Some associate his name with art and ballet critics, others recall his exhibition of artist portraits at New York’s Whitney Museum in 2010. During World War II, John Jonas Gruen immigrated to the United States, where he met his wife, the landscape painter Jane Wilson, and other artists who would go on to revolutionize the American art scene. Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and other Abstract Expressionists moved to the Hamptons to work. As a member of this community of critics, composers (Leonard Bernstein), avant-garde poets (John Ashberry, Frank O’Hara), and other versatile artists like Larry Rivers, John Jonas Gruen documented their creative activity.
An exhibition at ArtAmalgamated, a Chelsea gallery that opened earlier this year, focuses on the halcyon days of the 1950s and 60s, a time before AIDS. Their art scene was small but brimming with ideas. Intimate, informal and lively, these photographs by Gruen offer a journey through a legendary time with the generosity of a friend sharing a family album. The photographs are displayed alongside works by the artists—de Kooning sketches, paintings by Jane Wilson, drawings by Fairfield Porter, a poem by O’Hara—which allows visitors to associate faces with the names of artists whose works they admire.
John Jonas Gruen – Flying Point Beach
May 17th to June 9th, 2012
(Art) Amalgamated
317 10th Avenue, Ground floor
New York, NY 10001
USA
