Diane Rosenstein Fine Art is pleased to announce, "The Washington School," a new exhibition of work by the “first generation” of Washington Color School painters, including rarely seen work by Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis. On view will be 14 paintings by Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, Thomas Downing, Gene Davis, and Howard Mehring -- the original artists included in Gerald Nordland's influential exhibition, "The Washington Color Painters," at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in the summer of 1965.

Our exhibition chronicles the pivotal shift from Abstract Expressionism into Proto-Pop Art, Op Art, and Minimalism. Highlights include Morris Louis’ “Number 33,” (1962); Kenneth Noland’s “Trans Varies” (1968), included in Noland’s 1977 Guggenheim retrospective; and Thomas Downing’s “Korfu” (1965) - - a “Parallelogram” from Downing’s one-man show at the La Jolla Museum of Art in 1968.

“The Washington School” also includes a “Cathedral” painting by Leon Berkowitz, an artist strongly associated with Louis and Noland. Berkowitz founded the Washington Workshop Center for the Arts, and was Chairman of the Painting Department at the Corcoran Gallery School for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

In 1960, Critic Clement Greenberg championed the Washington Color School painters as the immediate descendants of Abstract Expressionists. Through pouring and staining unsized canvases, and further isolating color in geometric compositions, these artists formed new paintings with color and color alone, each in unique ways. The emotional components of color are presented immediately and without "painterly" gesture – the paintings are optical experiences.

“The Washington School” artists were first shown in Los Angeles in 1964, as part of Greenberg’s “Post-Painterly Abstraction” at LACMA. The following winter, Gerald Nordland’s “The Washington Color Painters” show traveled to the Art Museum at U.C. Santa Barbara. More recently, the Norton Simon Museum included Thomas Downing and Kenneth Noland in the 2011 exhibition, “Surface Truths: Abstract Painting in the Sixties.”

"The Washington School" opens Saturday, June 23rd with a reception from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition will be on view from June 23rd - August 25, 2012.?Hours are 10 am – 6pm, Tuesday – Saturday.

For further information, please contact info@dianerosenstein.com