Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism Abstract Expressionism or so called Gestural Abstraction, it was developed in New York in the 1940s; it is an post-World

War II art movement in American painting. It is a type of art which the artist expresses himself purely through the use of

form and color. Abstract expressionism, this name is derived from the c ombination of the emotional intensity and

self-denial of the German Expressionists with the anti-figurative of the European abstract schools such as Futurism, the

Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism.

Most of the Abstract Expressionists lived in New York and met at the Cedar Tavern in Greenwich Village. Therefore the

movement is also called The New York School. The movement can be more or less divided into two groups: Action Paint ing

and Color Field Painting.

Action Painting

Stressed the physical action involved in painting

The style was widespread from 1940s until the early 1960s .

These energetic techniques depend on broad gestures directed

by the artist’s sense of control interacting with chance or

random occurrences. Therefore, action painting is also referred

to as Gestural Abstraction.

Color Field Painting

Primarily concerned with exploring the effects of pure color on a canvas

It is about the tension created by overlapping and interacting

areas of flat color. These areas of color can be amorphous or

clearly geometric. This painting often are on huge canvases.

Jackson Pollock

Willem de Kooning

Mark Rothko

Clyfford Still

Franz Kline

Philip Guston

Jules Olitski

Kenneth Noland

Key Characteristics of Abstract Expressionism

Unconventional application of paint, usually

without a recognizable subject that tends toward

amorphous shapes in brilliant colors

Dripping, smearing, slathering, and flinging lots of

paint on to the canvas

Sometimes gestural “writing” in a loosely

calligraphic manner

In the case of Color Field artists: carefully filling the

picture plane with zones of color that create

tension between the shapes and hues

Hans Hofmann

James Brooks

Wassily Kandinsky

Jackson Pollock