"Signs & Symbols" At The Whitney Museum

"Signs & Symbols" at the Whitney Museum of American Art focuses on the work of postwar American artists before the triumph of the "all-over" canvases of Pollock, de Kooning and other abstract expressionists. Following World War II, artists and sculptors created works filled with symbols and calligraphy influenced by African, Native American, Eastern and surrealist art. I was particularly drawn to the "oceanic" forms of painters Theodoros Stamos and William Baziotes, the scrap metal totemic "Kabuki Dancer" by sculptor Richard Stankiewicz, and the mask imagery in Adolph Gottlieb's "Vigil," 1948 (above). The exhibition provides an illuminating look at an important period in the development of American abstract art. 

"Signs & Symbols" will run through Oct. 28, 2012, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave. at 75th St., NYC, (212) 570-3600, whitney.org.