Abstract expressionism
German Expressionism
German Expressionism consisted of a number of related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as architecture, dance, painting, sculpture, as well as cinema. This article deals primarily with developments in Ger…
What are the main features and characteristics of expressionism?
Expressionist music often features:
- a high level of dissonance.
- extreme contrasts of dynamics.
- constantly changing textures.
- 'distorted' melodies and harmonies.
- angular melodies with wide leaps.
- extremes of pitch.
- no cadences.
What is one characteristic of abstract expressionist painting?
Abstract expressionism was a pictorial movement that took place in the twentieth century, which main characteristic is the spontaneous affirmation that the individual has through painting. It is a non-figurative art that does not adjust to the limits of conventional representation. Its main features are as follows:
What term best describes abstract expressionism?
Within abstract expressionism were two broad groupings: the so-called action painters, who attacked their canvases with expressive brush strokes; and the colour field painters who filled their canvases with large areas of a single colour. The abstract expressionists were mostly based in New York City, and also became known as the New York school.
What does Abstract Expressionism mean?
What Is Abstract Expressionism? Abstract Expressionism is an artistic movement of the mid-20th century comprising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist’s liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually nonrepresentational means.

What are the principles of abstract expressionism?
Abstract Expressionism takes from Surrealism and delivers the idea that art should be created by spontaneous and subconscious creation. Rather than planning out, sketching, and rendering a piece, the artist follows the flow of feeling and the openness of his mind to create.
What are the 4 characteristics of Expressionism art?
The artist accomplishes this aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.
What are 3 characteristics of Expressionism?
Expressionism Art Movement – CharacteristicsPeople, places and objects are distorted or exaggerated. ... People seem sickly or in emotional pain and anguish. ... Like Fauvism, colors are unrealistic but Expressionists were not obsessed with red.More items...
What are 3 characteristics of abstract art?
The main characteristics of abstractionism are:Opposition to the Renaissance Model and Figurative Art;Non-Representational Art;Subjective art;Absence of Recognizable Objects;Valuation of Shapes, Colors, Lines and Textures.
What are the five characteristics of Expressionism?
Check out the main features of expressionism:Use of intense colors.Thick and distorted traces.Focus on subjective aspects.Tragic vision of the human being.Exposure to the pessimistic side of life.Deformation of the reality of the world.Expression of individual freedom.Use of three-dimensionality in works.More items...•
What are the elements of Expressionism?
Extreme angles, flattened forms, garish colors, and distorted views distinguish Expressionism, an international movement in art, architecture, literature, and performance that flourished between 1905 and 1920, especially in Germany and Austria.
What is the one features of Expressionism?
Expressionist music reflected the artistic movement that adopted the same title. This genre of art involved the distortion of shapes, images, and colours to create wildly unrealistic works of art. The aim was to enable new forms of emotional content and expression in the work.
What are the 4 different types of Expressionism?
Expressionist painting includes works grouped with Surrealism, Symbolism, Futurism, Fauvism, Cubism, Vorticism, and Dadaism.
Which is a main quality of Expressionism?
Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes in the depiction of their subjects. These techniques were meant to convey the turgid emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world.
What are the 5 elements of abstract art?
All art consists largely of elements that can be called abstract—elements of form, colour, line, tone, and texture.
What are the 6 elements of abstract art?
Abstract art has a unique voice that provokes interest, permitting both artists and viewers a distinct sense of freedom and expression. Despite its often chaotic and spontaneous appearance, it possesses a structure that is composed of six key elements: colour, shape, form, texture, line, and value.
What were the 3 main forms of abstract painting?
3 Types of Important Abstract Art Styles#1. Dada. In the early 20th century, many artists were interested in using their platforms to make critiques on society and culture. ... #2. Action Painting. ... #3. Non-Objective Art.
What are the 4 different types of Expressionism?
Expressionist painting includes works grouped with Surrealism, Symbolism, Futurism, Fauvism, Cubism, Vorticism, and Dadaism.
What characteristic was common in Expressionism in art?
Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists have sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.
What are the main characteristics of Impressionism?
Impressionism describes a style of painting developed in France during the mid-to-late 19th century; characterizations of the style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.
What is the meaning and characteristics of Expressionism?
Expressionism refers to art in which the image of reality is distorted in order to make it expressive of the artist's inner feelings or ideas.
What is abstract expressionism?
Abstract Expressionism. "It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academic painting. However, there is no such thing as good painting about nothing.".
What is abstract art?
"Abstract Expressionism" was never an ideal label for the movement, which developed in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. It was somehow meant to encompass not only the work of painters who filled their canvases with fields of color and abstract forms, but also those who attacked their canvases with a vigorous gestural expressionism. Still Abstract Expressionism has become the most accepted term for a group of artists who held much in common. All were committed to art as expressions of the self, born out of profound emotion and universal themes, and most were shaped by the legacy of Surrealism, a movement that they translated into a new style fitted to the post-war mood of anxiety and trauma. In their success, these New York painters robbed Paris of its mantle as leader of modern art, and set the stage for America's dominance of the international art world.
What is action painting?
Action Painting was a term coined by art critic Harold Rosenberg to refer to the gestural and somewhat existential mode of Abstract Expressionism, often characterized by drips, flung paint, and rapid, spontaneous strokes by the artist. In this view the painting is a record of the artist's activities over time. Art Informel.
What was the first avant-garde art?
Having matured as artists at a time when America suffered economically and felt culturally isolated and provincial, the Abstract Expressionists were later welcomed as the first authentically American avant-garde. Their art was championed for being emphatically American in spirit - monumental in scale, romantic in mood, and expressive of a rugged individual freedom.
What is the drip painting by Pollock?
The piece is exemplary of Pollock's famous "drip" works in which paint was poured, splattered, and applied by the artist in an extremely physical fashion from above to a canvas which la y on the ground. This process of expressing an internal emotional turbulence through gesture, line, texture, and composition represented a breakthrough for Pollock in his career and helped put the New York School of painters on the map. These paintings became the impetus for critic Rosenberg's coining of the term Action Painting. And this unlikely combination of chance and control became tantamount to Abstract Expressionism's evolution.
How many artists are represented in the biography?
88 artists are represented with statements in their own words and a biography. / By Marika Herskovic
What was the legacy of Surrealism?
All were committed to art as expressions of the self, born out of profound emotion and universal themes, and most were shaped by the legacy of Surrealism, a movement that they translated into a new style fitted to the post-war mood of anxiety and trauma.
How Would You Describe Abstract Expressionism?
Instead of relying on set guidelines to express one’s self through art, the abstract expressionist artists created art that was extremely spontaneous and that looked — to a casual observer, at least — nothing more than chaotic brushstrokes or paint splotches.
What did abstract expressionist art look like?
Instead of relying on set guidelines to express one’s self through art, the abstract expressionist artists created art that was extremely spontaneous and that looked — to a casual observer, at least — nothing more than chaotic brushstrokes or paint splotches.
When Was Abstract Expressionism (Time Period)?
The era of abstract expressionism started right after the end of the Second World War. It was a time of conservatism in the United States.
What influences Abstract Expressionism?
Abstract expressionism is heavily influenced by the manipulation of the objective reality of the Surrealists and the improvisational spontaneity of the Jazz musicians of the time.
What was born in this repressive time where people were conservative and careful about what they did and said?
In this repressive time where people were conservative and careful about what they did and said, abstract expressionism was born.
What is abstract art?
Abstract expressionism is a non-representational form of art that is characterized by its aggressive brush strokes, vibrant colors, and almost spontaneous rendition of the unconscious.
What is the process of planning, sketching, and using tools or guides to render aesthetically pleasing art forms?
The whole process of planning, sketching, and using tools or guides to render aesthetically pleasing art forms gives way to spontaneous outbursts of pure and untapped emotions in abstract expressionism.
Answer
Valuing freedom, spontaneity and personal expression, the movement naturally produced a variety of technical and aesthetic innovations. In general, however, Abstract Expressionism can be clustered around two major tendencies: action painting and color field painting.
Answer
Valuing freedom, spontaneity and personal expression, the movement naturally produced a variety of technical and aesthetic innovations. In general, however, Abstract Expressionism can be clustered around two major tendencies: action painting and color field painting.
New questions in Arts
Which of the following senses do the aesthetic properties of visual art appeal to? (Choose all that apply.) Sight Smell Touch Taste
Who is the most influential figure in Abstract Expressionism?
Barnet t Newman. Barrett Newman is recognized as one of the most influential figures of the Abstract Expressionism movement and an artist who is one of the most famous painters from the early to mid-1900’s.
Who was the founder of Abstract Expressionist?
Rothco was an artist that many historians and critics consider to be a founding member of the Abstract Expressionist movement itself.
What was the style of Smith's art?
What drew many critics toward his unique style of Abstract Expressionism was Smith’s ability to portray a variety of figures and scenery using abstract techniques, making him one of the most highly-regarded artists from the era.
What is the term for the art movement that sprang forth out of this unique time period?
The artwork that sprang forth out of this unique time period was some that had a distinct sense of wonder and beauty that was totally original, leading to the establishment of a movement that we now know and refer to as Abstract Expressionism .
What is abstract art?
Abstract Expressionism is one of the most peculiar art movements to have come out of the many different modern-day schools of artistic thought and expression. The movement began to spring up out of societal changes that coincided with the final weeks and months of World War II. This time was one in which people from all over ...
How did Jackson Pollock's alcoholism affect his life?
Many art critics noted that Pollock’s alcoholism had a severe impact on his personal life and had grown out of control and heavily influenced his paintings. Most of his works were evident that Jackson Pollock was experiencing some kind of mental distress as they grew to be increasingly dark and bizarre.
What is Pollack's new technique called?
Pollack was best known for his new painting technique which was referred to as “action painting ” as well as a number of other terms that were handed down by art critics of the day who often were enthralled with his work, or had significant problems understanding Pollock’s strange, yet overtly physical form of painting.
What is Abstract Expressionism based on?
His work was based on his study of Chinese calligraphy and brush painting, as well as Buddhism. The key to understanding Abstract Expressionism is to understand the concept of "deep" in 1950s slang. "Deep" meant not decorative, not facile (superficial) and not insincere.
What is the art of abstract expression?
Abstract Expressionism, also known as Action Painting or Color Field Painting, exploded onto the art scene after World War II with its characteristic messiness and extremely energetic applications of paint.
Why is abstract art called gestural art?
Abstract Expressionism is also referred to as gestural abstraction because its brush strokes revealed the artist's process. This process is the subject of the art itself. As Harold Rosenberg explained: the work of art becomes an "event.". For this reason, he referred to this movement as Action Painting. Many modern-day art historians believe that ...
What is the unconventional application of paint?
Unconventional application of paint, usually without a recognizable subject (de Kooning's Woman series is an exception) that tends toward amorphous shapes in brilliant colors.
What did the artists cultivate to determine the final outcome of a painting?
Despite the paintings' apparent lack of cohesion to the uneducated eye, these artists cultivated the interplay of skill and unplanned occurrences to determine the painting's final outcome.
Who was the master of Cubism?
Others met through Hans Hoffman, the master of the "push-pull" school of Cubism, who came from Germany in the early 1930s to Berkeley and then New York to serve as the guru of abstraction. He taught at the Art Students League and then opened his own school.
Who was the painter who used drip and scatter?
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) became known as "Jack the Dripper" because of his drip-and-spatter technique that fell upon a canvas laid out horizontally on the floor. Willem de Kooning (1904-1907) used with loaded brushes and garish colors that seemed to collide rather than settle down into co-existence.
