DRAW ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FRENCH FRIES

A typical museum or art gallery’s function is to promote art and culture, and make them accessible to the general public in a comprehensive manner. Alongside the permanent collections, travelling exhibitions such as the Abstract Expressionist New York, gives the public an opportunity to witness an even wider range of art work. Rather than presenting Abstract Expressionism as a unified movement, the exhibition presents the American art movement by dissecting it and presenting it in a chronological, as well as thematic organization of works. It shows a gradual process by which this movement, with its diverse styles, developed New York into the centre of the International art world.

It is quite common for exhibitions to have a linear chronological sequence format, starting with the oldest and ending with the most recent work. While chronology is used as a principle tool in organizing art work, the unidirectional visitor’s route at the Art Gallery of Ontario also allows an easy transition from one concept to another, without any distractions. The visitors enter the exhibition through room 1. This room holds 7 paintings that show the roots of Abstract Expressionism in the form of Surrealism. Most of the paintings date back to the 1940s and happen to be some of the oldest work in the exhibition. The room also includes Wall writings and information panels. These panels explained how New York became the home to many renowned European artists from the Avant Garde and surreal baranches, who had to flee from Europe during the second World War.

Although the themes and dates of the paintings changed from room to room, some of the things that stayed uniform include wall colour, painting information panels and theme panels on the wall. Each room contained one to three wall panels. The designer of these panels divided up them up into four parts in order to have an aesthetic balance. Each panel contained the title of the theme, a quotation from an artist and the artist’s photograph. The painting information panels where plain and white. They were placed on the floor, in front of the paintings with one edge slightly elevated for a better view by the audience. Although the colour of the walls remained white throughout the exhibition, their hue looked different at different locations due to the variations in the intensity of the overhead lighting.

The lighting varied according to the mood associated with the theme of the rooms. Room 1, which marked the beginning of Abstract Expressionism, was brightly lit and had a welcoming atmosphere since it was the first setting that the visitors got to experience. On the other hand, Room 7 was dimly lit, and corresponded with the mood of the paintings in the room by Mark Rothko, who wanted to convey emotions such as tragedy, ecstasy and doom through his work. The darkest area in the exhibition was the corridor-like space between Room 7 and Room 8. This tiny space had a movie theatre like atmosphere since it contained many video recordings which the visitors could watch. The subject matter of these videos included information about the artists’ lives, explanations about the painting techniques used by artists and statements about the Abstract Expressionism movement as a whole. Some of the other rooms also had books and audio recordings, which served the same purpose.

While going through the exhibition, viewers not only noticed the significant changes in the dates, but also the evolution of the media used by the artists. The audience started with flat paintings in Room 1, and came across photographs and gelatine silver prints in room 3. While Room 4 contained drawings and sculptures, the common media changed again in Room 5, where the viewers got to see textured drip paintings by Jackson Pollock.

The grand ending of the exhibition came with Philip Guston’s work from the 1960s. While the first few paintings were from the same time as the end of World War II, the last paintings of the exhibition marked the beginning of the cold war. Both the themes and the structure of the floor plan followed a circular pattern. Room 10 was designated as the gift shop that sold merchandises that replicated famous Abstract Expressionism concepts.