American Abstract Artists

American Abstract Artists (AAA). An association of American abstract painters and sculptors formed in New York in 1936 with the aim of promoting their work and fostering public understanding of it. The association held annual exhibitions (the first in 1937) and disseminated the principles of abstract art by lectures, publications, etc. The first president was Balcomb Greene (1904–90) and among the early members were Josef Albers, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and David Smith. In 1940 members picketed the Museum of Modern Art, demanding that it should show American art, but by the mid-1940s abstract art had achieved recognition and the activities of the association dwindled. In the 1950s, however, it revived and had more than 200 members.