Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s, often characterised by gestural brush-strokes or mark making, And the impression of spontaneity.
Mark Rothko
art was profoundly imbued with emotional content that he articulated through a range of styles that evolved from figurative to abstract.
His early figurative work included landscapes, still lifes, figure studies, and portraits. Demonstrating an ability to blend Expressionism and surrealism. His search for new forms of expression led to his collar field paintings, which employed shimmering colour to convey a sense of spirituality.
Willem de Kooning
Jackson Pollock
Clyfford Still
Franz Kline
Hans Hofmann
Robert Motherwell
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- What is Abstract Expressionism?
Milo De Prieto- Contributor
-Is a WW2 art movement
- First American art movement to first gain international acclaim and to be internationally influencel.
- Known as New York city centre western art world.
- Uses Diverse styles and techniques- (like what)
- Emphasises the artists freedom in emotions and attitude.
- Non traditional memes
Movement characterised by
- Emotional intensity.
- Anti figured asthetics
- Anarky
- freedom
- Rebelion.
Recognised by
-brush strokes and mark making left on the canvas
- Beyond the decorative
- Dripping, Smearing, and pouring.
Personal feelings through colour, movement and gesture.
Gestural abstraction
Action Painting
- Jackson Pollock
- Franz Kline
- 1940s-50s
- Irrational
- Impulsive
- Instinctive
- Performative
- Trace and movement of a body left upon it.
Colour field painting 1960s
- Mark Rothko
- Angis Martin
- Large coloured areas
- Hard edged paintings
- Geometric
- Clean compositions
Expressionism denotes the use of distortion and exaggeration for an emotional outcome. Exaggerated brush strokes, intense colour, agitated lines and disjointed spaces were combined to create expressionist art pieces. But expressionism was also an artistic style that also affected dance, cinema, literature and theatre. The main themes within expressionist art, include distortion, exaggeration, primitivism and fantasy that are often constructed using vivid, jarring and dynamic application of formal elements. Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and 20th centuries and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements.
1880-1916
Franz Marc was a German painter and print maker that became one of the synonymous names in the expressionism art movement. He began painting in a strictly traditional style, but after meeting various artists and discovered a strong affinity for Vincent Van Gogh, his work became an iconic example of expressionist art. Amongst painting, Marc created around sixty prints in lithography and woodcut. His work is characterised by his use of bright primary colours, cubist-style depictions and simplicity. The subject of which are mostly natural forms such as plants and animals. He used colour to denote emotions. Blue- was used for masculinity and spirituality. Yellow- represented feminine and joy. Red- encoded the sound of violence.
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, colour and line to create a composition, which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. Abstract artists usually take the subject of their pieces and simplifies or exaggerates them for a distorted affect.
Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock is an icon in the abstract art movement. Abstract expressionism is characterised by a lack of representation and by an emotional approach to concept and execution. And Pollocks most famous paintings were created during the "drip period". During this period he began painting with his canvas laid out on the studio floor and he developed what was later called his "drip" technique. He used household paints as a natural growth out of a need. He uses hardened brushes, sticks and even basting syringes as a paint applicators. "I continue to get further away from the usual painters tools such as easels, pallets, brushes, eat. I prefer sticks, towels, knives and dripping fluid paint or with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added".
Pollocks technique of poring and dripping paint thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art. The paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto his canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.
