Abstract
Expressionism
A
movement in American painting that developed in New York in the
1940s. The Abstract Expressionists invariably used huge canvases and
applied paint rapidly and with force, often employing large brushes.
Sometimes dripping or even throwing the paint directly onto the
canvas. This expressive method of painting was often considered as
important as the painting itself. Other Abstract Expressionist
artists were concerned with adopting a peaceful and mystical
approach to a purely abstract image. Not all the work from this
movement was abstract (see: de
Kooning and
Guston)
or expressive (see: Newman
and Rothko),
but it was generally believed that the spontaneity of the artists’
approach to their work would release the creativity of their
unconscious minds.
additional
text:
abstract
expressionism, movement of abstract painting that emerged in
New York City during the mid-1940s and attained singular prominence
in American art in the following decade; also called action painting
and the New York school. It was the first important school in
American painting to declare its independence from European styles
and to influence the development of art abroad. Arshile
Gorky first gave impetus to the
movement. His paintings, derived at first from the art of Picasso,
Miró, and surrealism, became more personally expressive. Jackson
Pollock's turbulent yet elegant
abstract paintings, which were created by spattering paint on huge
canvases placed on the floor, brought abstract expressionism before
a hostile public. Willem de Kooning's first one-man show in 1948
established him as a highly influential artist. His intensely
complicated abstract paintings of the 1940s were followed by images
of Woman, grotesque versions of buxom womanhood, which were
virtually unparalleled in the sustained savagery of their execution.
Other important artists were Hans
Hofmann and Robert
Motherwell. Painters such as Philip
Guston and Franz
Kline turned to the abstract late
in the 1940s and soon developed strikingly original styles - the
former, lyrical and evocative, the latter, forceful and boldly
dramatic.
Abstract expressionism presented a broad range of stylistic
diversity within its largely, though not exclusively,
nonrepresentational framework. For example,
the expressive violence and activity in paintings by de Kooning or
Pollock marked the opposite end of the pole from the simple,
quiescent images of Mark Rothko. Basic to most abstract
expressionist painting were the attention paid to surface qualities,
i.e., qualities of brushstroke and texture; the use of huge
canvases; the adoption of an approach to space in which all parts of
the canvas played an equally vital role in the total work; the
harnessing of accidents that occurred during the process of
painting; the glorification of the act of painting itself as a means
of visual communication; and the attempt to transfer pure emotion
directly onto the canvas.
The movement had an inestimable influence on the many varieties of
work that followed it, especially in the way its proponents used
color and materials. Its essential energy transmitted an enduring
excitement to the American art scene. (See my extended websites on
individuals e.g., Pollock,
Richter,
M.Louis,
Mathieu,
Hodgkin).
further reading:
M. Seuphor,
-Abstract Painting: Fifty Years of Accomplishment from Kandinsky to
the Present (1962, repr. 1964);
I. Sandler,
-The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract
Expressionism (1970);
M. Tuchman, ed.,
-The New York School: Abstract Expressionism in the 40s and 50s
(rev. ed. 1970);
S. Guilbaut,
-How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art (1983);
F. Frascina, ed.,
-Pollock and After (1985).
text is taken from
LYCOS - infoplease.com
© 'Encyclopedia'
or visit their web
site:
http://infoplease.lycos.com/
Representative
painters:
click
here for a detailed and comprehensive artist listing of the movement