JOHN YAU OBLIQUELY CHARACTERIZES GRACE HARTIGAN

Maxfield Parrish . Oil/Canvas, 1995



“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
― E.F. Schumacher

By Federico Correa

The following is a comment I  posted  in  response to a fine article titled  "Jasper Johns Refuses to Play by the Book" by  John Yau, American poet and critic based in New York.  Upon  reflection,  Yau's praise..acclaim... on the genius of Jasper Johns conjured  thoughts of yet another great and extraordinary  painter, the  late Grace Hartigan.  I thought of  Hartigan and what  set her apart from  her artist  contemporaries. I thought of her  uniqueness and  genius in an environment dominated by men.  Indeed, in Yau's  flowing acclaim of Johns as painter he was obliquely  characterizing  the genius of Grace Hartigan. 

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Thank you for a fine article on Jasper Johns.  I admire the painter and after reading your piece...clearly the man walks on water. I must say that your description of Johns reminded me of yet another great painter of some genius.  

Permit me to speak of the late Grace Hartigan. I befriended her years ago and needless to say, Grace was as resolute in her approach to the creative process as Johns or any painter worth his salt.

Cover for 'Oranges,' by Frank O'Hara. Cover art by Grace Hartigan. Tibor de Nagy Editions. 1953.

"He (Johns) was never interested in pictorial states of objectivity, purity, opticality, presence, immanence or in stopping time. He certainly did not wish to be associated with, or even try to accommodate his work to an aesthetic agenda." 


Indeed, Hartigan, stalwart as ever also singularly marched in her own "parade." Writing a dear-john letter to her long time friend Frank O'Hara ; dissing Clement Greenberg followed by moving to a cultural "back water".... Baltimore... in the prime of her career, Hartigan like Johns stuck to her creative genius clearly undaunted by the fashionable or the whims and demands of the NY art establishment.


"He (Johns) didn’t align his work with either Pop Art or Minimalism. And he certainly didn’t join any of the clubs associated with a style, technique or subject"


Certainly, Irving Sandler, quoted in a fine article published in the NYTs (1993) similarly echoed the above sentiment in describing Hartigan as a committed painter:  "She simply dismissed the vicissitudes of the art market, the succession of new trends in the art world. This didn't in any real or important way affect her. Grace is the real thing."

Grace Hartigan

"Johns' early work ushers in Pop Art". 

He was not alone. Lets not lose sight of the many other painters specifically his fellow Neo-Dada artists  like Allen Kaprow, Jim Dine etc. who like Johns expressed the mundane, the banal that defined American culture in much of their oeuvre.

I might add, in the "Hand-Painted Pop: American Art in Transition, 1955-62" exhibition at the Whitney (1993), two early large ground breaking paintings by Hartigan.... "Billboard" (1957) and "Grand Street Brides" (1954) were exhibited . This work has caused some art historians to credit Hartigan as among the "founders" of Pop Art. I believe , Johns work was also exhibited at this venue among others critically defined as Neo Dadaists.



Grace Hartigan, Grand Street Brides, 1954. Oil on canvas, 72 × 102 1/2 in. (182.9 x 260.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of an anonymous donor  55.27

© Rex R. Stevens

I suppose, what I am driving at is that Johns' predilection...his approach to the creative process is not unique but shared and embraced by many of his artist contemporaries. There are many fine one-person "parades" and ever so independent Grace Hartigan orchestrated her own as well.  

Grace Hartigan, Hollywood Interior, 1993, ACA Gallery




....The End....