Art is beyond race. Neither artist nor aesthetic is based in social or ethnic constructs; instead art is created for the sake of itself. The American debate over what makes ‘good’ art is rooted in the theories of renowned art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. Concepts like those in Greenberg’s, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” 1939 Partisan Review article set the stage for an artistic American revolution, allowing and endorsing the art of Jackson Pollock, de Kooning, and many others, now legitimized as an artistic elite.

Now “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976” at the Jewish Museum is the first major U.S. exhibition in the last 20 years to rethink the Abstract Expressionist movement. More than 50 works by 32 artists are on view are juxtaposed with the influential criticisms of rival art critics Greenberg and Rosenberg through September 21st. The social and aesthetic networks of Jackson Pollock, his wife Lee Krasner, sometime-Greenberg-lover Helen Frankenthaler and others represent the Abstract Expressionist standard of both society and art that has endured since their initial publicity more than half a century ago. The Jewish Museum showcase marks the solidarity of the Abstract Expressionist movement—as American aesthetic standards evolve, the 20th tableau endures.

The show is organized in the context of the Greenberg-Rosenberg divide, with filmed critiques and original copies of published articles. The words of the Jewish theorists best express the dual controversy and legacy of Abstract Expressionism, showcasing both the radical theories as they speak for themselves and the controversies of the evolving time period: Post World War II Patriotism and McCarthyism as they clashed and complemented the aesthetic movement. Painted on the wall above the noted works is President Truman’s artistic response that it “looks like scrambled eggs.”

Eggs or genius, the legacy of Greenberg, Rosenberg, and the artists themselves makes for a worthy exhibition of American abstraction, ascending racial and historical context to create a completely new tradition.

-Alexandra Bregman