Pioneering Abstract Impressionist Esteban Vincente at The Meadows Museum

Written by Ronald Geffin Wednesday, 11 April 2012 22:31

Dallas, Texas - Until July 31st, 80 lyrical collages and polychrome sculptures are on display at the Meadows Museum in Dallas as part of the exhibition "Concrete Improvisations: Collages and Sculpture by Esteban Vicente". Vicente, a Spanish-born American painter, was a member of the first generation of New York Abstract Expressionists and a significant 20th century artist and teacher. Vicente participated in Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg’s landmark exhibition 'Talent 1950' and also helped to organize the seminal 9th Street show. The Meadows exhibition marks the first time Vicente’s collages and sculptures have been paired together in a major exhibition. Vicente’s collages, which he first began producing in 1949, provide an insightful connection when viewed alongside works on paper created by some of his contemporaries, including Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

Using newspaper advertisements for his first endeavors with the medium, Vicente then turned to fine handmade paper that he would paint and tear himself.  By utilizing paper, Vicente connected himself with the Spanish masters of the technique, Picasso, Braque, and Gris, insisting that the “pure thing is to use paper for collage. That was the original idea.”

Vicente’s collages show a dispersal of line and rich mixture of texture and color that is also closely aligned with the formal concerns of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Vicente was one of the founding members of the New York Studio School. He also taught at numerous universities throughout the United States, counting among his students leading artists Chuck Close and Brice Marden. The objects included in the exhibition span fifty years of Vicente’s long career and include such works as Labels (1956), which precedes Warhol’s famous appropriation of the Campbell’s soup logo. The exhibition weaves together works by a number of Vicente’s contemporary colleagues with whom he shared a clear artistic affinity, including Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko. The exhibition aims to provide a context for understanding the work of Esteban Vicente after his arrival from Spain to New York in 1936, and will underscore the importance of this first-generation Abstract Expressionist.  A fully illustrated catalogue has been produced by the Meadows Museum for this exhibition.“Concrete Improvisations will expose audiences to an artist who was an integral part of the Abstract Expressionist movement, but who is not well known to the public,” said Meadows Museum Director Mark Roglán. “As a museum with a core commitment to education, we are thrilled to showcase the pioneering work of an artist noted for his lifelong dedication to teaching.”

Vicente was a significant figure in the first generation of New York Abstract Expressionist artists, and was the only Spanish-born painter to participate in the movement. His focus on collages, which he called “concrete improvisations,” comprised nearly half of the artist’s yearly work and set him apart from his Abstract Expressionist peers. Vicente also created small-scale sculptures that he referred to as “toys” or divertimientos, and which were typically assembled from leftover bits of wood and scrap material found in his studio. Not initially intended for public display, the sculptures included in the exhibition reveal a lighthearted side of the artist and will be interspersed with his collages. Concrete Improvisations is accompanied by a fully illustrated, bilingual catalogue, Concrete Improvisations: Collages and Sculpture, Esteban Vicente. The catalogue reassesses Vicente’s career, analyzes his contribution to the medium of collage, and sheds new light on his intimate sculptures.

Born in Turégano, Spain, in 1903, Vicente arrived in New York in 1936 and by 1950 was an active participant in the Downtown art scene. He rented a studio at 88 East Tenth Street (sharing a floor, for a time, with Willem de Kooning), became a voting member of The Club, and participated in Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg’s landmark exhibition Talent 1950 at the Samuel Kootz Gallery. A year later, he helped to organize the historic 9th Street show, and several of his paintings appeared in Thomas B. Hess’s foundational text on the New York School, Abstract Painting: Background and American Phase. As his paintings began to garner critical and public attention, Vicente also embarked on what would become a long and successful teaching career. He accepted short- and long-term appointments at universities and art schools throughout the United States, including the University of California, Berkeley; Black Mountain College; Yale University; Princeton University; New York University; and the New York Studio School, among other institutions.

The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. With works dating from the 10th to the 21st century, the internationally renowned collection presents a broad spectrum of art covering a thousand years of Spanish heritage. During business trips to Spain in the 1950s, Texas philanthropist and oil financier Algur H. Meadows spent many hours at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The Prado’s spectacular collection of Spanish masterpieces inspired Meadows to begin his own collection of Spanish art. In 1962, through The Meadows Foundation, he gave SMU funds for the construction and endowment of a museum to house his Spanish collection. The Meadows Museum opened in 1965 as part of a new arts center at SMU. The Meadows Museum collection includes masterpieces by some of the world’s greatest painters: El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. Highlights of the collection include Renaissance altarpieces, monumental Baroque canvases, exquisite Rococo oil sketches, poly-chrome wood sculptures, Impressionist landscapes, modernist abstractions, a comprehensive collection of the graphic works of Goya, and a select group of sculptures by major 20th-century masters, including Auguste Rodin, Jacques Lipchitz, Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, David Smith and Fritz Wotruba. At the base of the plaza is a 40-by-90 foot moving sculpture, Wave, designed by Santiago Calatrava. The museum is a unique resource for local schools, colleges, the Dallas-Fort Worth community and visitors from around the world. With an active program of tours, educational outreach, weekend family days and a summer art program for young people, the Meadows Museum plays an important role as an educational and cultural center in North Texas.  Visit the museum's website at ... http://smu.edu/meadowsmuseum

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