Eli Ricanati

Eli Ricanati

Universal Largeness: Abstract Expressionism’s Unique Attention to Large-Scale Canvases

In my thesis, I contend that canvases of the Abstract Expressionist movement utilized colossal scale unlike any international art movement before. In my research, I focus my attention heavily on the ideological factors which drove the creation of big paintings throughout art history, as well as the specific theories which supported American abstract painting in the twentieth century; I also identify institutional (i.e. the rise of the Museum of Modern Art) and economic (i.e. The United States’ post-World War II economy) trends which helped promote the creation of large-scale, canvas-based works. Furthermore, I analyze the influence of Jackson Pollock on other Abstract Expressionist artists and his important role in physically proving, through his painting, the validity of American abstractionist philosophy. 

Visual Component:

The paintings represented in my visual component range from 1900 to 1970 and seek to enunciate how the rise of Abstract Expressionist paintings beget a growth in canvas size. These Abstract Expressionist works, which begin to appear in 1943, utterly dwarf those which came before them. The paintings are part of a larger, data-driven study I conducted to determine the actual growth of Abstract Expressionist paintings in relation to those of earlier, predominantly European, art movements in the first half of the twentieth century. 

*Note that all canvases have been scaled to each other.

Advisors:

Will Schmenner (ARTH)

Ian Verstegen (VLST)