“The Responsive Eye Revisited: Then, Now, and In-Between” Exhibition

Miles McEnery Gallery (520 W 21st St.)

This event has ended.

MILES MCENERY GALLERY presents “The Responsive Eye Revisited: Then, Now, and In-Between.”

Paying tribute to the Museum of Modern Art’s 1965 exhibition entitled “The Responsive Eye,” Miles McEnery Gallery’s presentation of “The Responsive Eye Revisited,” sets forth a reinvigorated take on the iconic exhibition. Emphasizing the wonders of the perceptual and cognitive experiences created by abstraction, “The Responsive Eye Revisited” spotlights the ongoing, boundless impact of abstract art.

In the climate of the mid-1960s, the original exhibition generated widespread discussion about the value of viewer interaction in contemporary art. “The Responsive Eye,” looked to the future — the artists aimed to break free from the boundaries of the past, charged with the prospect of art’s ability to do the unprecedented. Including a range of materials, they rejected the exclusive notion that art is an extension of its creator’s inner sentiments, and gave precedence to the viewer’s unique and intimate interactions with a work of art.

“The Responsive Eye Revisited,” alternatively, looks to the past while remaining firmly grounded in the present. The exhibition includes a selection of works by contemporary artists — Beverly Fishman, Warren Isensee, Markus Linnenbrink, and Patrick Wilson — alongside artists who themselves participated in the original exhibition or were active in the decades in-between — Josef Albers, Karl Benjamin, Gene Davis, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, John McLaughlin, Kenneth Noland, and Al Held.

Illustrating an inclusive understanding of the power of abstract painting, “The Responsive Eye Revisited,” highlights how contemporary artists masterfully apply the medium of paint with a sensual quality capable of engaging both the mind and body. As David Pagel writes, “Although their materials are conventional, what they do with them is anything but. They make paint sing—silently and like nothing else out there.”