Jennifer Wellman

ARTS 3959

Professor Kira Van Lil

8 September 2013

Clyfford Still is regarded as a pioneer in the first generation of Abstract

Expressionists. As a "classic American man of the West" Still's upbringing defines his

artwork and artistic development throughout his career. Born in North Dakota, his

surroundings included the large landscapes of the Great Plains, which bred his natural

tendencies of generating an essence of great expanse and boundlessness in his work.

Still's artwork can be seen as a discovery, not only in the sense that his private collection

had been concealed for so long, but a discovery within one's self. His powerful approach

toward art left the world with a variety of raw, forceful paintings that overtake one's

emotions. This was not by accident; however, these were Still's intentions that he has

successfully accomplished through the purity of his work. The Clyfford Still Museum

took on the responsibility of structuring Still's artwork in the way he intended it to be

viewed. He was very specific about how he wanted his artwork to be distributed and

displayed. By giving his painting to an American city, his efforts to preserve his western

character have been achieved. There is something very remarkable about that, that gives

America something to be proud of. The world had seen astonishing artwork from artists

like Picasso and Van Gogh, but in 1904, an all-American artist was born who went on to

equal these exceptional European artists. It would be wrong to present Still's artwork as

single paintings. Collectively, his work narrates his life while simultaneously giving the

viewers an experience within themselves. Standing in a room surrounded by Still's

paintings is mesmerizing. Artwork presented in this way can easily be overwhelming and

claustrophobic, but Still's work is a journey to get carried away with.

Still's early artwork represents his strong interest in culture and his mastered

understanding of light and color. He recognized and valued the important human

elements that define being alive and incorporated them into his artwork. Still viewed the

idea of verticality as a means to express the foundation of the human life force. It is the

notion of being alive and engaging in an existence in space that he hoped others could

grasp from his paintings. Even in his earliest artwork, these abstract qualities of

verticality and horizontality were surfacing and had no intention of disappearing. The raw

emotion makes Still's artwork untraditional and very unique, setting him apart from the

rest of his contemporaries during his time. The collection of his artwork as a whole can

be seen as a complex visual autobiography. Still's upbringing, influences and

surroundings characterize his paintings in the 1920's. This landscape painting

encompasses vibrant colors and holds the notion of verticality through the building and

the plants. These qualities surface in almost all of his future works.

America experiences the Great Depression during the 1930's and the 1940's,

influencing Still's work to a great extent. Another influence for Still at this time was the

Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is an advancement of style in Still's artwork and it

begins to take on a transformation that can be defined by distorted, elongated figures. His

paintings depict the characteristics of farm life and are illustrated in a way that almost

frightens its viewer. These paintings do not only represent the devastating effects during

this time period, but they reflect the feelings of hopelessness and despair of the American

people at the time. This painting, like many other of Still's paintings during this time

period, show weathered, struggling American figures. The woman sits vertically with her

tired head tilted against the wall while her boney, naked body supports the male figure

who lifelessly rests from exhaustion. His hair is grey and his entire rib cage is exposed

through his leather skin. In all of Still's expressive figurative paintings, the hands and feet

of the figures are disproportionate to their bodies which may also suggest the intense

body labor required to survive. His use of the disproportionate figure also serves as the

visual growth and progression of abstraction in his work. Recalling the idea that

verticality represents life and horizontality represents death, the strong internal battle

between the two is evident. The surrealist aspects that Still adapts and expresses through

his paintings produced from 1920 to 1943, pave the way for a new transformation in his

work as the economic crisis disintegrates.

Following the end of the Great Depression, Still's paintings begin to leave behind

some of the dark feelings expressed in his Depression-era pieces. His paintings in the late

1930's become more simplified and transgress into stronger abstraction. The dark colors

he uses in his expressive figurative paintings are still evident, but he begins to incorporate

large spaces that replace the figures in his previous paintings. Verticality continues to

take on a strong form alongside his efforts to move his viewers with the energetic forces

of life through his work. Although Still's work has undergone considerable

transformation, the figure still remains, now taking on a completely different form. Still’s

canvases progress to monumental sizes and he begins to use electric colors. These non-

objective paintings are marked by expressive strokes of thick impasto, emitting vertical

lines that imitate the human body as it wanders through the force of the artwork.

Throughout the 1940’s, still makes several trips to New York and experiences the

Abstract Expressionist movement and in 1941 he moves to San Francisco and obtains his

first solo exhibition. As a Color Field artist, Still organizes his paintings with sharp forms

created from a variety of colors. His efforts to maintain the essence of humanity in its

natural state are achieved with his tool of simple verticality in the vastness of his mature

paintings.

The paintings in the Clyfford Still Museum accurately represent the depth of

Still's career. He was a well-developed Abstract Expressionist who confidently

encountered the challenge of representing his beliefs and what he viewed as important.

His artwork takes on a remarkable journey and as Neal Benezra notes in the Clyfford Still

Documentary, "nothing was an accident in his work, and nothing was an accident in

terms of the way he presented himself to the world". All of his paintings are indicative of

an artist who strived to release energetic elements and forces that define the universal

theme of life. Each piece of work, in their unusual sense, provides a portal for self-

discovery.