The Essence of Form Abstract Prints from the MMFA Permanent Collection

The Essence of Form represents the work of many significant artists from the modern and contemporary era found in the MMFA Permanent Collection. Although primarily known as painters and sculptors, these artists found that printmaking allowed them to expand upon their individual ideas in new ways. Working in a variety of styles from loosely gestural expressions to hard-edged geometries these artists used printmaking as a way to experiment, and many embraced it as another essential way of working. Rooted in the first and second generations of Abstract Expressionism that began post World War II, and expanding into Minimalism, these prints signify the exciting advances in American art as artists embraced non-representational imagery to evoke emotions or to explore purely formal concerns such as shapes and colors.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website