Charles Seliger: Representing 'the structure of becoming'

Charles Seliger's high-density, abstract, metaphysical paintings convey his perceptions that despite eternal change, there is an underlying order or set of eternal laws that shapes all of reality. Since Seliger's paintings first came into the public eye during the era of Abstract Expressionism scholars tend to characterize him as an overlooked Abstract Expressionist or as sui generis. This dissertation on Charles Seliger differs from past scholarship on his oeuvre and on mid-century abstract painting in general. The small size, the order conveyed by his work, and his philosophical subject matter, are qualities that clearly relate to the work of artists with whom he exhibited at the Willard Gallery in New York, from 1950 until 1970. By articulating the formal characteristics and philosophical content pursued by Seliger and his Willard Gallery peers, we will have a more nuanced and focused picture of abstract painting at mid-century. Hence, through a study of the work of Charles Seliger, this dissertation seeks to identify and articulate another strand of American abstraction.;Chapter One explores how Seliger developed the artistic philosophies and formal approaches of the Surrealists-in-exile in New York into his own unique idiom. Chapter Two presents a contextual analysis of Seliger's work---both the common features and the differences---with that of the emerging Abstract Expressionists. Chapter Three examines the philosophy of Marian Willard, a student of Carl Jung and Seliger's dealer, who selected artists who she believed referred to a universal collective unconscious in their work. This chapter includes comparative analysis of Seliger's paintings with other Willard Gallery artists. Chapter Four considers Seliger's late career and his interest in an epistemological approach to knowledge formation called Complexity Theory, a methodology that looks at patterns and the relationships of seemingly random phenomena.;Seliger was neither an isolated figure in art history nor was he an overlooked Abstract Expressionist. His paintings belong to a smaller, more meditative counterpoint to Abstract Expressionism, to a category awaiting fuller investigation.