In the early 1950s, Alfred Leslie was part of a rising generation of New York abstract painters that included Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Milton Resnick. Inspired by the aggressive paintings of Willem de Kooning, he employed a frantic style disciplined by geometric planes. The painter and critic Fairfield Porter, reviewing Mr. Leslie’s first solo show, at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in Manhattan in 1952, praised the “fresh, romantic, reckless expressionism” of his work. It made the competition, he wrote, “seem prim and tight by comparison.” As Leslie told the story, he and Sam Francis shared a studio on 4th Avenue in New York at one point in the late ’50’s/early 60’s. Leslie said that he tore up some of the flooring in order to collage it onto a wood frame that he built, with paint on the floor being from drips and splatters from his and/or Sam’s work. The frame is not perfectly square, hence the title.
The Brooklyn Rail | October 2015 | In Conversation
