Friday, March 26, 2010

Friday Find: Stamps by Abstract Expressionists

Sometimes email just doesn't cut it and you need to send a good ol' fashion handwritten letter. Pretty stationary is a must, but what about the stamp? A colorful, fun stamp is also a nice touch.

So when I saw these beauties, I knew I needed to share them with you. Earlier this month, the USPS released a 44–cent, Abstract Expressionists commemorative stamp in ten beautiful designs. In the 1940s and 1950s abstract expressionists, based in NYC for the most part, pushed the US front and center of the international art scene.

In celebration of the abstract expressionist artists of the 20th Century, Art Director Ethel Kessler and noted Art Historian Jonathan Fineberg (Gutgsell Professor Art History, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign) selected the ten paintings featured. I thought it was so clever that the arrangement of the stamps suggests paintings hanging on a gallery wall.

The following artwork and artists are showcased:

•The Golden Wall (1961) — Hans Hofmann (1880–1966)
•Romanesque Façade (1949) — Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974)
•Orange and Yellow (1956) — Mark Rothko (1903–1970)
•The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb (1944) — Arshile Gorky (1904–1948)
•1948–C (1948) — Clyfford Still (1904–1980)
Asheville (1948) — Willem de Kooning (1904–1997)
•Achilles (1952) — Barnett Newman (1905–1970)
•Convergence (1952) — Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
•Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34 (1953–1954) — Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
•La Grande Vallée 0 (1983) — Joan Mitchell (1925–1992)

I picked up a sheet of these colorful stamps today. Do you like them too?

*images courtesy of art.com, Hans Hofmann and USPS

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