Visual Language: The Art of Abstraction

Introduction

Audio Recording

Visual Language: The Art of Abstraction

Visual Language: The Art of Abstraction presents a selection of abstract, non-representational artworks from Boise Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. A cross-section of abstract artwork, created by the most significant American abstract artists working from the 1980s through the early 2000s, fills these galleries with Color Field paintings, lyrical abstraction, and minimalism. Charles Arnoldi and Ed Moses are examples of West Coast artists who have pushed the boundaries of process and materials within abstraction. Richard Serra, representing the East Coast, demonstrates the power and beauty of a simple line, while Ann Thornycroft and Sam Francis exude explosive texture and movement in their artworks. This exhibition surveys the range of abstract art in which artists use the visual language of art—line, color, pattern, value, shape, and texture—to express meaning and emotion.

Organized by the Boise Art Museum

Anne Appleby, Luna, 2002

Audio Recording

Larry Bell, S 173 (Mirage Series), 1991

Audio Recording

Larry Bell
(b. 1939, Chicago, IL)

S 173 (Mirage Series), 1991
mylar, paper, laminant film, aluminum, and silicon monoxide on canvas
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Henry T. Hopkins

Patrick Heron, Two Magenta Discs in Red, 1970

Audio Recording

Patrick Heron
(1920 – 1999, Leeds, United Kingdom)

Two Magenta Discs in Red, 1970
screenprint
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Mr. Eddie Green

Squeak Carnwath, Untitled, 1991

Audio Recording

Squeak Carnwath
(b. 1947, Abington Township, PA)

Untitled, 1991
monoprint on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

Sam Francis, Untitled, 1989

Audio Recording

Sam Francis
(1923 – 1994, San Mateo, CA)

Untitled, 1989
acrylic on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Kim MacConnel, Woman with Mirror, Gouache #5, 2007

Audio Recording

Kim MacConnel
(b. 1946, Oklahoma City, OK)

Woman with Mirror, Gouache #5, 2007
gouache on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Sam Francis, Handmade for Garner, 1970s

Audio Recording

Sam Francis
(1923 – 1994, San Mateo, CA) 

Handmade for Garner, 1970s
monotype with hand painting on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Sol LeWitt, Bands (Not Straight) in Four Directions – Red, 1999

Audio Recording

Sol LeWitt
(1928 – 2007, Hartford, CT)

Bands (Not Straight) in Four Directions – Red, 1999
oil-base woodcut print on Zangetsu paper, edition 27/75
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Charles Arnoldi, Untitled, 1990

Audio Recording

Charles Arnoldi
(b. 1946, Dayton, OH)

Untitled, 1990
mixed-media monotype on handmade paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

Charles Arnoldi, Boulder Holder, 1985

Audio Recording

Charles Arnoldi
(b. 1946, Dayton, OH) 

Boulder Holder, 1985
wood, plywood, and acrylic paint
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

Charles Arnoldi has been an influential member of the California art scene for five decades. Arnoldi’s paintings and sculptures are known for their grand scale and the incorporation of natural materials, bold colors, and minimal elements. Visually and physically aggressive, Boulder Holder, was made by painting, then carving, large slabs of plywood with a chainsaw. This impressive sculptural painting encapsulates wild energy in static form while utilizing natural materials to express the relationship between humans and nature.

Friedel Dzubas, Untitled, 1984

Audio Recording

Friedel Dzubas
(1915 – 1994, Berlin, Germany) 

Untitled, 1984
oil on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Sydney and Clark Fidler

Charles Arnoldi, Volatile, 2005

Audio Recording

Charles Arnoldi
(b. 1946, Dayton, OH)

Volatile, 2005
acrylic on canvas
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Nancy Graves, Seik, 1983

Audio Recording

Nancy Graves
(1939 – 1995, Pittsfield, MA)

 Seik, 1983
acrylic and watercolor on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

From 1972 to 1976, innovative American painter, sculptor, filmmaker, and printmaker, Nancy Graves worked increasingly as an abstract painter, developing a fluid style that was both energetic and whimsical. By the mid-1980s, she produced a series of paintings with illusionistic effects.  Graves was interested in ideas about fleeting phenomena, particularly shadows. Seik is a characteristic work from this period, employing pastel coloration, vibrant flowing brush strokes, and a light, watery application of paint.

Matt Repsher, Burke, 2012

Audio Recording

Matt Repsher
(b. 1977, Penland, NC)

Burke, 2012
stoneware and mixed media
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Anita Kay Hardy and Gregory Kaslo for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

Chris Hawthorne and James Nowak, Tidal Pool, 1990

Audio Recording

Chris Hawthorne and James Nowak
(b. 1953, Detroit, MI, and b. 1956)

Tidal Pool, 1990
blown glass
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Gretchen A. Smith

Ellsworth Kelly, 18 Colors (Cincinnati), 1982

Audio Recording

Ellsworth Kelly
(1923 – 2015, Newburgh, NY)

18 Colors (Cincinnati), 1982
18-color lithograph on Arches Cover paper, edition 21/57
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Ellsworth Kelly worked across many artistic media – painting, sculpting, and printmaking – often combining two or more techniques in an experimental fashion. He is well known for his hard-edged minimalist and color-field artworks, such as 18 Colors (Cincinnati). Though he took inspiration from the world around him, he was adamant that his art was never a direct reference to objects, but rather was a perception of life. During the heyday of Abstract Expressionism in the United States, Kelly spent six years in France. While there, he met Joan Miro, Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder, among others, all of whom significantly impacted the evolution of his artistic practice.

Case #1, right side

Audio Recording

top shelf:

Helen Frankenthaler

(1928 – 2011, New York, NY)

Thanksgiving Day, 1973
hand painted glazed stoneware tile
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Lenore and Allan Sindler

 

bottom shelf:

José Sierra

(b. 1975, Merida, Venezuela)

Untitled, 2014
stoneware
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Museum Purchase with funds donated by the A. Kay Hardy and Gregory A. Kaslo Philanthropic Gift Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation

José Sierra’s ceramic sculptures are informed by pre-Hispanic art and architecture, contemporary design, and the mountains and landscape of his native home of Venezuela. His process involves altering wheel-thrown porcelain and stoneware by adding, cutting into, and re-shaping the clay after it comes off the pottery wheel. Sierra is a self-taught artist who now runs a thriving ceramics studio practice in New Mexico.

Case #1, center

Audio Recording

top:    

Ed Moses                     

(1926 – 2018, Long Beach, CA)

Untitled, 1973
acrylic on laminated tissue paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

 

bottom shelf:

Wouter Dam

(b. 1957, Utrecht, the Netherlands)

Red Sculpture, 2009
stoneware, thrown and assembled, with diffuser-applied matte glaze
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Anita Kay Hardy and Gregory Kaslo in Honor of Terry Melton for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

Case #1, left side

Audio Recording

top shelf:

Sonja Blomdahl

(b. 1952, Waltham, MA)

Citrus Amber, 2002
blown glass
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Collectors Forum Purchase, 2004

Artist Sonja Blomdahl has been making glass vessels for more than four decades. Her artwork is an exploration of form, color, proportion, and process. She sees her vessels as symbols of wholeness and balance. Each artwork’s outer form holds a continuous curve, built of multiple melded pieces and colors of glass that lead the viewer’s eye around the form.

 

bottom shelf, left:

Artist Unknown

Eskimo Lidded Storage Basket, Late 20^th century
grasses with purple, blue, and orange dyes
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Drew and Katie Gibson for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

 

bottom shelf, center:

Jane Suare

(b. 1937, St. Louis, MO)

Standing oval form with colored string attachments, 1984-85
waxed linen thread and acrylic paint
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Drew and Katie Gibson for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

 

bottom shelf, right:

Artist Unknown

Eskimo Lidded Storage Basket, Late 20^th century
plant fibers and dyes
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Drew and Katie Gibson for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Case #2, right side

Audio Recording

top shelf:

José Sierra

(b. 1975, Merida, Venezuela)

Untitled, 2014
stoneware
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Museum Purchase with funds donated by the A. Kay Hardy and Gregory A. Kaslo Philanthropic Gift Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation

 

middle shelf:

Caryl Kaiser Boeder

(b. 1952, Elmhurst, IL) 

Grotto, 1996
handmade felt
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection

 

bottom shelf:

Dale Chihuly

(b. Tacoma, WA)

Lapis Lazuli Soft Cylinder with Silver Drawing, 1987
blown glass
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection

Case #2, center

Audio Recording

Val Cushing

(1931 – 2013, Rochester, NY)

Platter, 1990s
ceramic stoneware
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Karla Wynn

Case #2, left side

Audio Recording

top shelf:

Sonja Blomdahl

(b. 1952, Waltham, MA)

Blomma Vase, 2004
hand blown glass
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

 

middle shelf, left:

I (Isabelle) Plaster

(b. unknown)

Maka open basket with yellow and green band design, 2008
cedar bark and bear grass, dyes
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Drew and Katie Gibson for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

 

middle shelf, right:

I (Isabelle) Plaster

(b. unknown)

Maka open basket with yellow X and green band design, 2008
cedar bark and bear grass, dyes
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Drew and Katie Gibson for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

 

bottom shelf:

José Sierra

(b. 1975, Merida, Venezuela)

Untitled, 2014
stoneware
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Museum Purchase with funds donated by the A. Kay Hardy and Gregory A. Kaslo Philanthropic Gift Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation

Helen Frankenthaler, A Page from a Book III, 1997

Audio Recording

Helen Frankenthaler
(1928 – 2011, New York, NY)

A Page from a Book III, 1997
14-color etching, aquatint, mezzotint, and pochoir on paper, edition 18/60
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Helen Frankenthaler’s career stretched over six decades.  She is notable for her influence on the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting in the United States. Her artistic style is characterized by fluid shapes, simplified abstract compositions, and an emphasis on immediacy. In the artist’s words, “A really good picture looks as if it’s happened at once.” Utilizing thinned down paints, her canvases often intentionally contain small areas left bare in the space between two colors. Raw canvas frequently glows through thin washed areas of color or sections the artist has scrubbed to achieve translucent, cloud-like marks.

Ellsworth Kelly, Blue, 2001

Audio Recording

Ellsworth Kelly
(1923 – 2015, Newburgh, NY) 

Blue, 2001
one-color lithograph on Rives BFK paper, edition 29/45
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

John Mason, Square Hex, Charcoal with Tracers, 2004

Audio Recording

John Mason
(1927 – 2019, Madrid, NE)

Square Hex, Charcoal with Tracers, 2004
ceramic
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

Brice Marden, Untitled lithographs, 1973

Audio Recording

Brice Marden
(1938 – 2023, Bronxville, NY)

left-right:

Untitled, 1973
Untitled, 1973
lithographs
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gifts of Dana Hunt

Robert Motherwell, Lament for Lorca, 1981-82

Audio Recording

Robert Motherwell
(1915 – 1991, Aberdeen, WA)                     

Lament for Lorca, 1981-82
color lithograph
edition: 15/52, published by Tyler Graphics
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

In Lament for Lorca, Robert Motherwell pays homage to the Spanish poet, Frederico Garcia Lorca, who was assassinated by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Motherwell championed Lorca’s writing and was so impacted by the tragic proportions of the Spanish Civil War that he produced a series of more than 200 paintings entitled, Elegies to the Spanish Republic, devoted to the conflict. About Elegies, Motherwell said, “After a period of painting them, I discovered black as one of my subjects – and with black, the contrasting white, a sense of life and death which to me is quite Spanish. They are essentially the Spanish black of death contrasted with the dazzle of a Matisse-like sunlight.”

Richard Serra, The Line of the Curve, 2004

Audio Recording

Richard Serra
(b. 1938, San Francisco, CA, d. 2024, Orient, NY)

The Line of the Curve, 2004
6-panel, one-color etching on Somerset satin white paper, edition 21/35
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher for BAM’s 75^th Anniversary

Richard Serra is most notable for his large-scale, site-specific, steel sculptures, and bold, black-and-white artworks on paper. As with his sculptures, Serra’s lithographs and drawings emphasize spare, minimal forms that convey a sense of mass, volume, or weight. Investigating space, form, and structure is at the heart of his artistic practice. The Line of the Curve is powerful in its simplicity, a characteristic that extends throughout Richard Serra’s artistic oeuvre.

Ann Thornycroft, Angel, 1984

Audio Recording

Ann Thornycroft
(b. 1944, London, England)

Angel, 1984
oil on canvas
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

Angel is part of a 1984 series by Ann Thornycroft and one the most figurative artworks of her career.  It comprises a central image symbolizing a somewhat floating figure. Like other artworks in the series, when oriented horizontally, it appears more like a landscape. Of her paintings, Thornycroft has said, “I am interested in the interplay between the accidental mark and the deliberate mark and geometric shape.  I find this dichotomy mirrors the ebb and flow of life.”

Joan Livingstone, Doppelganger, 1909

Audio Recording

Joan Livingstone
(b. 1948, Portland, OR)

Doppelganger, 1909
industrial felt and epoxy resin
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of the artist

Ed Moses, The Drifter (Y Branco), 1999

Audio Recording

Ed Moses
(1926-2018, Long Beach, CA)

The Drifter (Y Branco), 1999
acrylic on canvas
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

California Abstractionist, Ed Moses, is widely regarded for his complex abstractions filled with luminous color and fluid expression. Unlike most painters who use easels and brushes, Moses paints his paintings on the floor, often using a long-handled mop to apply paint in broad swaths and extend his reach. A practicing Tibetan Buddhist since 1971, Moses devoted himself to pursuing a spontaneous, spiritual approach to painting. The Drifter (Y Branco) reflects the gestural movement and heroic scale Moses preferred. The surface is built with layers of splashing and staining. Even with multiple layers of paint, the painting has a semi-transparent look that makes the canvas appear light and airy.

Case #3, left side

Audio Recording

top shelf:

Ruenell Foy Temps

(1940 – 2020, San Fransisco, CA)     

Inlaid Platter, 1979
ceramic
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Clifford Temps

 

bottom shelf:

David Shaner

(1934 – 2002, Pottstown, PA)

Stoneware Slab, 1969
stoneware
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of John Takehara

Case #3, center

Audio Recording

Jim Kraft

(b. 1949, Detroit, MI)

Lichen Keep, 2007
hand-built ceramic
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of the Earl Hardy Box Canyon Nature Preserve in Honor of the 75th Anniversary of Boise Art Museum

Case #3, right side

Audio Recording

top shelf, left:

Joanne Russo

(b. 1956, Winsted, CT)

Small lidded basket with four pointed feet, 2002
plant fibers, white glass seed beads, black plastic discs
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Drew and Katie Gibson for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

 

top shelf, right:

Artist Unknown

Rwandan Peace Basket, 20^th Century
sisal with black dye
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Drew and Katie Gibson for BAM’s 75th Anniversary

 

bottom shelf, left:

Adam Silverman

(b. 1963, New York, NY)

Untitled, 2012
ceramic
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Anita Kay Hardy and Gregory Kaslo

 

bottom shelf, right:

Adam Silverman

(b. 1963, New York, NY) 

Untitled, 2012
ceramic
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Anita Kay Hardy and Gregory Kaslo

Case #4, left side

Audio Recording

top:

Julia Mangold

(b. 1966, Germany)

Untitled, 2000
graphite on vellum and paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Sally and Wynn Kramarsky, New York

 

bottom shelf:

Christopher Staley

(b. 1954, Boston, MA) 

Snow Falling at Night, n.d.
glazed stoneware
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Anita Kay Hardy and Gregory Kaslo

Case #4, center

Audio Recording

top:

Sol LeWitt

(1928 – 2007, Hartford, CT)

Irregular Form, 1997
gouache on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Sally and Wynn Kramarsky, New York

 

bottom shelf, left:

José Sierra

(b. 1975, Merida, Venezuela)

Untitled, 2014
stoneware
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Museum Purchase with funds donated by the A. Kay Hardy and Gregory A. Kaslo Philanthropic Gift Fund in the Idaho Community Foundation

 

bottom shelf, right:

Dorothy Torivio

(1946 – 2011, Acoma Pueblo, NM)

Jar, n.d.
natural hand-harvested clay and slip
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Joan H. and John B. Carley

Case #4, right side

Audio Recording

top:

Max Cole

(b. 1937, Hodgeman County, KS)

Untitled, 1997
acrylic on paper
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

 

bottom shelf:

Yoonjee Kwak

(b. 1988, South Korea) 

Untitled (from the Breath series), 2019
ceramic
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Anita Kay Hardy and Gregory Kaslo

Korean American ceramicist Yoonjee Kwak’s sculptures embrace the Korean tradition of vessels as representations of human beings. In this light, a generous person would be symbolized by a large vessel. Untitled (from the Breath series), draws inspiration from minimalism, nature, and geometry. Each small opening acknowledges the individual’s interactions with their surrounding environment, a reminder of the interconnection of all things.

Richard Diebenkorn, Serge, 1985

Audio Recording

Richard Diebenkorn
(1922 – 1993, Portland, OR)

Serge, 1985
four-color lithograph, edition 6/26
Boise Art Museum Permanent Collection
Gift of Wilfred Davis Fletcher

Throughout his career, Richard Diebenkorn shifted between figurative artwork and pure abstraction, unrestricted by the popular art movement of the current generation. Serge is inspired by aerial views of the landscape. Here, Diebenkorn unifies the image through monochromatic color while pushing the use of representational references far into abstraction.