Human Image in Abstraction

Whether they splash haphazardly or brush minutely, abstract expressionists have one basic common bond: a conscious disregard for subject matter. Yet this week, at the generally abstract Signa Gallery in East Hampton, N.Y., a show of oils (and a few sculptures) by abstraction's top disciples is grouped under one unifying theme of content--"The Human Image."

The show was organized by Signa's three painter-directors, John Little, Elizabeth Parker, Alfonso Ossorio, each of whom holds a respectable niche in the expressionist movement. "We thought of this theme," said Ossorio, whose Reconciler is one of the exhibit's highlights, "because we knew that among our group many were trying to put on canvas the very essence of human experiencing. That is what we mean when we say [as Pollock used to] 'to get into the painting.' There is nothing detached or eccentric about our work. It is a total commitment, and once expressed on canvas, it represents the most vivid and dramatic expression of the human image possible--ourselves."

Once the three directors were convinced of the validity of their theme, they made a careful selection of artists, visited studios, often insisted on a particular painting. They decided on two free-form spontaneous doodles by the late Jackson Pollock, violent outbursts of vivid colors by Willem de Kooning, a melancholic mood piece by Grace Hartigan, harshly contrasting patterns by Richard Pousette-Dart. They added four morbidly humorous, squashed-face portraits by France's

Jean Dubuffet, the only Ecole de Paris painter whose painting philosophy they felt matched their own. Their final choices ranged from Elaine de Kooning's near realistic portrait of husband Willem to the abstract Black Forms by East Hampton's John Little, in which a human form can be seen with some imagination.

To the surprise of many a viewer, the show of 30-odd abstractions establishes its "Human Image" theme in a way that is clear even to the uninitiated.

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