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Gerald Coarding’s Untitled Figure with Eyes entered the Madron collection alongside two other unsigned and undated pieces by the artist. The three small works present a mystery within the context of Coarding’s already enigmatic history. Coarding referred to his own works as “abstract symbolism,” often incorporating fragmented, totem-like figures that evoke forms inspired by ancient Egyptian styles, Navajo sand paintings, and Assyrian bas-reliefs, which he encountered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While Untitled Figure with Eyes exemplifies this blend of modern abstraction with ancient symbolism, it’s less rigid than Coarding’s other works, presenting a biomorphic creature untethered in space. The beast with head in profile, amphibian-like legs askew in blue, and one transparent red pupil, stares out at the viewer. Wavy green and maroon lines present excess limbs and claws. Does a second figure appear? Two creatures intertwined? Alongside Untitled Figure with Eyes, another Coarding in our collection, Abstract Forms, at first appears less representational (so much so that the canvas was originally displayed upside down– it happens!). Yet, similar forms begin to emerge. At right a creature with wavy amorphous limbs and a red eye materializes. In this work Coarding produces a more harmonious push and pull between forms and colors as though the overlapping creatures move together in a Matisse-like dance. Coarding’s work is part of a broader movement of abstraction and symbolic expression that emerged in the U.S. after the war. Many artists during this period explored Native influences and techniques as they grappled with post-war realities, searching for identity and meaning. Artists like Jackson Pollock were drawn to the expressive abstraction and ritual in these Native arts, which were exhibited in MoMA’s influential Indian art of the United States show in 1941. The influence these Native styles had on Coarding is apparent in works like The Plainsman (1956). Are these creatures for Coarding a return to a more primordial art following his service during World War II? Was he, like his New York contemporaries, influenced by Carl Jung’s theories and their interest in a universal stage of being that still exists in the unconscious? In 1947, Coarding’s Boneyard (location unknown) was selected for the Art Institute of Chicago’s Abstract and Surrealist American Art exhibition—an event that showcased the rising tide of modernist styles. The show was composed of 252 artists, including works by Alexander Calder, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock (The Key), and Edna Reindel (Hiroshima), and positioned Coarding among artists experimenting with new visual forms. Coarding’s Boneyard was listed in the exhibition catalogue for $350 (or about $5,000 in 2025). Perhaps this show was ahead of its time, as three years later, the “Irascible Eighteen,” as they would be nicknamed by the New York Herald Tribune, would write an open letter, published on the front page of the New York Times, to the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art claiming that the museum was hostile toward abstract art. Daniel Catton Rich, then Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, wrote in the 1947 exhibition catalogue: “Though Abstraction has been constantly attacked by those who refuse to recognize its new vision and who have prophesied that it is ‘all over’ or dead, today in America it is growing by leaps and bounds and may truly be considered the prevailing mode for most artists under thirty.” You can see Gerald Coarding’s three abstractions alongside some contemporary abstractions in our upcoming show at Madron Gallery, Conversations in Abstraction, on view September 29 - December 19. We invite you to join us for the Artists’ Reception on Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 5:30-8:30 PM.
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