Michael Goldberg

(USA)

 Stalke Galleri

Admiralgade 22

3 - 25 October 1987

Reviews

Sensual American

Pleasant surprise in a new gallery in Admiralgade

Michael Goldberg. Stalke Gallery, Admiralgade 22. Tue-Fri 1-6 PM, Sat 11-3 PM. Until October 25.

There are few surprises in the Copenhagen gallery scene, but here is one of them. The new Stalke Gallery opens with an exhibition by the American painter Michael Goldberg. There’s no reason to doubt his central position in the development of abstract expressionism’s evolution in the generation after Willem de Kooning, although one might suspect that he is somewhat unknown in his homeland.

To meet him now in Admiralgade is an event – but it’s also typical of the gallery’s policy: to position projects and installations under the umbrella of the Stalke Project, an extension of the one located in Subsets’ old premises in Nørregade 7C, alongside more established international artists.

It looks promising. Michael Goldberg is showing a series of smaller works from a recent stay in Tuscany, and the first impression of them is one of intimacy in the small format. His ability to formulate something monumental within these small works immediately stands out with their spontaneous sketches.

Moreover, one is captivated by the sensuality of the images. Goldberg works closely with color, both in terms of hue and material substance. The paint is squeezed from the tube, applied thickly, dragged and spread in large gestures across the surface – all characteristics of this generation of American painters, who emphasize being able to "handle the paint," managing and controlling the color.

Goldberg, with his confident handling of the medium, shows precisely what can be achieved with such means. Here, he balances on the boundary between calculated and free spontaneity, but one is never in doubt about his control. Behind the warm Tuscan hues lies a structure, as Goldberg introduces geometric figures and motifs, managing to transform them from abstract geometry into living figures full of the substance and quality of color.

Goldberg knows his craft, and his exhibition stands as a refreshing and stimulating demonstration of the qualities of "classical" abstract expressionism. He believes in painting as painting. It is a demanding and elitist art form that offers an extra dimension in a flat reality. "It is still very modern to me," says Goldberg, "that I feel art can transform the world – to create art is my contribution to the fight against all the distractions that try to reduce and limit our lives."

Well done. Welcome back, Michael Goldberg.

ØYSTEIN HJORT

Politiken - Thursday, October 15, 1987

MICHAEL GOLDBERG

The American artist, Michael Goldberg, born in 1924 in New York City, is regarded as a significant figure in American Abstract Expressionism and, thereby, in American art history. He was part of "The New York School," which marked the beginning of an independent art movement, uninfluenced by European traditions.

Goldberg's early introduction to art came through the Art Students' League in New York in the late 1930s. From 1941 to 1942, and again from 1948 to 1950, after military service in the U.S. Army, Goldberg studied under the European painter and teacher Hans Hofmann. In the early 1950s, he worked on abstract paintings that referenced Kandinsky's works from the early 20th century. Afterward, Goldberg transitioned to a more lyrical and open landscape style. A similar shift can be observed when he moved from his constructed still-life paintings of 1955–56 to the open landscapes of 1958–59.

The interplay between mass and emptiness forms the essential rhythm in Goldberg's development. His early landscape paintings, created in his studio, reflect more of a working process and a feeling for nature rather than direct observation.

For Goldberg, the oscillation between his studio landscapes and still-life works is a natural tendency, making his transitions from emptiness to mass more fluid.

Goldberg belongs to the second generation of American Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s, alongside Norman Bluhm, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Alfred Leslie, and Joan Mitchell. Signs of mutual inspiration can sometimes be seen between this second generation and the first generation, particularly between Goldberg and de Kooning, who lived near each other in New York. Key artists of the first generation include Rothko, Still, and Pollock.

In 1959, Goldberg was selected to exhibit at Documenta II in Kassel, Germany, alongside Bluhm, Hartigan, and Mitchell. The same year, he was also chosen to participate in the Fifth São Paulo Biennale in Brazil.

The connection between the first and second generations of American Abstract Expressionists is often perceived as a teacher-student relationship. However, it was not solely that; the second generation was also influenced by post-war painting, European modernist movements, and their own individual artistic struggles and integrity. These American artists themselves paved the way for proto-Pop and Minimalism, exploring new approaches to the figure, still life, and, most notably, the landscape.

As heirs to this new American tradition, this group of artists used paint rather than words to step out from the shadows of their predecessors. The works of this second generation have become influential trailblazers for subsequent decades.

To forget these artists' contributions to art would be equivalent to creating another gap in art history—a history that artists have always responded to, either by rejecting or assimilating the breakthroughs of previous generations.

(Translated from Action/Precision: The New Direction in New York, 1955-60, Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1984.)

Currently, Goldberg resides and works in New York, spending several months each year in Tuscany, Italy. He is affiliated with the Sonnabend Gallery in New York, and it is with great pleasure that we present his work in Denmark for the first time, at Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen.

STALKE GALLERI - ENGLERUPVEJ 62 - 4060 - KIRKE SAABY - DENMARK - PHONE: +45 2926 - 7433

CONTACT:  STALKE@STALKE.DK

OPEN BY APPOINTMENT