A group of artists in the 1930s and 1940s who, reacting against the prevalent Social Realism and American Scene painting, were dedicated to the promotion of abstraction.
Their exhibitions and publications added considerable fuel to the simmering discussion of “What is art?â€. The founder and first president was George Lovett Kingsland Morris, and Balcomb Greene was the first chairperson.
The AAA was formed in 1936, following the Whitney Museum’s first exhibition in 1935 of American abstract art. Members of the AAA, including Rhys Caparn, Ilya Bolotowsky, John Ferren, Ad Reinhardt, Burgoyne Diller, Irene Rice Pereira, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Karl Knaths and David Smith.
Through their efforts, recognition for synthetic cubism, geometric abstraction, neoplasticism, abstract biomorphism, and hard edge was achieved, and the way was paved for the emergence of the New York school of Abstract Expressionism.