Abstraction on Paper

Throughout its history, the Art Students League has been a place where the technical and theoretical aspects of abstraction have been explored, examined, and expanded. The works in this exhibition consider different approaches to abstract composition on paper. Using a variety of mediums and techniques including drawing, printing, painting, and collage, the artists featured take advantage of the intimate scale of the page to investigate the formal possibilities that abstraction allows and the changing definitions of abstraction as such.  

Representing over 75 years of the League’s history and including pieces by influential figures like Dorothy Dehner and Robert Beverley Hale, the results range from works that are strictly non-objective to others that allude to music, architecture, and the human figure. Although they vary widely in style, they share the same exploratory energy that has defined the League as a whole, in each case using the page to re-define abstraction anew.

‍