Abstract Expressionism
The effects of World War II:
As a whole, World War II claimed about 60 million lives. The end of the war resulted in an end to
European imperialism due to a loss of political and economic power. During the 1930s many
intellectuals fled from Europe to America as a result of political and racial persecution in Nazi
Germany. These included scientist Einstein, composers such as Bartok, Schoenberg and
Stravinsky, artists such as Hans Hoffman, Max Beckman and George Grosz and Bauhaus
figures.
Influences of European art on American art:
● A rational formalistic, Purist abstract trend which originated in Cubism, transferred
through artists such as Mondrian, Léger, Josef Albers and the Bauhaus designers.
● The anti-rational, emotional, expressive trend promoted through Surrealist artists
such as Ernst, Bréton, Masson, Dali and Duchamp was transferred to American art.
● Developments within the American art scene: The Armory Show held in 1913 and
organised by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors introduced modern art
in the form of avant-garde European and American artworks to the people of New
York. The newly opened Museum of Modern Art staged major exhibitions such as
Cubism and Abstract Art, Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism and a major retrospective
exhibition of Picasso's work.
● The Federal Arts Project: The American government created this project during the
Great Depression in order to give relief to artists suffering due to the economic
conditions. There was no formal distinction made between the importance of
representational or abstract art. These effects were carried over to the 1940s and 1950s.
● The Socialist and Regionalist movements in America were the origins of most artists
who developed an abstract painting style.
● Hans Hofmann was a German born artist, teacher and theorist whose first-hand
experience of Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism influenced his teachings in America.
He emphasised the process of painting in the duality of the world of art.
Background of Abstract Expressionism
● The artists usually referred to as Abstract Expressionists are Jackson Pollock, Franz
Kline, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Motherwell, Adolph Gotlieb, Mark Rothko, Willem de
Kooning, Clyfford Still and Barnett Newman.
● These artists did not form a movement but knew each other and were contemporaries
in age. There were no uniform stylistic traits and they did not have a manifesto or
programme.
, ● The critics formulated their characteristics. Harold Rosenberg became their unofficial
spokesperson in 1952 and had an interest in explaining the exhibition of self.
Rosenberg's article was published under the title The American Action Painters.
● The other well known art critic of the time, Clement Greenberg, felt that modern art
changed along formal aspects.
Action Painting - describes the artists whose paintings became the physical act of painting.
The action of painting became not only an action of the wrist, but the action of the whole body.
This act of painting was seen as an existential exercise which revealed the personality of the
artist and was therefore an extreme form of honesty and self-expression. Artists such as
Pollock, de Kooning (representational), Motherwell.
Colourfield - a tendency to apply colour to extended areas or fields. This was seen in the works
of artists such as Rothko, Still and Newman. They strove to remove any motifs, which could
evoke associations. Abstract form and expressive colour was used to communicate with the
viewer in an immediate way.
Characteristics of Abstract Expressionism:
● Subject matter: They broke away from conventional realistic subject matter and created
mainly abstract works in which the physical act of painting, the marks of paint on the
canvas and the large surfaces of colour became central to conveying an honest
self-examination of the artist's personal experience which is derived from the
subconscious.
● Composition: Most of the artists filled the whole canvas with a non-representational
composition. The compositions of the action painters lack a central motif. They
abandoned the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among the parts. The
paintings are filled with expressive brushstrokes creating movement all over the canvas
that could continue past the edge of the frame. The term overall composition is used
for such a work. The colourfield painters created works in which the compositions were
more structured and geometric/organic shapes created some form of focal point.
● The two-dimensional character flatness of the painting canvas was emphasised by all
Abstract Expressionists. Three-dimensionality is avoided even though the layers of paint
create the effect of depth through the overlapping of marks and colour areas.
● Shapes: The shapes created on the canvas are meant to be interpreted as
brushstrokes, drips or geometric surfaces of colour divided by smaller geometric
surfaces of other colours.
● Application: The application of paint by the action painters was gestural and
aggressive. Every brushmark is like the handwriting of the artist, telling us about his
emotions.
● The colourfield painters' works were not gestural even though the textures of
brushstrokes were visible. Newman's works showed no sign of texture as he painted flat
colour surfaces.
● Colour: Their use of colour generally did not refer to visual reality. It is only in De
Kooning's works where the reference to flesh is echoed in his use of colour. Colour was
