Who was Henry Meloy?

Henry Meloy (1902- 1951) was an American artist who grew up in Townsend, Montana. After pursuing a degree in art at the University of Chicago, he ended up in New York City where he became a freelance illustrator and a professor of painting at Columbia University. During his career as an artist, Meloy cultivated a diverse skillset that included realistic oil portraits, graphic illustrations, and sculpture. Marketing himself as “The Cowboy Artist,” Meloy was able find work during the Great Depression, illustrating pulp fiction magazines and books that depicted romanticized tales of the American west with their fictional accounts of cowboys and their adventures. During the 1930’s, Meloy returned often to Montana, particularly during the spring and summer months, in order to visit family and paint watercolors of the surrounding Montanan landscape; he painted a mural for the Post Office in Hamilton, Montana in that period.

This essay discusses Meloy’s abstract works, one of the many art styles that he perfected during his career. The essay discusses what abstraction in art is, its historical context and importance, and how it relates to Henry Meloy. The article presents Meloy’s experiments with five varieties of abstraction across his career.

Self-Portrait of Meloy Painting Horses

Oil on canvas self-portrait of Henry Meloy with one of his oil paintings of colorful horses in the background

What is abstract art?

Abstract or non-objective art was an artistic style that emerged in the early 20th century and emphasized one of the many modernist philosophies of “art for art’s sake”. This motto boils down to the desire to create art in its purest form, without tying the artwork’s value to any ethical, social, or political meanings. Traditional European art until the late 19th century had favored representations of humans engaged in historical, religious, and mythological narratives that often relied heavily on complex symbolism to convey stories to those educated enough to interpret them. The goal of abstract art at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries was to grant art its autonomy from story-telling and to free it from the burden of realistic visual depictions of objects, humans, and landscapes. Artists instead focused on art’s basic formal elements of shape, color, line, form, and texture. The range of early abstract art covered a spectrum from basic lines, dots, and splatters, to recognizable images that often had broken down and simple shapes.

Nebulous Break

Oil on canvas abstract painting with browns and bold yellows and whites

What is the history of abstract art?

Abstract art began in European avant-guard art circles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in which artists actively deconstructed classicism’s rules of imitation and idealization, preferring to explore the often unconscious reaches of their imaginations and to experiment with unexplored techniques. The purpose of abstract art was to question conservative realistic depictions with narrative and/or symbolic content. “Simplifying” art would ideally make it more accessible to the average person. No longer would people require education and/or specialized knowledge to fully appreciate the art before them. The intention was to create universal appreciation of art through an abstract “lingua franca”.

Bubbling Magic Abstract

Watercolor on paper abstract using rounded shapes and a halo effect around main shapes and background

Meloy witnessed the rise of American Modernism across his lifetime as well as the antithetical Social Realism which clung to representation and was espoused by Fascist and totalitarian regimes. The latter in the 1930s increasingly viewed abstraction and the freedom of the individual artist to experiment as politically dangerous. Anything that subverted the classics was treated as a threat to those in power. German Nazis, for example, looted and destroyed abstract art at will. Artists lost their jobs, were jailed, and had their work labeled as “degenerate”. In New York City, Meloy met refugee artists who had fled Germany and nations occupied by the Axis-Powers. Modernism flourished in the US even as the realities of the Second World War grew ever more nightmarish.

Abstract Cauldron

Watercolor on paper abstract of a bubbling cauldron

Abstract art never achieved a state of being entirely a-political. Perceived as individualistic and democratic, abstract art during the Second World War was increasingly viewed as an active force of rebellion against the evils of totalitarianism. Artists who championed Modernism, particularly those affiliated with the New York School in the post-war period, were perceived as heros. During the Cold War, thanks to the efforts of museum directors, boards, and curators and funding from the newly-formed CIA, abstract art was marketed globally as the American antithesis to the Soviet-style Social Realism. It came to represent the freedoms found in the democratic nations of western Europe and the United States while at the same time conveniently deflecting criticism or negative portrayals of the West’s own problems and excesses.

Wind Leaf Figure Abstract

Colored watercolor painting on paper depicted in an abstract Modernist style with illustrative elements.

The style was not universally accepted, however, as many people found it facile, obscure, or impenetrable. Very few, if any, past art movements inspired the same level of vitriol within the art community than certain types of abstract art. Many today also see it as partially invented for and by classically-trained male artists, making it inaccessible to large parts of the general public. Since a restricted field of artists had this formal education, only a select group of white male artists became successful abstract artists and only a small group of global elites could afford to purchase their work.

Moonlit Window Abstract

Colored watercolor painting on paper depicting a nude figure in an abstract Modernist style.

Meloy’s abstractions: process and importance

It is a common misconception that abstract art requires less skill from the artist than other styles of art. Many assume that successful abstract art happens by accident. Classically-trained artists were trained to compose using simple geometric shapes such as circles and triangles and turn those into complex images. Modernist artists stopped at the point of these shapes and forms and asked, “What if art were just a collection of lines and shapes?” The harshest critique of abstract art is that it looks like a child created it, but for many Modernists that was indeed the point.

Children develop their concept of line, shape, colors, and patterns as part of their maturing cognitive abilities. Art is a form of play for the still-developing brain and helps it understand how to perceive the world. Art becomes a tool to better communicate thoughts, emotions, and concepts. Adult abstract artists do much same, but with intention and resources children do not possess. Thus, for an adult audience the fascination for base elements in art and design, can be a euphoric return to the wonder of childhood.

Abstract artists generally do not make random gestures, but rather employ line and color theory to rationally understand balance in composition and design. Abstract art simplifies art to its building blocks, but the hardest part is knowing how to organize them and when to stop. Henry Meloy tackled this problem in stages, using his classical art education to break down each component, one facet at a time and repeatedly experimenting before committing paint to canvas.

First, he would take small pieces of scrap paper and try out the look of different lines over and over until he achieved something he found visually satisfying; he would then create color swatches to test out which combinations looked best with one another, sometimes creating multiple test copies of a single concept for a larger artwork, and tweaking small details until he managed to get everything down just right.

While Meloy never received the critical acclaim of American Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock or Willem DeKooning, his methodical abstractions are important lessons for art historians and students of Modernism.  Although well-connected to the highest echelons of the New York School in the post-war period, Meloy did not chase fame and celebrity. Steadily employed by Columbia University, he explored the limits and potentials of abstract art largely for himself and his students. Notes from his lectures indicate that he also tried to make Modernism accessible to a large number of people. Those attempts were cut short by his sudden and tragic death in 1951. We can only speculate as to how many of Meloy’s students were impacted by his steady commitment to abstraction in the middle of the 20th century.

Sand and Time

Oil on canvas abstract painting with squiggly black lines building up in blue hues and tan tones

The categories of Meloy’s abstractions

B&W studies of lines and shapes

In many of his paintings and works on paper, Meloy employed a brush to make black lines and shapes that fill the empty spaces of the white ground. What appears to be random placements of paint, however, were actually intentional gestures, experiments with the interplay between light and dark and striking a balance between the two. In some examples, he created calligraphy-like shapes that evoke the Asian designs he had studied. The finished works demonstrate increasing control of his medium and sense of composition. Much of the simple forms of his mature work were rendered with both mastery and boldness.

Trek Circles Abstract

Black and white abstract watercolor painting in the Modernist style.

Black and white lines with added color

In these abstractions, Meloy employed his knowledge of color theory in order to add to his studies of black lines and shapes. Pairing the black and white designs with color resulted in more dynamic relationships between the white space of the paper and the arrangement of patterns to evoke a sense of visual balance.

Jack O’ Lantern Abstract

Watercolor on paper abstract using black lines with orange and yellow blocks

Surrealist elements

Meloy sometimes incorporated recognizable imagery in his abstract studies. Inclusions of elements such as eyes, ears, and other objects juxtaposed with abstract patterns give the paintings a sense of dream-like movement and are direct allusions to Surrealism’s emphasis on the dream state, the subconscious, and the irrational.

 

Blue Eye Abstract

Watercolor on paper abstract art with a realistic blue eye

Abstract nudes

One of Henry Meloy’s specialties was the depiction of human anatomy in the form of nude life drawings. Studying both the female and male nude was presumably a part of this studio practice and it transformed his abstract work. Meloy explored the movement and form of the human body, ending in both realistic imagery as well as abstraction.

Yellow Blue Rectangle Nude

Watercolor on paper abstract nude with blue and yellow color blocks

Abstract horses

Horses were a favorite theme of Meloy’s abstractions. Growing up on a ranch in Montana, horses were an early subject for him. Later the mature artist abstracted the horse as a central theme in his oeuvre. These works brings forth strong, sometimes chaotic, emotion as intense as any of his figural abstractions. Important artists like Rudy Autio, for whom the horse was also an iconic presence, acknowledged their debt to Meloy’s horse studies.

Howling Horse of Chaos

Watercolor on paper abstract horse howling at the sky

Conclusion

Henry Meloy studied, experimented, and worked to understand what made successful abstract art. Sometimes frustrating to critics and often polarizing to the general public, abstract art in its early history represented the unfettered creativity, research, and experimentation of artists. Working artists like Meloy, who had been classically-trained and had the skills to render detailed realistic imagery, instead deemed the style worthy of study, mastery, and perfection and pursued it with aplomb. More than associating abstraction with American elites of the post-war art world, Meloy pursued it as both his own exploration of craft and a viable avenue for the pursuit of artistic freedom.

Created by: Tsea Francisconi, edited by Rafael Chacón

Bibliography

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Art Credit 

Montana Museum of Art & Culture