Jonathan Lasker: Double Play, 1987, oil on linen, 76 by 100 inches. Courtesy Cheim & Read.
Most people think of 1980s painting in terms of Neo-Expressionist figurative works or the hard-edge compositions of the Neo-Geo crowd. “Reinventing Abstraction: NewYork Painting in the 1980s” offers an alternative view. Curated by A.i.A. contributing editor Raphael Rubinstein, this lively group exhibition, featuring top-notch examples by Joan Snyder, Stephen Mueller, Pat Steir, David Reed, Bill Jensen and others, proves that myriad forms of gestural abstraction were evolving and thriving during that period.