Maturity: New York William Congdon

congdon went live in new york in february 1948, renting room on stanton street in bowery. point up, cities become leitmotif of painting; city seen setting of history, site of social tensions , dramas. first depictions of new york - crumbling façades of cheap buildings, jittery, nervously-penned windows offer no dominant perspective on heaving urban magma - seem reflect same moral criticism can seen in war drawings.

thanks eruption onto scene of whole new generation of “american” artists – mark rothko, arshile gorky, willem de kooning, jackson pollock, franz kline, william baziotes, robert motherwell, clyfford still, barnett newman, richard pousette-dart – city had artistic culture stimulating of paris in 1920s. through frame-maker, leo robinson, congdon met betty parsons, gallery - after peggy guggenheim’s “the art of century gallery” closed down - had become 1 of prime venues promotion of new york school. congdon began almost-twenty-year association gallery first one-man show in may 1949, on occasion of met of leading artists of day, forming particularly close links richard pousette-dart , mark rothko.

in 1950 congdon exhibited @ betty parsons gallery clyfford still, , in 1951 exhibited @ whitney museum of american art. in 1952 exhibited @ duncan phillips gallery nicolas de staël, , work featured in exhibitions @ whitney , art institute of chicago.