“George McNeil (1908-1995) had a career that spanned the entire postwar American art era,” according to Ameringer McEnery Yohe, which is exhibiting a selection of the artist’s work dating from 1957 to 1969.

“McNeil attended Pratt Institute and the Art Students’ League, where he studied with Jan Matulka,” says the gallery. “From 1932-36, he studied with Hans Hofmann, assisting as Hofmann’s studio classroom monitor. In 1936 he worked for the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project and became one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists group. McNeil was one of the few abstract artists whose work was selected for the New York World’s Fair in 1939. During World War II, he served in the US Navy.A pioneer Abstract Expressionist of the New York School, McNeil had over forty solo exhibitions during his lifetime. He is represented in numerous museum collections around the country.”

“I have been told that my abstract landscapes and my beat up figures make me a part of the New Expressionist movement,” said McNeil in a statement he wrote for his 1985 solo exhibition at the State University of New York at Binghamton. “This disconcerts me because I have been an old expressionist for so long that it isn’t funny. I am like Moliere’s Monsieur Jourdain who was surprised to learn he had been speaking prose all his life.”

“George McNeil” runs through January 21, 2012 at Ameringer McEnery Yohe, 525 West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, 212-445-0051, amy-nyc.com.

Franklin Einspruch is an artist and writer.