(Abstract Expressionism) | An archive of letters by notable abstract expressionists on Henri Matisse’s influence

Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, Clement Greenberg, Richard Diebenkorn, and others

Archive of letters from Abstract Expressionist artists and critics responding to a graduate student’s questions about Henri Matisse’s influence, 1981-1982

Comprising: Helen Frankenthaler. Typed letter signed ("HF"). 1 page, New York, NY, 28 October 1981 — Clement Greenberg. Typed letter signed ("Clement Greenberg"). 1/2 page, Norwich, NY, 30 October 1981 — Charles Pollock. Autograph letter signed ("CP"). 1 1/2 pages, Paris, France, 4 November 1981, with the original envelope — Alex Katz. Autograph letter signed ("Alex Katz"). 1 page, n.p., 6 November 1981 — James Brooks. Autograph letter signed ("James Brooks"). 1 page on ruled notebook paper, East Hampton, New York, 7 November 1981, with the original envelope — Richard Diebenkorn. Autograph letter signed ("Richard Diebenkorn"). 2 pages on ruled notebook paper, Santa Monica, California, 8 November 1981, with the original envelope — Dore Ashton. Autograph letter signed ("Dore Ashton"), 1 page on the blank margins of the recipient's original letter solicitation, [Cooper Union, New York, NY, 10 November 1981] — Grace Hartigan. Autograph letter signed ("Grace Hartigan"). 1 page, Baltimore, Maryland, 1 January 1982, with the original envelope — Clement Greenberg. Typed letter signed ("Clement Greenberg"). 1/2 page, Norwich, NY, 14 January 1982 — Ray Parker. Autograph letter signed ("Ray Parker"). 4 pages, n.p., 2 February 1982 — Charles Pollock. Autograph letter signed ("CP"). 2 pages, Paris, France, 3 February 1982, with the original envelope — Robert Motherwell. Typed letter signed ("RM"). 2 pages, Greenwich, CT, 4 February 1982, with the original envelope. Overall 8 autograph and 4 typed letters, 17 1/2 pages; minor wear from handling.

Helen Frankenthaler, Alex Katz, Clement Greenberg, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Motherwell, and more on the influence of Henri Matisse.

A fascinating archive of letters written in response to a series of questions from a graduate student who was researching the influence of Henri Matisse on Abstract Expressionism. The student describes his research as being, “primarily concerned with the dissemination or infiltration of Matisse’s paintings and ideas on paintings into the American art world from the late 1920’s onwards.” He also specifically asks about books and exhibitions that they read or visited. The questions elicited a wide array of responses, sometimes curt, as with Clement Greenberg's initial response ("You've asked the impossible of me—not only the equivalent of an article, but a researched article.") but oftentimes more generous and verbose. For example, despite his initial refusal, a second letter from Greenberg offered a recommendation for his own small book on Matisse published by Abrams in 1952, and a nod to Matisse’s painting, “Bathers by a River that hung in the Valentine Gallery on & off for several years in the late 30s & early 40s.”

In Robert Motherwell’s detailed and wide-ranging response, he describes feeling a “shock of recognition” or “(to put it naively) love and identification at first sight” when he first saw a Matisse painting. It was around 1933, when he was an 18-year-old student at Stanford visiting the Stein collection in Palo Alto (coincidentally, Diebenkorn, who attended Stanford a decade later, also recalls encountering Matisse’s work for the first time during a visit to the Stein collection). He then lists certain books from his library on the painter, including Albert Barnes’ monograph, his full run of Verve, and “a small paperback printed in Moscow, attacking Matisse as a bourgeois.” Motherwell goes on to discuss aspects of his childhood (including his mother’s love of French furniture), how Matisse and Cezanne caused him to confuse Francophilia with a love of modernism, and the success of his 1977 Paris retrospective (“maybe they [the young French painters] felt a ‘shock of recognition’ in reverse”). He also references his impending 1982 show at Knoedler & Company, saying "I am about to exhibit in several weeks, my most recent paintings which are still partly indebted to Matisse, though this will probably not be noticed because they are mainly in black and white." This letter has been cited in critical writing on Motherwell’s art and is reproduced in The Collected Writings of Robert Motherwell (Oxford University Press, 1992).

Frankenthaler and Diebenkorn both responded in list form, enumerating either publications or exhibitions, and some specific artworks, they feel may have influenced their work. Diebenkorn offers further analysis: "The works of 1914 to 1918 have been the focus of my engagement with Matisse although I can't think of any moment of his career that I would put in 2nd place." Frankenthaler cites “Clement Greenberg’s beautiful tiny paperback booklet on Matisse written in the early 50’s,” as well as “a rare book… extremely precious, with black and white lithograph-illustrations… of course it was stolen.”

Other artists are more evasive, perhaps elucidating more about the tensions at play in the relationship between art historians and their subject than about Matisse. Alex Katz writes: "...as for influence, it is not a matter of fact it is a matter of opinion and your opinion of Matisse's influence upon my work may be as valuable as mine." Grace Hartigan's letter is even more blunt: "It seems to me that art historians and graduate students are lazy. They want the artists to explain the in-explicable. If you want to see the influence of Matisse on the "Abstract Expressionists" — LOOK! Don't expect artists to give their secrets."