Abstract Expressionism
Introduction to Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism started in America as a post World War II art movement. It was the first art movement that arose from America and put New York at the center of the art world. The term Abstract Expressionism was first applied to American art in 1946 by art critic Robert Coates. It is most commanly said that Surealism is it's predecessor because of the use of spontaneous, automatic and subconscious creations.
Abstract Expressionism gets its name from the combining of emotional intensity and self-expression of German Expressionists and the anti-figurative aesthetics of abstract schools where Futurism, Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism came from. The term Abstract Expressionism was applied to any number of the artists in New York who each had quite different styles, such as Pollock's "action paintings" which had a very busy feel to it, which was different both technically and aesthetically to Willem de Kooning's grotesque "women's series", which was rather violent and not particularly abstract, and Mark Rothko's block work which was not very expressionistic, but yet all three were classified as Abstract Expressionists. Still although different in many ways they still share many similar aspects such as the use of large canvases, an "all over approach" in which the whole canvas is treated equally, every part of the canvas is important, quality of brushstrokes and textures, the use of accidents that play an important role to the entire work and the attempt to express pure emotion directly onto a canvas.
The early Abstract Expressionists went in seek for a timeless and powerful subject matter, and started looking at primitive myth and archaic art for inspiration. Most of the early Abstract Expressionists looked at ancient and primitive cultures for inspiration. The earliest works included pictographic and biomorphic elements referred into personal code. In a famous letter published in the New York Times in June 1943 by
Abstract Expressionism started in America as a post World War II art movement. It was the first art movement that arose from America and put New York at the center of the art world. The term Abstract Expressionism was first applied to American art in 1946 by art critic Robert Coates. It is most commanly said that Surealism is it's predecessor because of the use of spontaneous, automatic and subconscious creations.
Abstract Expressionism gets its name from the combining of emotional intensity and self-expression of German Expressionists and the anti-figurative aesthetics of abstract schools where Futurism, Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism came from. The term Abstract Expressionism was applied to any number of the artists in New York who each had quite different styles, such as Pollock's "action paintings" which had a very busy feel to it, which was different both technically and aesthetically to Willem de Kooning's grotesque "women's series", which was rather violent and not particularly abstract, and Mark Rothko's block work which was not very expressionistic, but yet all three were classified as Abstract Expressionists. Still although different in many ways they still share many similar aspects such as the use of large canvases, an "all over approach" in which the whole canvas is treated equally, every part of the canvas is important, quality of brushstrokes and textures, the use of accidents that play an important role to the entire work and the attempt to express pure emotion directly onto a canvas.
The early Abstract Expressionists went in seek for a timeless and powerful subject matter, and started looking at primitive myth and archaic art for inspiration. Most of the early Abstract Expressionists looked at ancient and primitive cultures for inspiration. The earliest works included pictographic and biomorphic elements referred into personal code. In a famous letter published in the New York Times in June 1943 by