Art stimulates enthusiasts

By Hilliary Martino, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, September 15, 1998

Expressionism, radical breakthroughs and distraction from abstraction are all part of a new exhibit at Cal State Long Beach's University Art Museum.

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ART REVIEW

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The current collaboration between the Art Museum, University Library's special collections, National Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., makes for a remarkable display of popular art.

These eccentric treasures form a diverse learning experience for many art fans.

"Graphic Abstraction in America: A View from the First Century," is the third in a cycle of six theme-based works on paper.

The exhibit's development invites viewers to reconsider simple images and open their minds to a kaleidoscope of artistic endeavors.

The exhibit opens the door through the decades of the development of modernism in American graphics.

Viewers will encounter marvelous objects by innovators who have left their mark on the history of American abstract graphic arts.

The American art collection is strongly represented by the works of individuals who dared to test society's normalcy.

As early as the mid-1920s, artists such as Stuart Davis, a pioneer of geometric abstraction, began to incorporate ordinary objects into flat, colorful designs that reflect the illuminating glow city life has to offer.

The installation of graphic abstraction pioneered many traditional artists to shed their old skins and compose unusual geometric shapes, giving inanimate objects life and movement.