Joan Snyder in The New York Times Roberta Smith reviews Epic Abstraction at The Met
By Roberta Smith
...Several of the stronger works are extended loans. If you find yourself giddily thinking “Wow! The Met owns this?” the answer may be no, it doesn’t. Not “Dutch Interior,” Cy Twombly’s big beautiful mostly handwritten painting from 1962; not Helen Frankenthaler’s bold “Western Dream” (1957); and not the big rutted Shiraga. You wouldn’t feel shortchanged if the Met had more paintings of this caliber, but it doesn’t.
Thankfully, at least one of the standouts is a promised gift, headed for the collection: Joan Snyder’s 1971 “Smashed Strokes Hope,” a mural-like canvas whose big strokes of color float separately in space, like words. It takes no flak from Joan Mitchell’s immense “La Vie en Rose” of 1979 (acquired in 1991), in which harsh black strokes crash against softer sprays of pink, white and lavender.
