Why did Abstract Expressionism start?
While Abstract Expressionism is often considered for its advancements in painting, its ideas had deep resonance in many mediums, including drawing and sculpture. America in the 1950s. Abstract Expressionism emerged in a climate of Cold War politics and social and cultural conservatism. World War II had positioned the United States as a global power, and in the years following the conflict, many Americans enjoyed the benefits of unprecedented economic growth.
What year did Abstract Expressionism become popular?
The first generation of Abstract Expressionism flourished between 1943 and the mid-1950s. The movement effectively shifted the art world’s focus from Europe (specifically Paris) to New York in the postwar years. The paintings were seen widely in traveling exhibitions and through publications.
Where is the place of origin of Abstract Expressionism?
Abstract expressionism is a modern abstract art form that is characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity. It originated in New York City in the late 1940s and early 50s and its aim was to put the American artists at the center of the international art scene, which was dominated by European artists.
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 event influenced abstract expressionism?
The political climate after World War II did not long tolerate the social protests of these painters. Abstract expressionism arose during the war and began to be showcased during the early forties at galleries in New York such as The Art of This Century Gallery.
Where did Abstract Expressionism start?
New York CityIntroduction. The abstract expressionists were mostly based in New York City, and also became known as the New York school. The name evokes their aim to make art that while abstract was also expressive or emotional in its effect.
What war led to the movement of abstract expressionism?
Abstract expressionism arose during World War II and began to be showcased during the early forties at galleries in New York like The Art of This Century Gallery. The political climate after World War II did not long tolerate the social protests of these painters.
When did Abstract Expressionism start?
1946Abstract expressionism / Began approximately
What makes a painting Abstract Expressionism?
Despite this variety, Abstract Expressionist paintings share several broad characteristics. They often use degrees of abstraction; i.e., they depict forms unrealistically or, at the extreme end, forms not drawn from the visible world (nonobjective).
Why Abstract Expressionism is important?
Developing in New York City, Abstract Expressionism was a post-World War Two art movement that came about during the 1940s. It was considered to be very important as it was the first entirely American art movement that ever existed, as it was created primarily in the United States.
Who started the abstract art movement?
Wassily Kandinsky is often regarded as the pioneer of European abstract art. Kandinsky claimed, wrongly as it turns out, that he produced the first abstract painting in 1911: 'back then not one single painter was painting in an abstract style'.
What is abstract expressionism characterized by?
Abstract expressionism is a modern abstract art form that is characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity.
How did abstract expressionism changed art?
Abstract Expressionist painters explored new ways of creating art, reinvigorating and reinventing the medium. They changed the nature of painting with their large, abstract canvases, energetic and gestural lines, and new artistic processes.
Why is abstract expressionism a celebration of self?
Abstract Expressionism is a celebration of self because each artwork related to this movement was specific to the experience, method, emotions, and attitudes of the artist who made them.
What term best describes abstract expressionism?
Non-representational is a term best describes Abstract Expressionism.
What ideas guided the movement of abstract expressionism?
Most of the artists associated with Abstract Expressionism matured in the 1930s. They were influenced by the era's leftist politics, and came to value an art grounded in personal experience. Few would maintain their earlier radical political views, but many continued to adopt the posture of outspoken avant-gardists.
When and where did the abstract expressionism art movement begin?
The first generation of Abstract Expressionism flourished between 1943 and the mid-1950s. The movement effectively shifted the art world's focus from Europe (specifically Paris) to New York in the postwar years. The paintings were seen widely in traveling exhibitions and through publications.
Which city did most Abstract Expressionist artists lived in?
Since most first-generation abstract expressionists lived in New York City, the movement was also known as ''The New York School.
What country did OP ART start in?
The origins of Op Art go back to pre-war painting theories, including the constructivist ideas of the 1920s Bauhaus design school in Germany, which stressed the importance of the overall formal design, in creating a specific visual effect.
What is abstract expressionism characterized by?
Abstract expressionism is a modern abstract art form that is characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity.
Where did abstract expressionists spread?
Although the abstract expressionist school spread quickly throughout the United States, the epicenters of this style were New York City and the San Francisco Bay area of California.
Why did abstract expressionism become popular in the 1950s?
It had been influenced not only by the Great Depression, but also by the Mexican muralists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. The political climate after World War II did not long tolerate the social protests of these painters. Abstract expressionism arose during the war and began to be showcased during the early forties at galleries in New York such as The Art of This Century Gallery. The post-war McCarthy era was a time of artistic censorship in the United States, but if the subject matter were totally abstract then it would be seen as apolitical, and therefore safe. Or if the art was political, the message was largely for the insiders.
What was the art world like after the war?
The post-war period left the capitals of Europe in upheaval, with an urgency to economically and physically rebuild and to politically regroup. In Paris, formerly the center of European culture and capital of the art world, the climate for art was a disaster, and New York replaced Paris as the new center of the art world. Post-war Europe saw the continuation of Surrealism, Cubism, Dada, and the works of Matisse. Also in Europe, Art brut, and Lyrical Abstraction or Tachisme (the European equivalent to abstract expressionism) took hold of the newest generation. Serge Poliakoff, Nicolas de Staël, Georges Mathieu, Vieira da Silva, Jean Dubuffet, Yves Klein, Pierre Soulages and Jean Messagier, among others are considered important figures in post-war European painting. In the United States, a new generation of American artists began to emerge and to dominate the world stage, and they were called Abstract Expressionists .
What is abstract art?
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the Western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.
Why is Kline considered an action painter?
As with Jackson Pollock and other abstract expressionists, Kline was labelled an " action painter " because of his seemingly spontaneous and intense style, focusing less, or not at all, on figures or imagery, but on the actual brushstrokes and use of canvas; as demonstrated by his painting Number 2 (1954).
What is Gorky's influence on art?
He "lit the way for two generations of American artists". The painterly spontaneity of mature works such as The Liver is the Cock's Comb, The Betrothal II, and One Year the Milkweed immediately prefigured Abstract expressionism, and leaders in the New York School have acknowledged Gorky's considerable influence.
What was the American abstract movement in the 1940s?
The 1940s in New York City heralded the triumph of American abstract expressionism, a modernist movement that combined lessons learned from Matisse, Picasso, Surrealism, Miró, Cubism, Fauvism, and early Modernism via great teachers in America such as Hans Hofmann from Germany and John D. Graham from Ukraine.
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.
What Is Abstract Expressionism?
Developing in New York City, Abstract Expressionism was a post-World War Two art movement that came about during the 1940s. It was considered to be very important as it was the first entirely American art movement that ever existed, as it was created primarily in the United States. Due to its great influence, Abstract Expressionism soon removed Europe as the heart of modern art, as New York was suddenly considered to be the focus of the new art world.
Which art movement was a major influence on Abstract Expressionism?
When considering the current movement, it is easy to wonder: Which art movement was a major influence on Abstract Expressionism? The movement that both preceded and inspired Abstract Expression was the Surrealist movement . The spontaneity and interest surrounding subconscious creation motivated Abstract Expressionists to follow the flow of their feelings and to encourage the openness of their minds when creating artworks. This approach was utilized in place of first planning out a piece before artists could translate it onto a canvas.
Why was abstract art important?
Since Abstract Expressionism was not distinguished by any one specific style, the perspectives and emotions that the artists brought into their artworks were very important. In all of the works produced within this movement, the feeling of the artists and that of the viewers were at the forefront of the paintings, as they were more central than the actual image that was depicted.
What was the art movement after World War 2?
Already beginning to rise during the war, Abstract Expressionism eventually took over as the prevalent art movement in America, with artworks being showcased at different art galleries in New York in the early 1940s. This post-war era was a time where art was censored in America, but as the subject matter became more abstract, art was considered to be non-political and thus acceptable.
What is abstract art?
A bstract Expressionism was an art movement that arose in the mid-20th century in America after the end of World War Two. It was said to be the first explicitly American movement in existence, as it achieved worldwide prominence and replaced Paris as the focus of the Western art world. Abstract Expressionism made use of different styles and techniques that were often unconventional and unrealistic in order to emphasize the freedom that artists had when conveying their attitudes and emotions.
Why did Abstract Expressionists experiment with vivid and diverse colors?
This was because the artists did not attempt to render tangible and real images of objects or figures. Instead, artists were able to place their focus on the effect that color had within their artworks, as they became fascinated with how color was able to affect the mood and thought present.
What is the contradiction of Abstract Expressionism?
A great contradiction of Abstract Expressionism was that the roots of the movement actually lay within figurative painting, which was popularized throughout the 1930s. These artists all felt the effects of the Great Depression, with their painting styles maturing after being influenced by both the Social Realism and the Regionalist movements.
What is abstract art?
Abstract Expressionism describes a style of abstract art developed by a group of primarily New York-based painters in the 1940s and 50s, also known as the New York School. This loosely affiliated band of artists, representing a diversity of practices, were united by a dedication to bold formal invention and a conviction in art as ...
What was Surrealism's influence on the world?
Surrealism in particular, with its emphasis on the unconscious mind, myth and archetype, was a foundational influence. In the wake of the Second World War, Abstract Expressionists harnessed these modernist tendencies, creating a distinctly American expression of post-war trauma and anxiety.
What was the first American art movement to achieve international influence?
The first American artistic movement to achieve international influence, Abstract Expressionism effectively shifted the art world’s focus from Europe (specifically Paris) to New York.
What is Willem de Kooning's style of painting?
Willem de Kooning creates a series of dynamic paintings that blend aspects of Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism.
What is action painting?
Action painting, often featuring energetically applied paint – in sweeping gestural brushstrokes, or dripped and splattered with no brushes at all – is both an improvised revelation of the artist’s individual psyche and an exercise in balancing chaos and control.
How many artists boycotted the Metropolitan Museum of Art?
Eighteen artists, dubbed “The Irascibles”, boycott the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Contemporary Painting Today exhibition. Life magazine publishes a photo story which popularises the term “Abstract Expressionists”.
Who was the first painter to paint stain?
1952. Helen Frankenthaler creates her first “stain” paintings, prefiguring a second wave of Abstract Expressionism – what Clement Greenberg later dubs “post-painterly abstraction.”. (left) American abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler photographed in her New York City studio in 1971.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Why was Abstract Expressionism so popular?
This was because these paintings were either seen as apolitical and therefore safe during such a time, or were viewed as a political message mostly reserved for insiders only.
What Was the Abstract Expressionism Art Movement?
Developing throughout the 1940s and 1950s in New York, Abstract Expressionism encouraged artists to focus on visualizing their subconscious thoughts. However, the introduction of the term was first used in Germany in 1919 to describe artworks that belonged to the German Expressionism movement.
What is the most popular term for this group of artists who clearly had much in common?
Despite this, Abstract Expressionism still went on to become the most popular term for this group of artists who clearly had much in common.
What was the first art movement to reach worldwide influence?
K nown as a post-World War Two art movement, Abstract Expressionism was the first exclusively American genre of painting to reach worldwide influence. Forming in the 1940s in New York City, Abstract Expressionism artists helped turn the city into the new Western center of the art world, which effectively went on to replace Paris. Due to this dramatic shift in location, many artists began experimenting with Abstract Expression ist paintings, leading to an influx of paintings being produced during this movement.
When was abstract art first introduced?
Abstract Expressionism was only later introduced in America in 1929, when Albert Barr, who was the then-director of the Museum of Modern Arts, attempted to explain the paintings produced by Wassily Kandinsky.
Who was the American abstract expressionist painter?
American Abstract Expressionist painter Franz Kline was renowned for his large black and white paintings that made use of abstract symbols. Painting with absolute confidence, Kline differed greatly from his contemporaries as his techniques were able to accurately capture the spirit with which he embodied the Abstract Expressionism movement.
Who was the first abstract expressionist?
Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky is perhaps one of the most well-known artists in history and is often considered to be one of the first Abstract Expressionists to emerge. As one of the pioneers of this modern movement, Kandinsky played around with the expressive connection between color and form.
What is the function of an artist in Abstract Expressionism?
“The function of the artist is to express reality as felt.”. In 1939, Harper’s published an article by E. M. Forster, a distinguished English writer and traveler.
How did Robert Motherwell create Abstract Expressionist art?
Taken from the artistic notions of Robert Motherwell himself, Hobbs simplifies the artist’s process into three step: “scribbling or doodling to coax the mind to release its sub-, pre-, or unconscious elements; reflecting on these improvisations to see what kinds of structures they suggest; and ordering all the elements into a composition that takes into consideration these structures and builds on them” (Hobbs, 300). This explanation marks a particular understanding of how the Abstract Expressionist artist might create his pieces, and gives the reader a clear explanation of underlying psychological themes that the artist may endeavor to represent. These artists were heavily reliant on the medium of their pieces, more so than many of their artistic predecessors; they wished to attain the “spiritual through the material” by “courting ambiguity and creating an aura in their work that would take viewers away from the contemplation of a painting as an object and evoke the mystery of being” (302). These were the ideas and ambitions that clouded Abstract Expressionism in a haze of criticism, doubt, and praise in the 1940’s and onward; the movement stirred much discussion of artistic freedom and technique, of credibility and accessibility. A look at some of the journalistic reactions to this movement reveals much in the way of Abstract Expressionism’s reception.
What is the meaning of the article "Art for Art's Sake"?
Forster, a distinguished English writer and traveler. Forster’s article, titled “Art for Art’s Sake,” took on the concepts and debates that were plaguing American art and its purpose in the late 1930’s and into the 40’s. At the beginning of the decade, as war and politics began to change the tides of public discourse, American art and its artists took on a confusing, tense relationship with government, business, and general politics. Art, especially in wartime, had the potential to market products, and generally was conceived or received in a variety of ways. Moreover, as industry had been developing rapidly since the turn of the century, the efficiency and distribution of product, as well as the dissemination of ideas, became a focal point of intellectual discussion. Forster, for example, took on the topic of art and finely articulated the pure order of its existence in an effort to assert that yes, art should exists for art’s sake. Forster’s argument relies on this fundamental notion of uniquely artistic order. Ironically, as scholar David Anfam mentions in his work Abstract Expressionism, order additionally came to represent industrialism and capitalist efficiency. He writes, “Ideas of order dominated one standpoint, reflecting a brave new world where the machine, the city and objects themselves were paramount” (Anfam, 26). While Anfam goes on to explain that this sort of order was not generally glorified by Abstract Expressionists (as it was by various other American artists), it stands that this notion, that art could possess an internal order, or harmony, was at the forefront of American intellectual discussion. As Pollock himself states of his painting:
What does order represent in abstract art?
Ironically, as scholar David Anfam mentions in his work Abstract Expressionism, order additionally came to represent industrialism and capitalist efficiency. He writes, “Ideas of order dominated one standpoint, reflecting a brave new world where the machine, the city and objects themselves were paramount” (Anfam, 26).
What is the state of modern painting by Kirstein?
Kirstein, however, struggled with the conceptions and relevance of Abstract Expressionism. In The State of Modern Painting, published in Harper’s Magazine in 1948, Kirstein writes rather scathingly about the demise of modern painting. He proclaims allegiance to the “new opposition” of modernist painting and details those elements of it that are most problematic.
How does Kirstein relate to the public?
Ultimately this accessibility generates eager and easy public reception. This relationship, he explains, is problematic, in the sense that the public is simply excited by an ability to recognize style; the public is not additionally capable of recognizing successful content. The ambiguity of more subjective renderings allows the public to piece together the art as they see fit. Kirstein notes, “They [the public] can fill out the fragmentary or unrealized portions of the picture by their individual fancy and to their haphazard satisfaction” (49). This also stands as a critique of the art as unfinished or inconclusive, as pieces representative of individual style rather than of significant ideas.
What was the art movement in the 1940s?
The 1940’s, a time period marked by America’s struggle to define its art and politics, saw the development of a great and significant movement. Abstract Expressionism , born from the circumstances, needs, and desires of the period, came to represent both a political and psychological shift in America’s population. With predecessors that endorsed realistic representation and meticulous technique, Abstract Expressionism challenged popular notions of art in an effort to bring emotion, the subconscious, and rebellious abstraction to the attention of the public. Legitimizing this movement was a difficult and debated ambition; New York City’s artists met with much criticism and rejection at a point in time when the establishment of an artist’s credibility and success was an uphill battle. Artists were continuously torn between their independent objectives and those pressures of society and war that called for purposeful, political art in America.
Overview
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York 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 c…
Style
Technically, an important predecessor is surrealism, with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic, or subconscious creation. Jackson Pollock's dripping paint onto a canvas laid on the floor is a technique that has its roots in the work of André Masson, Max Ernst, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The newer research tends to put the exile-surrealist Wolfgang Paalen in the position of the artist an…
Art critics of the post–World War II era
At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.— Harold Rosenberg
In the 1940s there were not only few galleries (The Art of This Century, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Julien Levy Gallery and a few others) but also few critics who w…
History
During the period leading up to and during World War II, modernist artists, writers, and poets, as well as important collectors and dealers, fled Europe and the onslaught of the Nazis for safe haven in the United States. Many of those who didn't flee perished. Among the artists and collectors who arrived in New York during the war (some with help from Varian Fry) were Hans Namuth, Yves …
Abstract expressionism and the Cold War
Since the mid-1970s it has been argued that the style attracted the attention, in the early 1950s, of the CIA, who saw it as representative of the US as a haven of free thought and free markets, as well as a challenge to both the socialist realist styles prevalent in communist nations and the dominance of the European art markets. The book by Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War—The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, (published in the UK as Who Paid the Piper?: CI…
Consequences
Canadian painter Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923–2002), a member of the Montreal-based surrealist-inspired group Les Automatistes, helped introduce a related style of abstract impressionism to the Parisian art world from 1949. Michel Tapié's groundbreaking book, Un Art Autre (1952), was also enormously influential in this regard. Tapié was also a curator and exhibition organizer who promoted t…
Major sculpture
• Richard Stankiewicz, Detail of Figure; 1956; steel, iron, and concrete; in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Alexander Calder, Red Mobile, 1956, Painted sheet metal and metal rods, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
See also
• Abstract Art
• Abstract Imagists
• Action painting
• American Abstract Artists
• Arte Povera