Gesture, Scrape, Combine, Calculate: Postwar Abstraction from the Permanent Collection

August 20–September 20, 2010

This exhibition showcases works of large-scale postwar abstraction from the Kemper Art Museum's permanent collection. The selection presents a cross-section of proliferating strategies and approaches to abstract painting and sculpture as practiced by artists working across the United States and in Europe from the immediate postwar years to the late 1970s. Highlights include examples of gestural and lyrical abstraction, color-field painting, hard-edge abstraction, and assemblage by artists such as Alberto Burri, Gene Davis, Roberto Matta, Arshile Gorky, Allan McCollum, Jules Olitski, Antoni Tàpies, and Anne Truitt. A complement to the selection of works on view in the Museum's second floor permanent collection galleries, this special exhibition offers an opportunity to see works rarely on display and to enable deeper understanding of postwar abstraction.

Organized by Meredith Malone, associate curator, this exhibition is on view through September 23.

Read the Press Release