MICHAEL CORINNE WEST (1908-1991)

 
<div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div> <div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>Michael Corinne West’s story is a significant one. A prolific painter and poet at the forefront of the Abstract Expressionist movement, West is the artist least likely to be acknowledged as standing among the first generation with the core group of male artists. Placed in a confrontational role as one of the few women defying a male-dominated mythology, she shifted to gestural painting in the mid-1940s, often laying the canvases on the floor and working like Jackson Pollock. Her earliest work in black and white predates Franz Kline’s by several years. It included “<em>Black and White” </em>of 1947, which impressed Clement Greenberg, who was never inclined to dish a gratuitous compliment. Despite the changing tides of art and fashion, her devotion to mysticism, inner emotional states, and the subconscious as they relate to Abstract Expressionism continued unfazed and steady.  </font></div><br><br><div> </div><br><br><div><font face=Aptos size=3 color=black>“<em>The Day After</em>,” painted in 1963, is West’s visceral, abstract response to a pivotal moment in American history — the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The overlapping layers of saturated blood-red tones clashing with forceful strokes of black suggest the rupture in the national consciousness and evoke feelings of disruption and confusion, embodying the artist’s internalized grief. West transformed the event into a deeply personal expression of mourning, capturing the weight of a nation’s sorrow in a form that defies literal representation yet speaks volumes emotionally.  </font></div>
Der Tag danach196385 1/4 x 50 1/8 Zoll.(216,54 x 127,32 x 2,54 cm) Öl auf Leinwand
Provenienz
Privatsammlung, New York
Privatsammlung
Heather James Bildende Kunst

195,000

Die Geschichte von Michael Corinne West ist eine bedeutende Geschichte. Als produktive Malerin und Dichterin an der Spitze der Bewegung des Abstrakten Expressionismus ist West die Künstlerin, die am wenigsten als Teil der ersten Generation mit der Kerngruppe der männlichen Künstler anerkannt wird. Als eine der wenigen Frauen, die sich einer von Männern dominierten Mythologie widersetzten, ging sie Mitte der 1940er Jahre zur gestischen Malerei über, legte die Leinwände oft auf den Boden und arbeitete wie Jackson Pollock. Ihr frühestes Werk in Schwarz-Weiß ist einige Jahre älter als das von Franz Kline. Dazu gehörte "Black and White" von 1947, das Clement Greenberg beeindruckte, der nie zu einem überflüssigen Kompliment neigte. Trotz der wechselnden Gezeiten in Kunst und Mode blieb ihre Hingabe an Mystik, innere emotionale Zustände und das Unterbewusstsein im Zusammenhang mit dem Abstrakten Expressionismus unbeirrt und beständig.





"The Day After", gemalt 1963, ist Wests viszerale, abstrakte Antwort auf einen Schlüsselmoment der amerikanischen Geschichte - die Ermordung von Präsident John F. Kennedy. Die sich überlagernden Schichten aus gesättigten blutroten Tönen, die mit kräftigen schwarzen Strichen kollidieren, deuten auf den Bruch im nationalen Bewusstsein hin und rufen Gefühle der Zerrissenheit und Verwirrung hervor, die den verinnerlichten Kummer des Künstlers verkörpern. West verwandelte das Ereignis in einen zutiefst persönlichen Ausdruck der Trauer, indem er das Gewicht der Trauer einer Nation in einer Form festhielt, die sich einer wörtlichen Darstellung entzieht und dennoch emotional viel aussagt.
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