As I mentioned, I recently went to the MoMA thanks to the generosity of a friend of mine. One of the reasons I’d been wanting to go was to see the Abstract Expressionist New York exhibit that’s running through April 25. The writers of the Beat Generation used to hang out in bars with the abstract-expressionist painters, so I’ve been fascinated by how the literature and visual arts of the 1950s have influenced each other and have done some writing on the subject.
I like this line that was posted on one of the placards in the museum:
With a grave intensity and sense of responsibility the Americans who would later become known as the Abstract Expressionists set out to make art that would reassert the highest ideals of humankind.
It reminds me of how Jack Kerouac said that “beat” stemmed from the biblical beatitudes.
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 