1½ col

Sonia Gechtoff, NA (b 1926), “The Visitor,” 1960–61, oil on canvas, 32 by 32 inches, gift of the artist, 2006.

1½ col

Stephen Antonakos, NA  (b 1926) “The Light,” 1997, white Varathane paint on wood with neon, 25 by 253/8  by 4½ inches, NA diploma presentation, 2005.

FOR 9/7

‘THE ABSTRACT IMPULSE’ ON VIEW AT NATIONAL ACADEMY w/2 cuts

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NEW YORK CITY — “The Abstract Impulse: Fifty Years of Abstraction at the National Academy, 1956–2006” is on view at the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts until January 6. A reception will be September 18.

Abstraction has been the dominant artistic mode of the last 50 years and has recently received renewed interest from artists and scholars. For decades following the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, the National Academy had a capricious relationship with abstract art, often rejecting it, occasionally embracing it and ultimately accepting it.

While there are some New York School artists who never became academicians, others exhibited in the annual exhibitions and many were eventually elected to membership in the Academy. “The Abstract Impulse” illuminates the often contentious history of abstraction at the National Academy over the last 50 years and reveals just how pervasive abstraction became as a vital and viable artistic avenue.

Comprising 47 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, “The Abstract Impulse” highlights academicians who were participants in such critical movements as Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Op Art and more.

Organized both thematically and chronologically, the exhibition is divided into three general sections: gesture, geometry and introspection.

Gesture is the hallmark of Abstract Expressionism and signified a groundbreaking development in abstract art that has continued to flourish. Gesture may be seen in some of the earliest works such as Reuben Tam’s “Monhegan Night,” 1956, as well as in the more recent lyrical forms of Richard Hunt’s sculpture, “Offset,” 2002.

By the mid-1960s, an abstraction based on primary geometric structures began to eclipse earlier gestural work. Many artists, such as Robert Mangold, have to refined their use of a geometric vocabulary in works such as “Frieze Study I,” 1994. Others such as Angelo Ippolito combined this with an expressionist tendency in “Roundabout,” 1982.

Abstraction, absent of representation, is an inherently hermetic mode of creation. Its meaning or intentions may often lie far beyond the surface of the paintings, print, or sculpture, as in Pat Adams’s “Des Clefs,” 1990, which transgresses stylistic boundaries to convey a potent element of psychological introspection.

These three designations of gesture, geometry and introspection are not intended as hard and fast designations and there are many works in the exhibition that may fit into two or three of these categories. These groupings are presented as a loose guide to help organize the innumerable ways in which artists have continued to create abstract art over the last 50 years.

“The Abstract Impulse” will be accompanied by a full color catalog.

The National Academy is at 1083 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street. For information www.nationalacademy.org or 212-369-4880.