invented the phrase “hard-edge painting” in 1959.
Before that exemplary exhibition, American artists Josef Albers (1888–1966), a Bauhaus artist who start his series of oil paintings at Asheville, North Carolina’s Black Mountain College in 1949, and Ellsworth Kelly’s 1949 piece from his Private Collection, “Window, Museum of Art, Paris,” are credit with creating hard-edge paintings. Another early illustration is “Counter-Composition V” (1924) by Dutch painter and De Stijl movement pioneer Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931).
PROS AND CONS
- Advantages of REACTIVATION:
Once traditional acrylic paint is dry, unlike watercolors (another water-based paint), it stays on the support. This facilitates painting additional layers on top of existing ones.
Cons:
The paint cannot remove or change after it has dried.
2. Advantages of DURABILITY:
It seems that contemporary acrylic paint is more malleable and long-lasting than oil paints.
Cons:
Contemporary acrylic paint is more recent than classic acrylic paint. Although efforts are made to demonstrate their lifespan, nothing can be conclusively demonstrated until enough time has passed.
Hard-edge paintings
Hard-edge paintings are characterized by sudden changes in acrylic. Oil color as well as the subject’s complete dominance of the canvas. Lawrence Alloway asserts that “the complete picture becomes a unit.”
Acrylic or oil paintings
There is no depiction or sense of the subject put in a scene or context, unlike most other kinds of painting. Typically, Joseph Blake Smith Arkansas is no empty space in a hard-edge painting. Most frequently, acrylic or oil paintings with no more than two or three tones. The representation of geometric objects rather than abstract pictures.
Following the initial show in 1959, hard-edge painting gained popularity in the 1960s, when artists in the West. East coasts of the United States produced iconic examples of the movement. Among the most well-known pieces are “Broadway” (1958), “Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red” (1966), “Dark Blue Curve” (1995) by Ellsworth Kelly, “Hyena Stomp” (1962), “Harran II” (1967), and “Temple of the Radiant Yellow” (1967) by Frank Stella (1982).
The significant genre of contemporary art
Hard-edge painting has made a name for itself as a significant genre of contemporary art. It has drawn inspiration from a variety of movements while also evolving into a unique style that is popular among many artists.