Clyfford E. Still
1904-1980
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A major abstract expressionist associated with the post-war California Bay Area avant garde, Clyfford Still was committed to shedding European traditions in art and to expressing his own personal thoughts and emotions through his work. Still developed a signature style that was a combination of abstract forms suggesting both depth and flatness with no central focal point. Jagged forms appearing as though they were the same depth were all over his canvases.
He was from Grandin, North Dakota and grew up living between Spokane, Washington in the winters and the remainder of the years on the prairie of southern Alberta, Canada where his family homesteaded. This experience was quite formative in that the environment was rigorous, and death was a constant. He hung around a preacher's library reading art books, and he also painted landscapes and did portraits of his family and other local people.
In 1928, he went to New York City, looked in briefly at the Art Students League and liked nothing that he saw because he felt that everything was reduced to examples of historical schools and was intended for rich, important people.
He returned West and graduated in 1933 from Spokane University with a major in art and then taught at Washington State University at Pullman. He felt much more in common with the music and math teachers than his fellow art instructors, and his heroes in fine art were Rembrandt, Turner, Blake and Beethoven.
Contrary to the prevalent urban realism in art led by Robert Henri in New York, Still was exceedingly confident about subject matter based on his rural background. His early painting is parallel to American Scene painting and reflects his fascination with the bigness of the land.
In the 1930s, he spent two summers at Yaddo, a retreat for artists, writers, and musicians in Saratoga Springs, New York, and from his experiences there determined to turn away from landscape painting to imaginative figure subjects in a style that was austere.
He moved into abstract expressionism, using broad and quick brushstrokes and rich textures on large-scale canvases, but unlike many of his peers, he was not interested in throwing paint on canvas but painting deeply as though he were coming out the other side. Many of these pieces had gaunt male figures, elongated and roughly executed, looming over their surroundings.
In the 1940s, he added wiry, busy lines over forms which were surreal and organic, amoebic appearing, and he also did watercolors and sculpture. Many of his biomorphic works were shown at the Peggy Guggenheim Art of this Century Gallery in New York.
In the early 1940s he went West where his life was a struggle, especially since he had young family. He took work in the San Francisco shipyards and for Hammond Aircraft Company and painted in makeshift studios near Berkeley. However, he got little response to his work.
In 1943, he took a teaching job at the Richmond, Virginia Professional Institute and worked hard to clarify his vision. In 1945, he took his work to New York and made a strong impression on Mark Rothko and Peggy Guggenheim.
From 1946 to 1950, he taught at the California School of Fine Arts where he became an influence in popularizing Abstract Expressionism. It was an atmosphere of highly charged rebellion, and Still was a puzzle to many of his peers because he was so dignified and ascetic-seeming in this setting. He drank little, had few friends, and worked from an isolated studio in the school. He drove a gray Jaguar sedan, which he maintained fastidiously.
He made periodic trips to New York, keeping a direct connection between both coasts and the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. It was not until 1947 and a one-man show at the California Palace Legion of Honor that many Californians saw Still's paintings, and viewers seemed awe struck at the violent, raw power of the canvases. Still's influence at the California School was reinforced when he brought his close friend Mark Rothko to teach there during two summer sessions.
Source: AskArt.com
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