Mark Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976)

Orange Leaves

1965

Tobey may not be the first person you think of when you muse on Abstraction (it's probably Pollock), but, in my view, Tobey enthused a great deal more spirituality into his works than his contemporaries. In fact, Pollock was somewhat influenced, and not surprisingly when you view his works, by Tobey. Of course, Tobey was one of the eldest Abstractionists about, having been born in the 19th century (thinking about Tobey, I'm a bit reminded of Pissarro, who was the old man of the Impressionist clique, or, if you prefer the Beat Generation writer William Burroughs). I think there's something extremely interesting about those long-lived elder artists that form artistic circles around themselves, because they always tend to have a deep amount of reflection in their works, while working in very modern styles; certainly Tobey seems, to me, to be such an artist.