2000 to the present: “A Perpetually Regenerative Now”
Stephen Westfall:
“The art world is much larger than it was when the AAA was founded. The proliferation and hybridization of abstractionist styles has clearly been accommodated and encouraged by the group. If abstraction has been so thoroughly integrated into contemporary art practice that it is often considered a mode to work against, then the subtle shift of balance in the AAA’s stewardship from advocacy to conservatorship will provide the careers it nourishes and discourse it fosters a reminder of the deepening connectedness that comes from being a part of a living tradition.”
Read more: The Abstract Tradition
Lucio Pozzi:
“What are its members doing? The field of abstraction witnesses a range of options almost as ample as the field of art at large. These artists explore a great many ways of making art, but what characterizes their production is the utmost importance they lend to sensibility and feeling, pushing often even towards the edge of meaninglessness, which is one of the most precious assets we can cultivate in a culture that tends to package any and all activities into sensational or publicizeable instant explanations.”
Read more: A Thousand Rivers – Lucio Pozzi
Two reviews of recent member exhibitions begin to clarify Pozzi’s query:
“The AAA does not play down artists’ honest struggles and achievement, reducing them to a question of who is “in” and who’s “out,” so it is pointless to stick an easy label on these artists. They share qualities of a spirit of experimentation that values questions more than answers, willingness to risk unusual means, courage in getting “messages” across, and also a strong sense of values.”
– Victoria Donohoe in the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2011.
Read more: Review of Abstraction
“These artists are still actively thinking while remaining true to their devotion to abstraction.”
– Barbara A. MacAdam in ArtNews, also in 2011
We will mark our 80th Anniversary in 2016. Exhibitions are planned and will be noted both here and on the Exhibitions page.
The last word in this chronology (for now) goes to Robert Storr:
“As AAA begins to round out its first century chasing abstraction into the future, “presentness” and “freshness” will remain the morning stars by which we navigate. Long may AAA endure in a perpetually regenerative now!”