ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
The first American avant-garde movement, Abstract Expressionism was a combination of the
emotional intensity from the Expressionist period and the non-representational technique of
the Abstract period.
The movement was also known as Gestural Abstraction and Action Painting.
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Where? New York City
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When did it begin? Post World War II (late 1940s and 1950s)
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Characteristics:
o emphasized abstract elements such as shape, colour, line, with unrecognizable subject
matter
o expressed their emotions and unconscious
o vigorous gestural brushstrokes. The term Action Painting comes from the emphasis on
the act of painting.
o blended elements of Surrealism and abstract art
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Historical Context:
In the 1930s during the Great Depression a group of artists formed called the New York School.
The “Club” of Abstract Expressionists regularly met, which caused them to influence and
encourage each other throughout the 1950s.
Post-War mood of anxiety and trauma.
There was a need for expression and an interest
in the unconscious (Surrealism)!
o During WWII, Adolf Hitler deemed avant-garde artists and their artworks degenerate
(many of the artists were also Jewish).
o Many immigrated to the U.S., where they had a profound effect on American artists as
they joined the New York School. Thus, the art centre of the world shifted from Paris to
New York City.
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HENRY MOORE (1898-1986)
Characteristics
 Abstract, primitive and large-scale sculptures set in
natural settings.
 He believed his sculptures belonged outdoors with
nature because they were comparable to human
beings.
 Smooth and rounded forms
 Figures penetrated by spaces to explore concave
and convex shapes
 Reclining, female figures
 Mother-and-child subject matter
 Cast in bronze
Henry Moore, Reclining Figure, 1951. Bronze
ARSHILE GORKY (1904-48)
Pioneer of Abstract Expressionism because he
created a style of abstraction that was based on
feelings and unconscious.
Gorky. The Liver is the Cock’s Comb, 1944
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“One of the most important paintings in America” - Andre Breton
The painting depicts the beautiful Armenia, which he and his family have lost.
Consists of visual puns and double meanings:
 Liver is often referred to in ancient texts as the centre for passion. It also means “one who
lives”
 Cock’s comb is a headdress, which is also represented in the feathered genitalia on the figure
on the right, making a sign for the mind and body.
 The combination of the liver and the cock’s comb mean that living itself is vanity.
Characteristics:
 Free-flowing, automatic painting
 Abstraction of representational objects (biomorphic shapes)
 No recognizable symbols
 Organic shapes are layered and translucent with a liquid, glowing quality
 Evokes mood and memories
 Captures the enjoyment of landscape
 Abstract elements, energetic lines and voluptuous colour
Influenced by:
Cezanne’s compositions of landscapes and still lifes, Picasso’s Cubism and Fauvism’s colourful palette
HANS HOFMANN (1880-1966)
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
- Hofmann
One of America’s most influential art teachers and a key member of the Abstract
Expressionists.
Invented the Push-Pull Theory
Hofmann states that one-perspective is over, that lines
aren’t solely able to create depth and motion in a painting.
Colour and composition create the visual tension of depth
and motion.
Shape, colour, lines, calligraphic squiggles create the sense
of depth. For example, some colours recede (push back)
and some proceed (pull forward).
Characteristics:
 Not representational
 Emphasis on visual balance and spatial tension
 Stacked oerlapping and floating rectangles
 Clear, saturated hues
 Heavily applied paint which creates great volume
in his compositions
 Sense of serenity
Influences:
 Cezanne’s patches of colour side by side, except
Hofmann usually stacked and overlapped.
 Kandinsky’s use of negative space in the background,
floating shapes, lines and calligraphic squiggles.
Flowering Swamp, 1957
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WILLEM DE KOONING (1904-1997)
“Painting isn’t just the visual thing that reaches your retina, it’s what’s behind it. I’m not
interested in ‘abstracting’ or taking things out or reducing painting to design… I paint this way
because I can keep putting more and more things in -- drama, anger, pain, love, a figure, a horse,
my ideas about space. Through your eyes it again becomes an emotion or an idea.” - de Kooning
de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52
 The large-scale painting (6’5”) looks threatening and
ferocious due to the intense brushwork and emphasis
on expression (big eyes and leering grin)
 The painting reflects the ambivalence between
reverence for and fear of the power of the feminine.
 It’s a combination of female archetypes from a
Palaeolithic fertility goddess and a 1950s pinup girl.
Characteristics:
 Though he worked in an abstract style, the female
figure recurs in his paintings.
 Large visible brushstrokes due to the use of large
house painting brushes
 Quick and slashing motion
 Often created a swinging motion by shaping letters
 Large-scale paintings
 Appeared violent and frantic
 Often used newspaper to blot away excess paint, leaving ink transfers from the articles.
Influenced by:
Gorky. The two shared a studio and de Kooning admired the surrealist feel of Gorky’s work.
JACKSON POLLOCK (1912-1956)
“It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said.
Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.” - Pollock
Action Painting/ Drip Painting:
Characteristics:
 Completely engaged entire body in the act
of painting, it was a means for his
subconscious to interact with the paint.
 Drip paintings- complex interweaving of
colour and line that produces an overall
web of texture
 “All-over” compositions- no obvious
differentiation between the top, bottom, or
centre. No dominant point of interest
 Gave numbers rather than titles to avoid
distracting the viewer with associations
extraneous to the work.
Number 1 (Lavender Mist), 1950
 Large-scale
 Mixed sand, broken glass or other foreign
matter to obtain a variety of textured effects
 Flat in appearance yet lines of various values and colours add a sense of shallow depth
 Laid his canvas on the floor, dripping and splattering his paint from sticks and paintbrushes
dipped in fluid commercial enamels and metallic paints. He also poured directly from the
can.
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LEE KRASNER (1908-1984)
“I have never been able to understand the artist whose image never changes.”
Characteristics:
 As Krasner studied under Hans Hofmann, she learned a lot about Pablo Picasso and Henri
Matisse.
 Krasner changed her style often. She tried to escape cubism and absorb Pollock, not fully, as
she never took his last name. She gives a feeling of being a bit unsure of herself.
 Her work includes:
o Geometric shapes with muted colours – inspiration from cubism
o Gestural brushstrokes – Krasner related her early squiggly paintings with Hebrew
letters from her childhood
o Floral motifs – After Pollock’s death, Krasner made a series called “Earth Green”
where she used earthy tones
o Collages – Krasner made a few series with collages. She would often take her old
paintings, cut them up and make new art works with them. Sometimes combining
the collages with figures and other shapes.
Gaea, 1966
 Bright and bold pinks, purples
and reds
 Named after the Earth Goddess
 Weeping profile on the left,
perhaps Gaea herself
 Other feminine forms in shape
of eggs are incorporated in the
painting
 Krasner spilled paint right on
the canvas, using large
paintbrushes and her hands to
create an active surface –
Pollock inspired
Influenced by:
 Hans Hofmann, who was her teacher
 Henri Matisse’s collages
 Pollock and Mondrian’s all-over compositions
ROBERT MOTHERWELL (1915-1991)
Characteristics:
 Bold colour contrasts.
 Simple shapes.
 Dynamic balance.
 Restrained and boldly gestural
brushstrokes.
Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 102, 1971
 Displays sharp vivid images, and with
simple shapes such as rectangles and ovals.
 Artwork is produced with acrylic with
graphite and charcoal on canvas.
 Edges appear unfinished and scratchy
 Has a high degree of colour accuracy.
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COLOUR-FIELD PAINTING
 A movement within Abstract Expressionism, distinct from gestural abstraction, or action painting.
 They abandoned all suggestions of figuration, instead exploited the expressive power of colour by
creating large works.
 Colour field painting was a major development in abstract painting, since it was the first style to
avoid suggestion of form or mass standing out against a background.
 Figures and ground are one, and the space of the picture seems to spread beyond the edges of the
canvas.
HELEN FRANKENTHALER (1928- December 27, 2011)
Side note: read the article in NY Times on her recent death!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/arts/helen-frankenthaler-abstract-painter-dies-at83.html?pagewanted=all
Characteristics:
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Flat fields of colour
Soak stain technique: Frankenthaler thinned her oil paints with turpentine and used window
wipers, sponges, and charcoal outlines to fix the resulting pools of pigment.
Influenced by landscapes of nature
Large washes of bright colours
Often left white open spaces in her paintings
Mountains and Sea, 1952
This is her most famous painting because it is when
Frankenthaler began to use the technique of stain painting. It
influenced many artists to think and use colour in a new way.
She created this artwork after returning from her trip to Nova
Scotia. The view she saw was several mountains beside the
ocean. Although this painting is abstract it is conveying the
landscaped she was exposed to.
FRANK STELLA (1936-PRESENT)
Stella moved through distinct stylistic movements. A few are listed below
with characteristics.
Black Paintings (1958-1960):
The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, 1959
 Stella covered canvases with black house paint, leaving
unpainted pinstripes in repetitive, parallel patterns.
 Rejected representational imagery, focussing on creating
objective shapes and designs.
Protractor (1967-1971) series:
Harran II, 1967
 Personally shaped canvases
 Pattern of brightly coloured stripes/Circular forms
 Some overlapping of curves and arcs
Indian Birds series (1977-1979)
Shoubeegi, 1971
 Featured painted aluminum forms protruding from the wall.
 Three-dimensionality and dynamic textures contrasted his flat, smooth work.
 Elaborate tangles of curves, spirals and loops (less like his minimal style)
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MORRIS LOUIS (1912-1962)
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Rivers of colour
Used magna (type of acrylic paint)
Colours float like coloured smoke
Poured paint in directed streams onto canvas
Un-primed canvas
Overlapped transparent shapes creating a feeling of depth
Large areas of white space
No brushstrokes
Dalet Kaf, 1959
 The Veil series is named for the extremely thin
overlapping "veils" of acrylic paint. Dalet Kaf is an
example of Louis' later Veils. Paint is poured from
top to bottom, aided by gravity: to work within the
small confines of his studio, Louis would staple
canvas to the walls and pour paint from above.
Here, the thin washes of paint slither across the
surface of the canvas, the brighter colours muted by
the "veil" of black that frames the composition.
JOSEF ALBERS (1888-1976)
Characteristics:
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Relations between geometry and colour
Use of patterns and intense colour
Interest in perception
Positioned different sized flat shapes vertically to create
a 3-dimensional illusion
Influenced Optical Art, geometric abstraction and
colour-field painting and minimalists.
Homage to the Square: Glow, 1966
Part of his best-known series, which consists of hundreds of
paintings all within a square format.
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