American Art Collaborative

"I improvised abstractions from objects and energies seen in space." McNeil, George McNeil, Abstractscapes and Figures, Exhibition Catalogue, 198
George McNeil created this image while studying with Hans Hofmann at the Art Students League. He recalled that Hofmann taught him to emphasize the two dimensions of the canvas even as he evoked the three dimensions of the world. (George McNeil, Expressionism, Exhibition Catalogue, 1984) Here, the vague form of a seated figure emerges from a pattern of rectangles, and the bright colors and thick layers of paint create a vibrant surface over the entire canvas