“Flying Point Beach: Photographs by John Jonas Gruen and The Artwork of The New York School,” will showcase the photographer famed for his portraits of poets, writers, artists and actors in the Hamptons during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. Playing host is (Art) Amalgamated and Gruen’s works will be on display from May 17 to June 9 2012.
The late ‘50s and early ‘60s was a pivotal point in the art world, especially the New York scene, Abstract Expressionism was gaining traction and Pop Art was blossoming. An art critic for the New York Herald Tribune and avid photographer, Gruen documented the scene all around him in the Hamptons, often taking photographs of his friends, such as Willem de Kooning, Pop Artist Jasper Johns, Mary Abbot, poet Frank O’Hara and playwright Edward Albee.
Often he and his wife Jane Wilson, also a well-known artist, would host extravagant parties at their Hamptons home. In attendance was many of the who’s who in the New York art scene. Here, Gruen would take some of his most prolific photographs, including one of de Kooning standing with a walking stick on the beach looking very much like a travelled explorer.
The artists, poets, dancers and musicians that made up the base of Gruen and Wilson’s photographs were part of The New York School. The School was a loosely based group of artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauchenberg who were highly influenced by surrealism and took the form to modernity, blending Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism together. The beat poets and writers were also of New York School fame.
For more information on “Flying Point Beach: Photographs by John Jonas Gruen and The Artwork of The New York School,” and (Art) Amalgamated you can visit their website here.
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