However
great a disaster World War II was, it did at least mean that
artists such as Piet
Mondrian and Max
Ernst, in leaving
Europe for the safety of the USA, greatly extended their
artistic influence. It is impossible to estimate how much they
affected American art, but the fact remains that in the 1940s
and '50s, for the first time, American artists became
internationally important with their new vision and new artistic
vocabulary, known as Abstract Expressionism.
The first public
exhibitions of work by the "New York School'' of artists -
who were to become known as Abstract Expressionists - were held
in the mid '40s. Like many other modern movements, Abstract
Expressionism does not describe any one particular style, but
rather a general attitude; not all the work was abstract, nor
was it all expressive. What these artists did have in common
were morally loaded themes, often heavyweight and tragic, on a
grand scale. In contrast to the themes of social realism and
regional life that characterized American art of previous
decades, these artists valued, above all, individuality and
spontaneous improvisation. They felt ill at ease with
conventional subjects and styles, neither of which could
adequately convey their new vision. In fact, style as such
almost ceased to exist with the Abstract Expressionists, and
they drew their inspiration from all directions.
The painters who came to
be called 'Abstract Expressionists' shared a similarity of
outlook rather than of style - an outlook characterized by a
spirit of revolt and a belief in freedom of expression. The main
exponents of the genre were Pollock,
de
Kooning, and Rothko,
but other artists included Guston,
Kline,
Newman
and Still.
The term 'Abstract
Expressionism' was first used by Robert Coates in the March
issue of the New Yorker in 1936. The movement was
hugely successful, partly due to the efforts of the critics
Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg who also originated the
terms Action Painting and American Style.
text taken from WEB MUSEUM,
PARIS
© 1 Jan 1996, Nicolas
Pioch
