George McNeil: About Place

For ACME Fine Art’s first exhibition of the 2015 season Gallery Director David Cowan will present the gallery’s sixth solo show of oil paintings by 20th century expressionist master George McNeil. The exhibition will open at ACME Fine Art’s SoWa gallery on Friday, 9 January 2015. A reception will be held from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on 6 February in conjunction with SoWa’s First Friday of February celebration. The exhibition will be comprised of a group of 18 landscape inspired paintings from the estate of the artist that date from between 1955 and 1990. The works range from small, highly abstract panels that were painted en-plein-air at the height of the Abstract Expressionist Movement, to monumental mixed media studio paintings that McNeil made from the beginning of the Figurative Expressionist Movement—mid-century through the late 20th century—as part of what later became known as the Neo-Expressionist Movement. The exhibition will be on view through Saturday, 21 February 2015. Exhibition catalogues will be available through the gallery.

George McNeil was a true pioneer of American modern art. Today he is recognized as one of the few true first-generation Abstract Expressionist painters. It should also be noted, however, that McNeil’s legacy in modern art began long before his participation in the advent of the New York School.  Among his other early noteworthy accomplishments, McNeil was one of the founders of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936, and in 1939 he was one of only five non-objective artists whose work was selected for the New York World’s Fair exhibition.