[CHP. 27- MID-CENTURY ABSTRACTION]
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Premise
At no time in the history of the United States has so much art been created by American artists and experienced by its citizens as in the second half
of the 20th Century. We will develop a framework for focus on contemporary artistic responses in postmodernism, neo-modernism, conceptualism,
and a handful of other "isms."
“The decade or so following World War II was a period of continued change and development in the visual arts. Stylistically, trends followed the
traditional dualistic paths of expressionism and formalism. Contemporary concerns including the effects of the war, the new atomic age, and
ongoing social issues continued to influence the form that the visual arts would take. The commercialization of art also had its effect.”
Abstract Expressionism
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Influenced by Surrealism and Dada
Utilized psychic automatism
Shifted center of avant-garde art from Europe to the U.S. for the first time
Stressed action, energy, movement, passion to express universal human emotions
Very large scale
first truly American art movement began and was developed in New York
based on abstraction and energetic gestural and painterly way of working
reflected the "wild" brash American spirit
Abstract Expressionism was the first true American style. Prior to World War II the dominant American styles wee Social Realism and the
Regionalism of Thomas Hart Benton and Curry.
Many European artists fled Europe and settled in New York City prior to World War II. Reflected in the new style were the ideas of European
abstraction. Geometric abstraction based on cubism's fracture of space was easy to do. Among the resettled European artists were surrealists
represented by Peggy Guggenheim.
American artists were trying to break with geometric abstraction. With the end of World War II, and the birth of Abstract Expressionism, New York
City replaced Paris as the center of the art world and a new era began in painting. Abstract Expressionism is an idea with its essence being the
spontaneous assertion of the individual and the psychic self. "This contrasted sharply with regionalism and social realism of the 1930's but closely
paralleled post war existential philosophy's championing of the individual action as the key to modern salvation."
With Abstract Expressionism the entire theory and practice of European art from Cezanne to the present became accessible to American artists.
Cubism took apart, Abstract Expressionism put back together.
PAINTING
Abstract Expressionism
-first truly American art movement began and was developed in New York
-based on abstraction and energetic gestural and painterly way of working
-reflected the "wild" brash American spirit
Jackson Pollock
-Abstract Expressionist who worked with a dripping process using house paint called Action Painting.
-was trying to create a universally acceptable painting style that others may be able to emulate, that would fit into any culture/environment.
Lavender Mist, enamels, 1954, detail. Mark Rothko
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-Abstract Expressionist who worked with the idea of spirituality in his work
-layered oil paints to create a psychological and spiritual void where one could meditate
-like Abbot Suger and Kandinsky, Rothko saw a close relationship between aesthetic experiences and spiritual
Influences of European styles:
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Surrealism:
emphasis on the subconscious and dream imagery.
"interest in unmediated expression to reach the absolute."
automatic painting (Miro) Surrealists in NYC: Marc Chagall, Andre Masson, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dali
Surrealist influence: "Psychic automatism"
o this rehabilitated the instinct
o offered alternative to geometric designs of cubism, De Stijl, Constructivism
Orphism: color
Dada: emphasis on chance
Pioneer of abstraction- Kandinsky:
Kandinsky stressed the spiritual content in art
Gorky (Bimorphic shapes)
Futurists
German Expressionists
Van Gogh
Gauguin
Cubism (Kline)
Sources for Pollock:
o Miro
o Navajo Sand Painting
o Picasso
Abstract Expressionist artists saw art as self-expression and purposes= self-realization
Diversity of styles but all thought that art had to SAY something and the statement had to come from deep in ones psyche of the individual.
There were 2 basic trends of AE
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Gesture or Action of the brush and texture of the paint.
a. Lyrical Abstraction (Pollock) drip painting--pour splatter, produced painting with great energy.
b. Paint applied in traditional ways but with great emotional power--instinctive manner (Gorky, Kline, de Kooning, Motherwell)
Color Field
a. Abstract sign or image in terms of large unified color. Reliance on color and absence of representational forms.
The artist who seemed to dominate the movement was Jackson Pollock who flung , dripped and poured paint onto huge canvases on the floor. His
process of painting was dynamic, not accidental. He wanted to come closest to the essence of painting. He most completely synthesized the
theories and formalist concern underlying most forms of abstraction.
After 1947 during the height of Abstract Expressionism you no longer see traces of surrealism, of the geometric abstraction of the 1930s, and of the
tight abstractions of cubism.
Helen Frankenthaler- one of the first to explore drenching fabric with fluid paint—staining technique—on floor
The colorfield painters are the most abstract of all of the abstract expressionist because all reference to objective subject matter have been
removed.
Jackson Pollock
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-Abstract Expressionist who worked with a dripping process using house paint called Action Painting.
was trying to create a universally acceptable painting style that others may be able to emulate, that would fit into any
culture/environment.
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Mark Rothko
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Abstract Expressionist who worked with the idea of spirituality in his work
layered oil paints to create a psychological and spiritual void where one could meditate
like Abbot Suger and Kandinsky, Rothko saw a close relationship between aesthetic experiences and spiritual experiences
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What are the immediate artistic and philosophical roots of Abstract Expressionism?
What are the two stylistic components of Abstract Expressionism
Consider the role of Jackson Pollock as an artistic innovator during, the 1940's. Take into account his technique, materials, style, and
subject matter. How does the spectator participate in Jackson Pollock's drip paintings? Did Clement Greenberg's view of art influence
Pollock's innovations"
How did Lee Krasner and Willem de Kooning succeed in joining figurative imagery with the energy of Action Painting?
Jackson Pollock exemplifies one aspect of Abstract Expressionism, a unique style of painting that developed in New York City in the years
following World War II.
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Painting Since World War II
Since World War II (1939-1945), American artists have played a vigorous role in originating new styles or developing those begun in other countries.
These include abstract expressionism, op art and pop art, photorealism, and minimalism.
Abstract Expressionism
The catalyst in the creation of abstract expressionism, a movement centered in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s, was undoubtedly the
presence in the United States of many refugee European surrealists. Their exploration of the unconscious and of techniques employing accident
intrigued Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, and many others. These artists, who favored surrealist automatism (a technique
similar to automatic writing) and expressionism, were known as gestural painters. In the hands of Pollock, for example, the painting technique
involved dripping colors over large canvases to create energetic, random patterns. Other abstract expressionists, such as Mark Rothko and Barnett
Newman, developed color-field painting, applying great expanses of subtly modulated color to the canvas.
Part --: Unit Exam Essay Questions
(from previous Art 261 tests)
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Compare and contrast Expressionism with Fauvism. Use examples in your text.
Discuss the relationship between Cezanne and Analytic Cubism. How did one influence the other?
Compare Rothko and Pollock. What is similar in their respective developments. What is the essential difference in their approaches to
painting?
Compare the iconography of Pop Art with that of Realism and Impressionism. Using the examples in your text, discuss the similarities and
differences, as well as the relevance to the time and place in which the style flourished.
Discuss the relationship between Cezanne and Analytic Cubism. How did one influence the other?
Compare Rothko and Pollock. What is similar in their respective developments. What is the essential difference in their approaches to
painting?
(from AAT4)
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Discuss how Abstract Expressionism developed from Surrealism and Cubism. Use examples from your text.
Using the three paintings in your textbook, describe the development of Jackson Pollock from Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism.
What factors influenced the changes?
Compare Color Field Painting to Abstract Expressionism. What are the similarities and differences?
Compare Rothko and Pollock. How are their paintings similar? What are the essential differences in their approaches to painting?
[CHP. 27- MID-CENTURY ABSTRACTION]
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Discuss the major critics of Abstract Expressionism. How are their views reflected in the paintings illustrated in the text?
Learning Goals (AAT4)
After reading Chapter 27, you should be able to do the following:
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Identify the works and define the terms featured in this chapter
Discuss what Hitler meant by "degenerate art," and examine why it is still relevant today in the United States
Trace the stylistic development of Jackson Pollock
Compare Action Painting with Color Field
Discuss the relationship between Pollock and the Navajo sand painters
Compare acrylic with oil, tempera, and watercolor
Discuss the relationship between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism
Compare Noguchi's Kouros with the Greek Archaic New York Kouros in chapter 5
Compare the sculptors in this chapter with the painters
Chapter Outline (AAT4)
MID-CENTURY ABSTRACTION
World War II (1939–1945)
Hofmann and Albers
Abstract Expressionism: Gorky; Pollock; de Kooning; Kline; Rothko
Navajo Sand Painting
Color Field: Frankenthaler; Stella; Kelly
West Coast Abstraction: Diebenkorn
European Figuration: Dubuffet; Bacon
Sculptors: Noguchi; Nevelson; Smith
The Teachers: Hans Hofmann and Josef Albers
Abstract Expressionism: The New York School
Arshile Gorky
Action Painting
Art Critics and the Avant-Garde
Navajo Sand Painting
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Acrylic
Color Field Painting
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Style variation of Abstract Expressionism
Always enormous in scale
Always non-objective
Stressed color relationships
West Coast Abstraction: Richard Diebenkorn
Figurative Abstraction in Europe
Jean Dubuffet
Francis Bacon
Sculpture
Isamu Noguchi
David Smith
Louise Nevelson
Summary and Study Guide
Define or identify the following terms:
AAT4 Key Terms
acrylic
a fast-drying, water-based synthetic paint.
airbrush
a device for applying a fine spray of paint or other substance by means of compressed air.
drip
technique
a painting technique in which paint is dripped from a brush or stick onto a horizontal canvas or other ground.
Chronology
Art Works
know these works by sight, title, date, medium, scale, and location (original location also if moved) and be able to explain and analyze these in
relation to any concept, term, element, or principle
[CHP. 27- MID-CENTURY ABSTRACTION]
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Summary and Study Guide
Discussion
General WWII era
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How did World War II change the world and influence art?
What major shifts in power occurred after World War II?
Abstract Expressionism
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Why did artists of this time gravitate towards visual realms other than the representational and the narrative?
Consider Jackson Pollock's statement, "new needs need new techniques…the modern painter cannot express this age…in the old forms of
the Renaissance or of any other past culture." How is it particularly telling of the radical changes in art made after 1945?
How did the "dislocations caused by war" influence the Abstract Expressionism movement?
What novel thing did Jackson Pollock do with the canvas? How was Pollock's technique unconventional and radical?
What did "action painting" express?
Why did most artists of the 1940s and 1950s choose not to work figuratively?
What characteristics of Abstract Expressionism did later artists react against?
Terms
be able to identify these by sight, explain these in relation to art, and know an example of each in relation to a work of art
New York School
Abstract Expressionism
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
archetypes and the collective unconscious
automatism
action painting
Color Field Painting
Excerpt from a statement by Adolph Gottlieb and Rothko with Newman:
“We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the image of the unequivocal. We wish to
reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.” (1943)
Barnett Newman’s “zip”
Art Works
know these works by sight, title, date, medium, scale, and location (original location also if moved) and be able to explain and analyze these in
relation to any concept, term, element, or principle
Post-War Europe (Expression-ish)
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Alberto Giacometti, Man Pointing, (no. 5 of 6), 1947. Bronze, 5’ 10” x 3’ 1” x 1’ 5 5/8”.
Francis Bacon, Painting, 1946. Oil and pastel on linen, 6’ 5 7/8” x 4’ 4”.
Jean Dubuffet, Vie Inquiète (Uneasy Life), 1953. Oil on canvas, 4’ 3” x 6’ 4”.
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The New York School: Action painters and Color Field Painting
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Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist), 1950. Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas, 7’ 3” x 9’ 10”.
Hans Namuth, Jackson Pollock painting in his studio in Springs, Long Island,New York, 1950.
Willem De Kooning, Woman I, 1950–1952. Oil on canvas, 6’ 3 7/8” x 4’ 10”.
Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950–1951. Oil on canvas, 7’ 11 3/8” x 17’ 9 1/4”.
Mark Rothko, No. 14, 1961 Oil on canvas, 9’ 6” x 8’ 9”.
Ellsworth Kelly, Red Blue Green, 1963. Oil on canvas, 6’ 11 5/8” x 11’ 3 7/8”.
Frank Stella, Mas o Menos (More or Less), 1964. Metallic powder in acrylic emulsion on canvas, 9’10” x13’8 1/2”.
Helen Frankenthaler, The Bay, 1963. Acrylic on canvas, 6’ 8 7/8” x 6’ 9 7/8”.
Greenburgian Formalism: Post-Painterly Abstraction
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Morris Louis, Saraband, 1959. Acrylic resin on canvas, 8’ 5 1/8” x 12’ 5”.
The Sculpture of David Smith
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David Smith, Cubi XIX, 1964. Stainless steel, 9’ 4 ¾” X 4’ 10 ¼” X 3’ 4”.
Discussion topics for this chapter.
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Discuss the development of Abstract Expressionism from Surrealism and Cubism. Use examples in the text.
Compare Rothko and Pollock. What is similar in their respective developments. What is the essential difference in their approaches to
painting?
Other topics to consider:
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Discuss the major critics of Abstract Expressionism. How are their views reflected in the paintings illustrated in the text?
Using the three paintings in your textbook, describe the development of Jackson Pollock from Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism.
What factors influenced the changes?
Compare Color-Field to Abstract Expressionism. What are the similarities and differences?
What social and artistic forces moved artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko to pursue such unpopular or
misunderstood art forms and how did their work further impress artists of the next generation (artists such as Chuck Close)?