Richard Pousette-Dart Beginnings

Richard Pousette-Dart (1916–92), working in New York in the 1940s, created beautiful, layered paintings as well as experimenting with drawing, photography and sculpture. This publication, produced to coincide with the 2018 exhibition Richard Pousette-Dart: Beginnings reflects new research into the life and work of Richard Pousette-Dart and his significant contribution to American art in the 20th Century.

Playing a key role in the genesis of Abstract Expressionism and the New York School, which transformed American art in the post-war years, Pousette-Dart’s contemporaries included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Willem de Kooning. Jim Ede, creator of Kettle’s Yard, first met Pousette-Dart in New York in 1940. Research exploring their transatlantic correspondence over subsequent decades was a catalyst for the first solo exhibition of the work of Pousette-Dart in the UK, held at Kettle’s Yard in 2018. The majority of works on display were borrowed from US museums and collections, and had not previously been seen in this country.