Make it New: Abstract Painting from the National Gallery of Art 1950–1975

By Harry Cooper
With contributions by David Breslin and Matt Jolly

Featuring thirty-five outstanding abstract paintings made between 1950 and 1975 from the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, this fascinating book casts a new glance at a renowned period in the history of art, including works by Lynda Benglis, Jasper Johns, Yayoi Kusama, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. A groundbreaking essay by Harry Cooper explores Pollock's preeminent role for these and other artists, analyzes artistic influence, and discusses what it means to be original. Focusing on Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Robert Ryman, Cy Twombly, and Simon Hantaï, and viewing their relationships to Pollock through the lens of Harold Bloom's seminal text The Anxiety of Influence, Cooper addresses the material, psychological, and thematic ties between Pollock's work and theirs and expands the circle of artists that we might consider his artistic heirs.

Harry Cooper is curator and head of modern art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. David Breslin is the associate director of the Research and Academic Program and associate curator of contemporary projects at the Clark Art Institute. Matt Jolly is a doctoral candidate in the history of art and architecture at Harvard University.

132 pages
54 color and 4 black-and-white illustrations
2014
ISBN 978-0-300-20790-3 (softcover)