Art: Three Bold Newcomers

The last effort to launch an art "movement" from the frail base of one New York patron's taste took place about a year ago, when Dress Manufacturer Larry Aldrich gave the Whitney Museum a mass of paintings by younger American artists on condition that they all be exhibited under the category of "Lyrical Abstractions." The show was a complete flop. Even New York—where the omnivorous appetite for meaningless art categories would test the digestion of a goat—rejected this offering: the name meant nothing and the members had nothing in common. Yet the event...