Abstract
Expressionism, movement in mid-20th-century painting that was
primarily concerned with the spontaneous assertion of the
individual through the act of painting. A variety of styles
exists within the movement, which is characterized more by the
concepts that underlie it than by one homogeneous style. As its
name implies, Abstract Expressionist art is not recognizably
figurative and generally does not adhere to the limits of
conventional representation.
The roots of Abstract
Expressionism lie in the totally non-figurative work of the
Russian-born painter Wassily
Kandinsky and that of
the Surrealists, who deliberately used the subconscious and
spontaneity in creative activity. The arrival in New York during
World War II (1939-1945) of such avant-garde European painters
as Max
Ernst, Marcel
Duchamp, Marc
Chagall, and Yves
Tanguy inspired the
spread of Abstract Expressionism among American painters in the
1940s and 1950s. American painters were also influenced by the
subjective abstractions of the Armenian-born painter Arshile
Gorky, who had
emigrated to the United States in 1920, and by the German-born
American painter and teacher Hans
Hofmann, who stressed
the dynamic interaction of coloured planes.
The
Abstract Expressionist movement is centred in New York and is
also known as the New York school. Although the styles embraced
within Abstract Expressionism were as diverse as the styles of
the painters themselves, two major tendencies, action painting
and colour-field painting, developed. Action painters were
concerned with paint texture and consistency and the gestures of
the artist, while colour-field painters gave their works impact
by using unified colour and shape. Jackson
Pollock was the
quintessential action painter. His unique approach to painting
involved interlacing lines of dripped and poured paint that
seemed to extend in unending arabesques. Willem
de Kooning and Franz
Josef Kline, also
action painters, both used broad impasto brush strokes to create
rhythmic abstractions in virtually infinite space. Mark
Rothko created
pulsating rectangles of saturated colour in his works; many of
these works are prime examples of colour-field painting. Bradley
Walker Tomlin, Philip
Guston, Robert
Motherwell, Adolph
Gottlieb, and Clyfford
Still combined
elements of both action and colour-field painting in their
works.
Abstract
Expressionism also flourished in Europe, where it influenced
such French painters as Nicolas
de Stael, Pierre
Soulages, and Jean
Dubuffet. The European
manifestations of Abstract Expressionism were Tachism
(from the French tache, 'spot'), which emphasized patches
of colour, and art informel ('informal art'), which
rejected formal structure. Both had especially close affinities
with New York action painting. Tachiste painters include the
Frenchmen Georges
Mathieu,
the Spaniard Antoni
Tąpies, the Italian Alberto
Burri, the German Wols,
and the Canadian Jean
Paul Riopelle.
text
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