HOUSTON ARTISTS: Gestural and Geometric Abstraction

Two principal aspects of modern and contemporary abstract painting and sculpture are the spontaneous application of material in gestural painting, and the evenly applied, hard-edged forms that define the patterns and shapes in geometric art. We tend to think of these two principals as completely separate forms of art making that have little to do with one another. We also assume that abstract art is restricted to the formal issues of colors and shapes that have little or nothing to do with other aspects of nature and human life. The case for the critical justification of abstract art in western culture was accepted early in the 20th Century; in Houston, Texas, it has been a source of serious practice since the decade following World War 2.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website