Frank Montgomery Abstract Expressionist Painting AG Gallery NY ~ Fluxus Artist!

Description: 1991 painting by NYC Abstract Expressionist and Fluxus artist Franklin P. Montgomery (Am., 1924-1992). Unframed acrylic on canvas mounted (originally, by the artist) to plywood panel measures 22 x 25 inches. Frank lived in lower Manhattan in the Tenth Street days, and later at 193 Midwood St., Brooklyn.This Frank Montgomery painting, one of his last compositions, brings to mind the best work of Norman Bluhm. After a 1961 group show that Montgomery exhibited in at the Fluxus gallery, run by George Maciunas, his work became increasingly experimental.Montgomery started off in the early 50’s somewhat like Wolf Kahn in that he was marrying abstraction to landscape, shifted to a more de Kooning-esque feel by circa 1960, and through the decades was ever so gestural and lyrical. Many of his peers, like Al Held and Nick Krushenick, were tightening up and painting geometric pictures, while Montgomery was loosening up. His work was painterly, while theirs wasn’t anymore.Frank Montgomery was a 10th Street galleries Member artist with Brata Gallery. Previous to this, he was an original founding Member / co-founder of Matrix Gallery, an earlier Downtown / East Village co-op at 26 St. Mark’s Place, along with Roger Jorgensen, who also was to join the lineup at Brata. Another very good artist (turned art critic by the mid-60’s), Amy Mendelso(h)n Goldin, also showed at Matrix and had an exhibition at the Brata in 1960.Sidney E. Zimmerman (1926-2007) was a founding Member of Matrix Gallery, too. Zimmerman, Frank Montgomery, Roger Jorgensen, and Amy Mendelson (Amy Goldin) formed an art circle. Along with five other artists including Robert Conover and James Cuchiara, they had a group show that made them Fluxus artists. Their exhibition was at AG Gallery, 925 Madison Avenue, NYC, May22-June 3, 1961. Fluxus founder George Maciunas owned and operated AG Gallery. You couldn’t get any more avant-garde than Fluxus, and Maciunas’ gallery was Uptown. Yoko Ono showed there.See the wiki-pedia page on “10th Street galleries” to read about the background and for a listing of each of the top (eight) co-op galleries along with their member artists. Frank Montgomery is listed along with Al Held, Ed Clark, etc., under the Brata Gallery section. I think the Brata was like a Fluxus precursor because that’s where Jack Kerouac and David Amram performed the first jazz-poetry reading in NYC.Most of the 10th Street co-op artists weren’t well-known and had to do other things to make ends meet. It meant everything to these artists if they got reviewed in ARTnews, which did happen for Frank Montgomery when he was with Matrix Gallery at 26 St. Mark’s Place. See ARTnews Vol 52, from 1953, for the review of his second solo show. Montgomery’s paintings were described as “oils in which color determines form”, etc.Some of the Brata Gallery artists, including Frank Montgomery, were featured in the major 1977-78 NY exhibition “Tenth Street Days: The Co-ops of the 50’s”. See the 72-page catalog for that, online.Fluxus artists were notably anti-commercial. That didn’t mean they and the Ab Ex painters didn’t want to take in some money from their art, rather that they were unorthodox and challenged the norms. Buyers for their artworks engage in the commercial or commerce aspect, since they’re purchasing things. For example, David Geffen sold his de Kooning to Ken Griffin for three hundred million dollars. In the actual ‘art world’, New York School paintings are of great interest.Check my eBay listings in the coming weeks for other paintings by Frank Montgomery, spanning his career from ca. 1951-1991. CHECK MY FEEDBACK AND BUY WITH CONFIDENCE! *** 20+ years of happy customers on eBay *** Please see my other eBay listings for more great items.Message me to arrange for combined shipping on multiple purchases.

Price: 2495 USD

Location: Pitman, New Jersey

End Time: 2025-01-25T23:43:26.000Z

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