A b s t r a c t A m e r i c a :N e w P a i n t i n g a n d S c u l p t u r eEste l le Lovatt rev iews the current Saatch iexhib i t ion

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opposite: Peter Coffin, Untitled(Spiral Staircase), 2007. Aluminumand steel. 670.6 x 670.6 x 213.4 cm.Courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery,London ©Peter Coffin, 2009

below: Matt Johnson, Malus Sieversii,2008. Carved maple and acrylicpaint. 9.5 x 7 x 7 cm. Courtesy of theSaatchi Gallery, London ©MattJohnson, 2009

By the beginning of the 1950s, New York’sAbstract Expressionists impulsively freed-upthe Native American spirit. Indubitably

animated, Pollock, Motherwell, Reinhardt and Rothkowere expressive, on a giant scale. Then the 1960sbrought Frank Stella, Carl Andre, Donald Judd andBrice Marsden’s simple, pure art with as little aspossible interference from the hand of the artist.

Following World War II it was this growth of abstractart that eclipsed conventional depiction. Late intothe mid-Twentieth Century figurative painting madea come back through imagery from popular andconsumer culture.

Built-in to a contemporary adaptation of the‘genre’, Saatchi’s thirty-two artists – painters andsculptors – invest in traditional methods, but witha new and lively light-heartedness and socialirony. Making an historical acknowledgement totheir forerunners of the mid-Twentieth Centuryart, they mix Old Masters’ colours with tie-dyedsplatterings of bubblegum pink and fluorescentlime green. Their artwork - gripped by thecyberspace of jpeg and You Tube - makes for thelatest artists’ American dream.

America can be celebrated through the arts. Fromthe start, American artists have mirrored theindependence of America through independentvision and original beauty, creating an artisticspirit - unique to America - that is appreciated andacknowledged around the globe.

The rebelliousness of much contemporary art canbe marked as a response to 9/11. Howeverimmense the shock, in this age of change, artproves its substance. Today, embracing change,President Barack Obama says he is ready toreinvent and transform America. Obama’s dreamof an American Renaissance breathing new lifeinto the arts, creating faith in the community andcreativity, realises that contemporary art isintegral to rebuilding optimism in shiftinggeopolitics. Having a President and First Lady thatlike art (Barack and Michelle had their first date atan art gallery) is clearly a step in the rightdirection in increasing the art of today.

Mixed-media sculpture by Agathe Snow convertssimple stuff picked up from the streets into totemsof arty construction and story-bound impietyreconstitute the build-up of everyday life as a

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rambling, restless hallucinatory flash of communalbreakdown and Judgement Day. Four (CentreCross) is about “cartooning archetypes of powerthat I hated, with Mother Nature on my side”.Sketching together a broad diversity of citationsand allusions – from consumer culture toRenaissance painting – this comically models amodern-day St. Sebastian, a martyr of modernprofligacy, nailed to a crucifix. A coup d'état ofantipathy and decomposition, its tatty shoppingbag and McDonald’s flag symbolise an accompliceof the enemy.

Aaron Young’s Greeting Card 10a (taking its titlefrom Jackson Pollock, 1944 and echoing Johns andRauschenberg’s collaboration when a car drove onpaper) develops the impulsive doodles andscrawled signs linked with action painting, usingsomething much more potent - twelve high octanemotorcycles. It was made, ‘staged’, as aperformance with plywood panels laid out, 72 x128 feet, over the floor, then painted yellow, pink,orange, red and black, before bikers rode over it,for seven minutes. Made in the dark, themotorcycles headlights lit the action, thedeafening revving of the engines and smokynoxious exhaust fumes gave the effect of a rock-concert performance, suggesting abstract painting

is a hard-core spectacle or a debauched extremesport - Roman style. Another art piece, Focus onthe Four Dots In The Middle Of The Painting ForThirty Seconds, Close Your Eyes And Tilt YourHead Back (Frantic Fruit) is both the title and theinstructions. When followed, a portrait will appear- Jesus, Che Guevara or Charles Manson,depending on the viewer’s insight. Condensed, it’sthe ultimate Pop Art shorthand for a portraitoffering immediate satisfaction of either religiousor political dogma.

Engaging with art history from Cubism to Pop Art,Jonas Wood, looks at outstanding Americanartists of the Twentieth Century – Grant Wood,Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis. They aretransformed into cinematographic canvases,which blur contemporary American life betweenfiguration and abstraction.

A giant life-sized, Pianist, is Matt Johnson’s fifty feetorigami object of a concert pianist sat playing hispiano. It is blue in colour, referencing Yves Klein’ssignature International Klein Blue. Another artwork,a half-eaten apple, Malus Sieversii, is titled after thevery first variety of apple. The flesh of this life-sized wooden carving of the ‘forbidden fruit’ ismostly eaten, sawn with tiny Escheresquestaircases winding endlessly up and down to itscore and drawing on religious and scientificreferences from computers to record labels.

Guerra de la Paz is the Cuban born collaborativeduo who construct their sculptures from unwantedbits and pieces. In Nine, a monster pile of clothing- tons of prom dresses, Christmas jumpers andyesteryear fads - bear down the burden of a nationand its disclaimed historical narrative, a statement

indicating the might and significant worth ofsociety today. It also references the Biblicalnarrative with Adam and Eve, who, created nakedby God, felt no shame until they ate fruit from theTree of Knowledge of Good and Evil against God’scommandment. Seeing they were naked, they feltashamed for the first time and to hide their shamecovered themselves with leaves. Underneath thethreads of the bulky collection of garments can beseen the feet of nine people propping up itsfoundations. The number nine is revered inreligion, and considered a complete, perfect anddivine number representing the end of a cycle.

In memory of James Brown ‘Godfather of Soul’ isboth the title and source of Chris Martin’s painting.The huge black and white patterned painting looksa lot like circular vinyl LPs and 60s Op Art – agroup whose avant-garde funkadelic fashion are acreditable homage to Brown’s legacy.

Reconfiguring the colour scale of Ad Reinhardt andEllsworth Kelly, Joe Bradley challenges theunderstated framework of pantone-hued planes,inculcating time-honoured traditionalism andformalism with comic strip animated wit. Throughthis fusion of abstraction and figuration, Bradley

clinches the non-objective standards of 70’s artand a contemporary humanist approach to highculture, equally. Championing the abject, in thevariety suggestive of an available-to-all ‘easy toassemble’ Ikea reproducibility, defends their irony.Bradley’s retro-futuristic style develops hisabstracted ‘figures’, which, weirdly standard inrepresentation, strip down graphic illustration toits most pocket-sized form, putting the essence ofcharacter and narrative in a nutshell, lifting thelogo-istic shorthand of visual information aseminent to the appreciation of high art.

In total, it is promising art from the USA. If you’reat all interested in art, head down to the SaatchiGallery.

Abstract America: New Painting and Sculptureruns until 13 September at the Saatchi Gallery,Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, Chelsea, London,SW3 4SQ. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8968 9331.www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

opposite top: Agathe Snow, Three(Cross with Balloons), 2007. mixed-media sculpture - materials includeballoons, found objects, cloth, wood,concrete and wire mesh. 300 X 180 X80 cm. Courtesy of the SaatchiGallery, London ©Agathe Snow,2009

opposite bottom: Guerra de la Paz,Nine, 2007. Mixed media sculpturalinstallation. 365.8 X 213.3 X 213.3CM. Courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery,London ©Guerra de la Paz, 2009

below: Aaron Young, Greeting Card10a, 2007. Stained plywood, acrylic,burnt rubber. 6 panels: 4 x 8 ft each.Overall: 12 x 16 ft. Courtesy of theSaatchi Gallery, London ©AaronYoung, 2009