abstract paintings
&
fine art prints

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"see the beauty in the pure abstraction of paintings by el cerrito artist harry gruenert" martha ross, diablo magazine, walnut creek, california 2006

harry gruenert's passion for surface and color appeals to many enthusiasts of contemporary art. his large and challenging paintings convey his rich sense of the mystery of abstract art and the importance of texture, authenticity and concreteness. his arresting work is gaining attention from both collectors and art connoisseurs.

harry gruenert came to painting in mid-life, he was born in germany and came to the us in 1983. gruenert paints primarily on wood panels, which he builds himself. age and authenticity is central to gruenert's artistic conception. the surface of many of his paintings seem supernaturally old, the result of a process of painting that draws on his patience and persistence.

current representation: berkeley, california | atlanta, ga | glen echo, maryland | austin, texas .

born 1955 | aachen | germany
autodidact, painting

private collections:
canada | usa | germany | china

corporate collections:
ceasars palace, las vegas, usa | westin toronto, canada | westin san diego, california | newport beach, california | senior visionary services inc, danville, california | pacific union real estate, san francisco, california | sunset magazine casa verde project, san francisco, california | triton mortgage, san francisco, california | shanghai, china

representation:
swenson fine art, international contemporary art consulting, swensonfineart.com | art matters, corporate art consulting 6112 oberlin ave glen echo, maryland, usa | eaton fine art, corporate art consulting, 900 w. north loop blvd. austin, texas | kcc modern living, 805 university ave, berkeley, california | dac art consulting, atlanta, georgia

selected solo exhibitions:
2007 dezart one gallery, palm springs california | 2003 artbeat gallery, berkeley california

selected group exhibitions:
2012 "summer tribute" sopa fine arts, kelowna british columbia canada | 2011 swenson fine art, laguna beach, california | 2008 dezart one gallery, palm springs, california | 2007 "new discoveries" butters gallery, portland, oregon | 2006 "selected work" union square gallery, san francisco, california

2008 artwork featured in motion picture "adopt a sailor"

art that does not depict recognizable scenes or objects, but instead is made up of forms and colours that exist for their own expressive sake. much decorative art can thus be described as abstract, but in normal usage the term refers to modern painting and sculpture that abandon the traditional european conception of art as the imitation of nature. abstract art in this sense was born and achieved its distinctive identity in the decade 1910–20 and is now regarded as the most characteristic form of 20th century art. it has developed into many different movements and ‘isms’, but two or three basic tendencies are recognizable.

in cubism and abstract art (1936), alfred h. barr, ‘at the risk of grave oversimplification’, divided abstraction into two main currents: the first (represented by malevich) he described as ‘intellectual, structural, architectonic, geometrical, rectilinear and classical in its austerity and dependence upon logic and calculation’; the second (exemplified by kandinsky) he described as ‘intuitional and emotional rather than intellectual; organic or biomorphic rather than geometrical in its forms; curvilinear rather than rectilinear, decorative rather than structural, and romantic rather than classical in its exaltation of the mystical, the spontaneous and the irrational’. looking at the subject in a slightly different way (and from a later viewpoint than barr's), it is possible to see three main strands in abstract art:

1. the reduction of natural appearances to radically simplified forms, exemplified in the sculpture of brancusi (one meaning of the verb ‘abstract’ is to summarize or concentrate); 2. the construction of works of art from non-representational basic forms (often simple geometric shapes), as in ben nicholson's reliefs; 3. spontaneous, ‘free’ expression, as in the action painting of jackson pollock. many exponents of such art dislike the word ‘abstract’ (arp, for example, hated it, insisting on the word ‘concrete’), but the alternatives they prefer, although perhaps more precise, are usually cumbersome, notably non-figurative, non-representational, and non-objective.

the basic aesthetic premiss of abstract art—that formal qualities can be thought of as existing independently of subject matter—existed long before the 20th century. ultimately the idea can be traced back to plato, who in his dialogue philebus (c.350 bc) puts the following words into socrates' mouth: ‘i do not mean by beauty of form such beauty as that of animals and pictures…but understand me to mean straight lines and circles, and the plane or solid figures which are formed out of them by turning-lathes and rulers and measures of angles; for these i affirm to be not only relatively beautiful, like other things, but eternally and absolutely beautiful.’ more explicitly, in his tenth discourse (1780) to the students of the royal academy, sir joshua reynolds advised that ‘we are sure from experience that the beauty of form alone, without the assistance of any other quality, makes of itself a great work, and justly claims our esteem and admiration’; and in discussing the belvedere torso he referred to ‘the perfection of this science of abstract form’. several notable critics followed this line in the 19th century.

in 1846, for example, charles baudelaire wrote that ‘painting is interesting only in virtue of line and colour’; in 1890 in a much quoted remark maurice denis said: ‘remember that a picture—before being a war horse or a nude woman or an anecdote is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order’; and in 1896 george santayana, after noting that colour may produce unpleasant as well as pleasant effects, ‘almost like a musical discord’, proposed that ‘a more general development of this sensibility would make possible a new abstract art, an art that should deal with colours as music does with sound’ (the analogy with music was often pursued; whistler, for example, sometimes gave his paintings pseudo musical titles, as later did kandinsky, kupka, and other artists, including the lithuanian composer painter m. k. Čiurlionis (1875–1911)). many of the leading painters of the 1890s notably the symbolists stressed the expressive properties of colour, line, and shape rather than their representative function, and this process was taken further by the major avant garde movements of the first decade of the 20th century especially cubism, expressionism, and fauvism.

by 1910, then, the time was ripe for abstract art, and it developed more or less simultaneously in various countries. kandinsky is often cited as the first person to paint an abstract picture, but no artist can in fact be singled out for the distinction. (a work by kandinsky known as ‘first abstract watercolour’ (pompidou centre, paris) is signed and dated 1910, but some scholars believe that it is later and was inscribed by kandinsky several years after its execution. this kind of problem arises not only with kandinsky: several early abstract artists were keen to stress the primacy of their ideas and were not above backdating works.) among the other artists who produced abstract paintings at about the same early date as kandinsky were the american arthur dove and the swiss augusto giacometti, cousin of alberto giacometti.

the individual pioneers were soon followed by abstract groups and movements among the first were orphism and synchromism in france. there was a particularly rich crop in russia, with constructivism, rayonism, and suprematism all launched by 1915. with some artists, abstraction represented merely a brief phase in their careers (among them the british artists vanessa bell, duncan grant, and wyndham lewis), but with others it was a vocation or even a mission. the almost religious fervour with which some of the russian artists pursued their ideals was matched by the members of the de stijl group in holland, founded in 1917. to such artists, abstraction was not simply a matter of style, but a question of finding a visual idiom capable of expressing their most deeply felt ideas. mondrian, for example, believed that his art of clarity and balance would lead to a society in which life would be governed by a universal visual harmony.

in the period between the two world wars, the severely geometrical style of de stijl and the technologically orientated constructivism were the most influential currents in abstraction (they came together in the bauhaus). paris was the main centre of abstract art at this time, partly because it attracted so many refugee artists from germany and russia, where abstract art was banned in the 1930s under hitler and stalin. there was also a strong abstract element in surrealism, which was born in paris. the first exhibition devoted solely to abstract art was held there by the cercle et carré group in 1930, and its successor, the abstraction-création association, founded in 1931, brought together a large number of abstract artists of various types and provided a focus for their activities. however, in general figurative art was dominant in the inter-war period and abstract art won little public acceptance. it was very much a minority taste in britain and the usa, for example, in spite of such outstanding individual contributions as the sculptures of hepworth and calder and the efforts of groups such as unit one (founded in 1933) and american abstract artists (founded in 1936).

the second heroic period of abstract art came after the second world war, when the enormous success of abstract expressionism in the usa and its european equivalent art informel made abstraction for a time virtually the dominant orthodoxy in western art. abstract art no longer seemed to need philosophical justification of the kind given by kandinsky and mondrian (although several of the abstract expressionists were equally high-minded in approach); however, abstraction was sometimes invested with a moral dimension as an embodiment of western freedom of thought, as opposed to the totalitarianism that had banned avant garde art in nazi germany and soviet russia (see degenerate art and socialist realism). in this respect it is significant that many of the abstract expressionists were influenced by european surrealists who had fled to new york during the second world war to escape the fear of such repression. thus, in the usa particularly, support for abstract art could be regarded almost as a form of patriotism. abstract expressionism represented a great watershed in art and many later developments were either evolutions from it or reactions against it. these included a revival of figuration, in the form particularly of pop art, but also new styles of abstraction, including post painterly abstraction, op art, and minimal art, all of which flourished in the 1960s.

minimalist art, sometimes referred to as "literalist art" and "abc art" emerged in new york in the 1960s.

it is regarded as a reaction against the painterly forms of abstract expressionism as well as the discourse, institutions and ideologies that supported it. as artist and critic thomas lawson noted in his 1977 catalog essay last exit: painting, minimalism did not reject clement greenberg's claims about modernist painting's reduction to surface and materials so much as take his claims literally.

minimalism was the result, even though the term "minimalism" was not generally embraced by the artists associated with it, and many practitioners of art designated minimalist by critics did not identify it as a movement as such. in contrast to the abstract expressionists, minimalists were influenced by composer john cage, poet william carlos williams, and architect frederick law olmsted. they very explicitly stated that their art was not self-expression, in opposition to the previous decade's abstract expressionists. in general, minimalism's features included: geometric, often cubic forms purged of all metaphor, equality of parts, repetition, neutral surfaces, and industrial materials.

robert morris, an influential theorist and artist, wrote a three part essay, "notes on sculpture 1-3," originally published across three issues of artforum in 1966. in these essays, morris attempted to define a conceptual framework and formal elements for himself and one that would embrace the practices of his contemporaries. these essays paid great attention to the idea of the gestalt- "parts... bound together in such a way that they create a maximum resistance to perceptual separation." morris later described an art represented by a "marked lateral spread and no regularized units or symmetrical intervals..." in "notes on sculpture 4: beyond objects," originally published in artforum, 1969, continuing to say that "indeterminacy of arrangement of parts is a literal aspect of the physical existence of the thing.”

the general shift in theory of which this essay is an expression suggests the transitions into what would later be referred to as post-minimalism. one of the first artists specifically associated with minimalism was the painter, frank stella, whose early "stripe" paintings were highlighted in the 1959 show, "16 americans", organized by dorothy miller at the museum of modern art in new york. the width of the stripes in frank stellas's stripe paintings were determined by the dimensions of the lumber, visible as the depth of the painting when viewed from the side, used to construct the supportive chassis upon which the canvas was stretched. the decisions about structures on the front surface of the canvas were therefore not entirely subjective, but pre-conditioned by a "given" feature of the physical construction of the support. in the show catalog, carl andre noted, "art excludes the unnecessary.

frank stella has found it necessary to paint stripes. there is nothing else in his painting." these reductive works were in sharp contrast to the energy-filled and apparently highly subjective and emotionally-charged paintings of willem de kooning or franz kline and, in terms of precedent among the previous generation of abstract expressionists, leaned more toward less gestural, often somber coloristic field paintings of barnett newman and mark rothko. although stella received immediate attention from the moma show, artists like ralph humphrey and robert ryman had begun to explore monochromatic formats by the late 50's. because of a tendency in minimalism to exclude the pictorial, illusionistic and fictive in favor of the literal, there was a movement away from painterly and toward sculptural concerns. donald judd had started as a painter, and ended as a creator of objects.

his seminal essay, "specific objects" (published in arts yearbook 8, 1965), was a touchstone of theory for the formation of minimalist aesthetics. in this essay, judd found a starting point for a new territory for american art, and a simultaneous rejection of residual inherited european artistic values. he pointed to evidence of this development in the works of an array of artists active in new york at the time, including jasper johns, dan flavin and lee bontecou. of "preliminary" importance for judd was the work of george ortman[1], who had concretized and distilled painting's forms into blunt, tough, philosphically charged geometries.

these specific objects inhabited a space not then comfortably classifiable as either painting or sculpture. that the categorical identity of such objects was itself in question, and that they avoided easy association with well- worn and over-familiar conventions, was a part of their value for judd. in a much more broad and general sense, one might, in fact, find european roots of minimalism in the geometric abstractions painters in the bauhaus, in the works of piet mondrian and other artists associated with the movement destijl, in russian constructivists and in the work of the romanian sculptor constantin brâncuşi. this movement was heavily criticised by high modernist formalist art critics and historians. some anxious critics thought minimalist art represented a misunderstanding of the modern dialectic of painting and sculpture as defined by critic clement greenberg, arguably the dominant american critic of painting in the period leading up to the 1960’s.

the most notable critique of minimalism was produced by michael fried, a greenbergian critic, who objected to the work on the basis of its "theatricality". in art and objecthood (published in artforum in june 1967) he declared that the minimalist work of art, particularly minimalist sculpture, was based on an engagement with the physicality of the spectator. he argued that work like robert morris's transformed the act of viewing into a type of spectacle, in which the artifice of the act observation and the viewer's participation in the work were unveiled. fried saw this displacement of the viewer's experience from an aesthetic engagement within, to an event outside of the artwork as a failure of minimal art.

fried's opinionated essay was immediately challenged by artist robert smithson in a letter to the editor in the october issue of artforum. smithson stated the following: "what fried fears most is the consciousness of what he is doing--namely being himself theatrical." other minimalist artists include: richard allen, walter darby bannard, larry bell, ronald bladen, mel bochner, norman carlberg, erwin hauer, sol lewitt, brice marden, agnes martin, jo baer, john mccracken, paul mogensen, david novros, ad reinhardt, richard serra, tony smith, robert smithson, and anne truitt ad reinhardt, actually an artist of the abstract expressionist generation, but one whose reductive all-black paintings seemed to anticipate minimalism, had this to say about the value of a reductive approach to art: 'the more stuff in it, the busier the work of art, the worse it is. more is less. less is more. the eye is a menace to clear sight. the laying bare of oneself is obscene. art begins with the getting rid of nature.' also notable are the postminimalist artists, including eva hesse, martin puryear, joel shapiro and hannah wilke.

fellow artists

soraida martinez, puerto rica
creator of verdadism, puerto rican artist, latina feminist painter, soraida martinez is a fine artist and designer who is known since 1992 as the creator of the artstyle verdadism- empowerment with truth in life and art.

eva ryn johannissen, sweden
abstract and other paintings on canvas, board and paper. contemporary art by swedish painter based in norrtälje, sweden. my abstract work is seldom abstracted from anything specific in the material world, although they often contain references to landscape, townscape, and other memories from my experience.

hanna al haek, sweden
born in syria in 1941. educated at the university of damaskus. several separated exhibitions in syria and he has represented his native country at international exhibitions in several countrys. moved to sweden in 1977.

vincenzo balsamo, italy (rip)
unfortunately, towards the end of the year the artist comes back to italy where he becomes seriously ill and eventually dies in rome on the 1st may 2017 at the age of 81.

art consulting and galleries

kcc modern living
contemporary funiture and art gallery, 805 university ave, berkeley, california, usa
harry gruenert original abstract art paintings and giclée prints available here

visual jill
interior decorating, 1240 dwight way, berkeley, california, usa

dac
art consultants, 1616 huber st, atlanta, georgia, usa

art matters
artmatters is a full-service art consulting firm creating exceptional spaces through art. we specialize in creating customized art solutions, from the initial art concept development through the design, selection, project management and fulfillment process, for corporate, hospitality and healthcare spaces throughout the greater washington, dc area.

swenson fine art
i do not have my gallery for now, but continue to be available for clients. i love hearing from all of you, whether it be for that perfect work of art that you are looking for, or the projects you are creating, or just to say hello.

eaton fine art
eaton fine art, inc., established in 1992, is a full-service art consulting firm specializing in creative project design, publishing and custom framing for the hospitality and healthcare industry internationally.

ascot studios
ascot studios was founded in 2005, and over the last 14 years have sold hundreds of beautiful original paintings to discerning art collectors all over the world. gallery director, phil harwood, has a wealth of experience in international art sales, including the procurement of highly collectible 20th century museum artists. phil now represents an exclusive group of leading contemporary artists, and works with private collectors from the uk, europe and the usa

abstract artist gallery
abstract artist gallery.org was created in a collaborative effort in order to present a vast online collection of the very best abstract artists of our day. simplicity is the key to presenting such a collection to the world, where the main page is an updated gallery index of all our juried artists. we do not sell original artwork of our artists, but rather serve as a central hub that channels artist with audience by promoting members artwork through organic search results and social media. we introduced the abstract artist gallery in early 2011 and are already becoming a wonderful and diverse resource for artists, art collectors, and students.

wooloo.org
wooloo.org was developed and launched in 2002 by wooloo, a danish artist group founded by sixten kai nielsen, martin rosengaard, and russell ratshin. today, wooloo.org — the group's first project — connects the resources of more than 30,000 cultural producers internationally, and is growing daily.

ulm aachener hobby aegyptologen
künstler/innen haben in jahrzehnte langer arbeit eine sammlung von kunstwerken geschaffen, die in ihrer art einen besonderen und einmaligen ausdruck aufweisen. ein großer teil von ihnen ist gegenwartskunst, thematisiert mit altägyptischen symbolen. so wird u. a. kritisch die sorglose behandlung ägyptischer mumien sowie der heutigen natur dargestellt.