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Exhibition of Abstract Art from the New Jersey State Museum Opens Jan 27

The Art Gallery is pleased to present a special loan exhibition—Abstract Expressions: Selected Works from the New Jersey State Museum. On view from January 27 through February 28, 2016, the exhibition features 34 abstract artworks created by American artists since 1950. Artists in the exhibition include Richard Anuszkiewicz, Ellsworth Ausby, Walter Darby Bannard, Andrea Belag, Frank Bowling, James Andrew Brown, Amanda Church, Victor Davson, Mel Edwards, Dahlia Elsayed, Lee Gatch, Sam Gilliam, Nancy Graves, Oded Halahmy, Clinton Hill, Ka Kwong Hui, Yayoi Kusama, Susan MacQueen, John L. Moore, Hiroshi Murata, Reginald Neal, Louise Nevelson, John Obuck, Joe Overstreet, Irene Rice Pereira, John Powell, Helen Soreff, Theodoros Stamos, Ann Starkey, and Ruth Vollmer.

The exhibition has been curated by Margaret O’Reilly, Curator of the Fine Art and Acting Director of the State Museum. In discussing abstraction, O’Reilly references renowned artist Wassily Kandinksy, who wrote in the 1920s that “Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential.” She has explains that “the works in the exhibition at TCNJ, all created since 1950, expand on the discussions begun by pioneering abstract artists, such as Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. The artists employ a great range of styles and techniques—geometry, gesture, expressionism, optical illusion—to convey their ideas.”

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