Jacqueline Francis at "Refracting Abstraction" symposium (Jan. 2017)

"Refracting Abstraction" was a three-day program (Jan. 26-28, 2017) at the Anderson Collection Museum at Stanford University.

On Jan. 27-28, discussion centered around what constitutes the boundaries of Abstract Expressionism continues to recur despite decades-long attempts by revisionists. Most provocatively, Ann Gibson's book, Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics (1997) demonstrates how women, artists of color, and queer artists were systemically left out of the canon. Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline remain the familiar anchors of Abstract Expressionism. The Anderson Collection showcases important works by the above-mentioned names. Yet there are many artists not currently a part of our permanent collection whose involvement in the movement has been omitted from the oft-repeated narratives of the period. The Anderson Collection Museum takes this opportunity to look in depth at black artists working abstractly at mid-century as a case study in order to nurture the growing scholarship in this area. 

The proceedings were recorded, and hopefully will be published soon. I'm looking forward to their availability because I missed the first day's panels. (It was the first day of my Spring 2017 SFSU class.) On Friday evening, I did catch abstract painter's Stanley Whitney's conversation with art historians Andrianna Campbell and Alexander Nemerov: it was illuminating and entertaining. Whitney talked about the New York art worlds of the 1960s and of our time; his brilliantly colored geometric paintings; and the dedication to his artistic practice.

On Saturday, I moderated the "Politics and Abstraction" panel with art historians Campbell, Sarah Louise Cowan, Lauren Kroiz, and Lucy Partman. We had a lively discussion about the careers of artists Norman Lewis, Howardena Pindell, and Hale Woodruff, and about connoisseurship and canons.