A portrait of America's abstract expressionists discusses the life and work of Pollock, de Kooning, Newman, Rothko, Gottlieb, Motherwell, and the others artists who made New York City the postwar capital of art and culture. 15,000 first printing.

The Turning Point: The Abstract Expressionists and the Transformation of American Art

Kingsley, April

Biographies & Memoirs

Simon&Schuster

"Everyone who is fortunate enough to live a long time will become an elder, and this includes visual artists. The title of this book, suggested by sculptor Melvin Edwards, conveys the certain destiny human beings can anticipate by simply lasting."—from the Introduction 
Something to Look Forward To pays homage to the exceptional talent, unique vision, and courageous persistence of mature artists who have created dynamic abstract images and objects during extended and successful careers. The 22 artists included here— Betty Blayton, Frank Bowling, Yvonne Pickering Carter, Edward Clark, Melvin Edwards, Sam Gilliam, David Hammons, Gerald Jackson, Lawrence Compton Kolawole, Alvin Loving, Richard Mayhew, Sam Middleton, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Joe Overstreet, Howardena Pindell, Helen Evans Ramsaran, John T. Scott, Sylvia Snowden, Mildred Thompson, Jack Whitten, William T. Williams, and Frank Wimberley—are all over 60 (seven are over 70), and they’re all African American. 
The principal essay by April Kingsley offers brief overviews highlighting little-known but significant details about the artists and their work. Franklin Sirmans’ essay comments on the complex layers of style and meaning that compel the audacity of the art and artists. Reflections on abstract art by Geoffrey Jacques illuminate essential questions about the history and status of the artists represented.

Something To Look Forward To: An Exhibition Featuring Abstract Art By 22 Distinguished Americans Of African Descent: Franklin And Marshall College Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 26-June 27, 2004

Arts & Photography

Sirmans, Franklin

Jacques, Geoffrey

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Phillips Mus of Art

Emotional Impact: New York School Figurative Expressionism

Moyer Bell Ltd.

The interior self: Three generations of expressionist painters view the human image : March 15-June 21, 1987, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey

The Museum

Alice Dalton Brown's finest work is presented along with the story of her life and career.

The Paintings of Alice Dalton Brown

History & Criticism

Hudson Hills

This eye-opening volume from longtime curator April Kingsley explores the many guises, transformations, and incarnations of Figurative Expressionism in America. An important movement in postwar American painting, Figurative Expressionism is art at a high excitement level, enjoyable for the sheer love of paint as well as for the way the figure is handled. Absorbed with finding imagery in the process of painting, artists like Grace Hartigan, Lester Johnson, Robert De Niro Sr., Philip Guston, Robert Beauchamp, and Richard Diebenkorn are just a few of the individuals recognized herein. Kingsley deftly navigates major influences, particularly Hans Hofmann, whose spatial concepts, love of pain, bravura ability to handle it, and habit of working from a model or motif had a great impact on these artists. Likewise, in the wake of Willem de Kooning’s 1953 exhibition showcasing his Women paintings, his shift between abstraction and figuration sparked controversy and led painters like Guston, Hartigan, and De Niro to reconsider the incorporation of the figure. With special attention to the emergence of a New York style of painting, Emotional Impact captures the group’s robust, energetic style and explores its origins and evolution in vivid detail.

Emotional Impact: American Figurative Expressionism

Michigan State University Press

John Clem Clarke: Comforts, Near Disasters, and Pentimenti

Clarke, John Clem

Allentown Art Museum

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Books by Kingsley, April