Abstract Expressionism

Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. Although the term "abstract expressionism" was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates, it had been first used in Germany in 1919 in the magazine Der Sturm, regarding German Expressionism. In the United States, Alfred Barr was the first to use this term in 1929 in relation to works by Wassily Kandinsky.


Abstract Expressionism is a type of art in which the artist expresses himself purely through the use of form and color. It non-representational, or non-objective, art, which means that there are no actual objects represented.


A painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions, painting gesturally, non-geometrically, sometimes applying paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto canvas. Their work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to be accident and chance, but which is actually highly planned. Some Abstract Expressionist artists were concerned with adopting a peaceful and mystical approach to a purely abstract image. Usually there was no effort to represent subject matter. Not all work was abstract, nor was all work expressive, but it was generally believed that the spontaneity of the artists' approach to their work would draw from and release the creativity of their unconscious minds. The expressive method of painting was often considered as important as the painting itself.


Artist ==> In 1940, a young painter named Robert Motherwell came to New York City and joined a group of artists — including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline — who set out to change the face of American painting. These painters renounced the prevalent American style, believing its realism depicted only the surface of American life. Their interest was in exploring the deeper sense of reality beyond the recognizable image. Influenced by the Surrealists, many of whom had emigrated from Europe to New York, the Abstract Expressionists sought to create essential images that revealed emotional truth and authenticity of feeling.

Library Source: "Abstract Expressionism"/ David Anfam

" Abstract Expressionism is a landmark in the general history of art and of modern art in particular. Lİke the Cubist epoch it represents a revolutionary event which revises our view before and after. Only in this case even the modest historical distance separating us from those early years of the century is not yet available and what began with the rise of the movement shortly before the Second World War opens perspectives that enfold the present." (pg 7)

"Notoriosuly, modern artists tend to conflate private crises with outside events and the Abstract Expressionists were no exception. Yet the Second World War, the Fall of Paris on 14 June 1940, Pearl Harbor and its entire dreadful aftermath justified this. Still and Smith alone participated in war industries; no others even came near combat due to various disabilities and so they shared the dubious privileges of the bystander: remote from physical conflict amongst the Greenwich Village intelligentsia, they could simultaneously view global chaos from a vantage point and still be affected by the spreading psychic malaise." (pg 77)