57th Street: America's Artistic Legacy, Part I

Cavalier Gallery is pleased to present the first in a series of exhibitions dedicated to the legacy of the 57th Street gallery district in New York City. These exhibitions strive to celebrate and build on the illustrious history of 57th Street, featuring artists whose contributions have cemented the area as the longest standing gallery district in New York. Part I of the series opens with a focus on Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting, with works that represent an important development in American art history from the 1950’s-1980’s. Following World War II, New York became the capital of the art world, largely due to Abstract Expressionism emerging as the first truly American art movement. The epicenter of that movement was 57th Street, where premier galleries of the time exhibited this groundbreaking work, which has since become an established and respected genre.

The exhibition includes work by Hans Hofmann, one of the utmost important members of the Abstract Expressionist movement, Wolf Kahn, one of the art world’s most renown colorists, and Mercedes Matter, a leading female artist of the period.

In this show, we see a breadth of the greatest examples of individual abstract styles, such as Hofmann’s pursuit of color harmony; Paul Jenkin’s unmistakable lyrical abstraction; George McNeil’s expressionist figural images; and Cleve Gray’s quick and simple brushstrokes, at times likened to Asian calligraphy and philosophy. As Yvonne Thomas (also featured) said, the variation of styles in this movement have continued and merged into a sense of adventure and invention in abstract art forms.

The exhibition features over 20 important artists from this period, including Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), George McNeil (1908-1995), Esteban Vicente (1903-2001), Gene Davis (1920-1985), Cleve Gray (1918- 2004), Mercedes Matter (1913-2001), Larry Zox (1937-2006), Yvonne Thomas (1913-2009), Albert Stadler (1923-2000), Syd Solomon (1917-2004), Vaclav Vytlacil (1892-1984), Reuben Nakian (1897- 1986), Ann Purcell (b. 1941), Stephen Pace (1918-2010), John Opper (1908-1994), Perle Fine (1905-1988), Dan Christensen (1942-2007), Walter Darby Bannard (1934-2016), Paul Jenkins (1923-2012), Robert Goodnough (1917-2010), Friedel Dzubas (1915-1994) and Wolf Kahn (b. 1927).