The Beat Generation
and
American
Abstract Expressionism
After the atrocities of World War II, many artists felt that the world needed to be reinvented
Select four of the paintings and write a personal essay in your own words. Use
the rubric as a tool to assess your progress. Write a comparison and contrast of
at least four of the reproductions of paintings that I have provided for your
analysis and further research. You may want to try to structure the comparison
and contrast essay in a similar fashion as a “Document Based Question” Essay
is structured on the Global Regents Exam and consider questions such as the
following:
• What do you see in each image?; What is compelling about each one?
• What do you think that the artists were trying to show to the viewer?
• What intellectual thoughts do you have when you look at
the images that you selected? For example, does the artist seem to be
describing a specific kind of spatial reality? Please explain your observations.
Clyfford Still was a
leader in the first
generation of
Abstract
Expressionists who
developed a new,
powerful approach to
painting in the years
immediately
following World War
II. Still's
contemporaries
included Philip
Guston, Franz Kline,
Willem de Kooning,
Robert Motherwell,
Barnett Newman,
Jackson Pollock, and
Mark Rothko.
Abstract
Expressionism is
marked by abstract
forms, expressive
brushwork, and
monumental scale, all
of which were used
to convey universal
themes about
creation, life, struggle,
and death ("the
human condition"),
themes that took on a
considerable
relevance during and
after World War II.
Described by many as
the most antitraditional of the
Abstract
Expressionists, Still is
credited with laying
the groundwork for
the movement. Still's
shift from
representational
painting to
abstraction occurred
between 1938 and
1942, earlier than his
colleagues, who
continued to paint in
figurative-surrealist
styles well into the
1940s.
(http://clyffordstillmuseum.
org)
a time when he became
increasingly critical of
the art world. In the
early 1950s, Still severed
ties with commercial
galleries and in 1961
moved to Maryland,
removing himself further
from the art world. He
remained in Maryland
with his second wife,
Patricia, until his death
in 1980.
Still was born in
Grandin, North Dakota
and spent his
childhood in Spokane,
Washington and Bow
Island in southern
Alberta, Canada.
Although Abstract
Expressionism is
identified as a New
York movement, Still’s
formative works were
created during various
teaching posts on the
West Coast, first in
Washington State and
later in San Francisco.
He also taught in
Virginia in the early
1940s.
In 1979, New York’s
Metropolitan Museum
of Art organized the
largest survey of Still’s
art to date and the
largest presentation
afforded by this
institution to the work of
a living artist. Following
his death, all works that
had not entered the
public domain were
sealed off from both
public and scholarly
view, closing off access
to one of the most
significant American
painters of the 20th
century.
clyffordstillmuseum.org)
Still visited New
York for extended
stays in the late 1940s
and became associated
with the two galleries
that launched this new
American art to the
world—the Art of This
Century and Betty
Parsons galleries.
He lived in New
York for most of the
1950s, the height of
Abstract
Expressionism, but also
1944 N No.2, by Clifford Still, 1944; Oil on canvas, 8' 8 ¼” x 7’
Number 5, Jackson Pollock, 1948; The painting was done on an 8' x 4' sheet of fiberboard, with thick amounts of brown and yellow paint
drizzled on top of it, forming a nest-like appearance. It was originally owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr. and displayed at the Museum of
Modern Art before being sold to David Geffen and then allegedly to David Martinez in 2006 (though the supposed sale of this painting to
Martinez has been denied by his attorneys).
According to a report in The New York Times on November 2, 2006, the painting was sold by David Geffen, founder of Geffen Records and cofounder of Dreamworks SKG, to David Martinez, managing partner of Fintech Advisory Ltd, in a private sale for a record inflation-adjusted price
of $140 million. (http://www.jackson-pollock.org)
One: Number 31, Oil and enamel on unprimed canvas, 8' 10" x 17' 5 5/8”, 1950 is a masterpiece of the 'drip' technique and
among the largest of Pollock's paintings. Begun approximately three years after his first painting in this style, the work is
evidence of the artist's skill and technical prowess. Calligraphic, looping cords of color animate and energize every inch of
the composition, which seems to expand visually, despite its already enormous size. As he did for all his drip paintings,
Pollock painted One: Number 31, 1950 with the canvas lying on the floor.
On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting since this way I can walk around it, work from the
four sides and literally be in the painting.” (http://www.jackson-pollock.org)
Convergence, by Jackson Pollock, 1952, oil on canvas; 93.5 in. by 155 in. ;
Pollock's style of painting is an important, innovative development in the history of
painting. At the time of the painting, the United States took very seriously the threat of Communism and the cold war with Russia. Convergence was the embodiment of free
speech and freedom of expression. Pollock threw mud in the face of convention and rebelled against the constraints of societies oppressions. It was everything that America
stood for all rapped up in a messy, but deep package. On that same note, some of Pollock's works were even sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (an anticommunist advocacy group founded in 1950), which was backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (Karmel, 1999). The CIA appreciated Pollock's style, because it
steered clear of social realism and overt political gestures. Pollock's abstract work was hard to decipher, but his rebellious nature and expressions of freedom were clearly
evident. (http://www.jackson-pollock.org/convergence.jsp#prettyPhoto)
Number 11 or Blue Poles, 1952, by Jackson Pollock, 6' 11" x 15' 11" (2.10 m x 4.9 m); Using house paint, he dripped, poured, and flung
pigment from loaded brushes and sticks while walking around it. He said that this was his way of being "in" his work, acting as a medium in the
creative process. For Pollock, who admired the sand painting of the American Indians, summoning webs of color to his canvases and making
them balanced, complete, and lyrical, was almost an act of ritual.
“Today painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves. Most modern painters work from a different source. They work from
within.” -Jackson Pollock
(http://www.jackson-pollock.org)
Number One, 1950(Lavender Mist); Like an ancient cave painter, he signed the painting in the upper left corner and at the top of the canvas with his
handprints. Though the work contains no lavender, the webs of black, white, russet, orange, silver, and stone blue industrial paints in Lavender Mist radiate
a mauve glow that inspired Greenberg, Pollock's stalwart champion, to suggest the descriptive title, which Pollock accepted. Pollock's canvases from this
decisive phase of his career are considered to have transformed the experience of looking "at" a work of art into one of being immersed, upright, in its
fullness. His mastery of chance, intuition, and control brought abstract expressionism to a new level. (http://www.jackson-pollock.org)
Willhem DeKooning,
Woman III, by
Willem de Kooning,
68 in × 48.5 in, oil on canvas
In the post-World War II
era, de Kooning painted in
a style that came to be
referred to as Abstract
Expressionism or Action
painting, and was part of
a group of artists that
came to be known as the
New York School.
The hallmark of De
Kooning's style was an
emphasis on complex
figure ground ambiguity.
Background figures would
overlap other figures
causing them to appear in
the foreground, which in
turn might be overlapped
by dripping lines of paint
thus positioning the area
into the background.
(Wikipedia)
Woman 1, by
Wilhem de
Kooning,
1952, oil on
canvas
Probably under the
influence of Arshile Gorky,
de Kooning embarked on
a series of male figures,
including Two Men
Standing, Man, and
Seated Figure (Classic
Male), while
simultaneously embarking
on a more purist series of
lyrically colored
abstractions, such as Pink
Landscape and Elegy. As
his work progressed, the
heightened colors and
elegant lines of the
abstractions began to
creep into the more
figurative works, and the
coincidence of figures and
abstractions continued
well into the 1940s.
(Wikipedia)
He taught at Black
Mountain College
in North Carolina
in 1948 and at The
Yale School of Art
in 1950/51. In
1950, de Kooning
was one of 17
prominent
Abstract
Expressionists and
avant-garde artists
to sign an open
letter to the New
York Metropolitan
Museum of Art
accusing it of
hostility towards
“advanced art.”
(Wikipedia)
Willem de Kooning, Woman V (1952–53)
At the latest from his
participation in the
1954 Venice
Biennale, where he
was represented
with one of his most
important works,
"Excavation", Willem
de Kooning has been
regarded as a
leading exponent of
Abstract
Expressionism.
These years of his
career were filled
with numerous
shows of his work
and retrospectives.
His exceptional
œuvre is suffused
with the duality of
traditional figuration
and Gestural
Abstract
painting. Willem de
Kooning died in
Springs, New York on
19 March 1997.
http://www.willemde-kooning.com
Orange, Red,
Yellow, by Mark
Rothko
No. 61, 1953, by
Mark Rothko
White Center (Yellow, Pink
and Lavender on Rose), by
Mark Rothko, 1950
White Center is part of
Rothko's signature multiform
style: several blocks of
layered, complementary
colors on a large canvas. The
work was sold in May 2007 by
Sotheby's on behalf of David
Rockefeller to the Royal
family of Qatar; Sheikh
Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani,
and his wife, Sheikha Mozah
bint Nasser Al-Missned. The
painting sold for 72.84 million
(USD), setting the record of
the current most expensive
post-war work of art sold at
auction. White Center is part
of Rothko's signature
multiform style: several
blocks of layered,
complementary colors on a
large canvas. The painting is
from top to bottom, a yellow
horizontal rectangle, a black
horizontal strip, a narrow
white rectangular band and
the bottom half is lavender.
The top half of the rose
ground is deeper in colour
and the bottom half is pale. It
measures 205.8 × 141 cm.
Elegy to the Spanish Republic no. 110, by Robert Motherwell, 1971, 82 x 114 ins., acrylic with pencil and charcoal
on canvas, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC.
Elegy To The Spanish Republic XXXIV, by Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell
American painter, printmaker and editor. A major figure of the Abstract Expressionist
generation, in his mature work he encompassed both the expressive brushwork of action
painting and the breadth of scale and saturated hues of color field painting, often with a
marked emphasis on European traditions of decorative abstraction.
Motherwell decided to become an artist after seeing modern French painting during a trip to
Paris in 1938–9, but in order to satisfy his father’s demands for a secure career he first
studied art history from 1940 to 1941 under Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University, NY.
Through Schapiro he met Roberto Matta and other exiled European artists associated with
Surrealism; their use of automatism as a means of registering subconscious impulses was to
have a lasting effect on Motherwell and on other American painters such as Jackson Pollock,
Lee Krasner and William Baziotes, whom he befriended in New York after a trip to Mexico in
1941 with Matta.
While in Mexico, Motherwell executed his first known works, the Mexican Sketchbook of 11
pen-and-ink drawings in black and white (artist’s col.; for first page, see Arnason, 1982, p. 29).
These were influenced by Matta but were more abstract and spontaneous in appearance. The
appeal of automatist spontaneity, however, was complemented for him by the clear
structure, simple shapes and broad areas of flat color in paintings by Piet Mondrian, Picasso
and Matisse.
(http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=4126)
Helen Frankenthaler
The daughter of New York
State Supreme Court Justice
Alfred Frankenthaler and his
wife Martha Lowenstein, she
was born on December 12,
1928 in New York City. Her
parents encouraged her
talent from a young age and
she was educated in
progressive, experimental
schools. However,
Frankenthaler did not
immerse herself in the
growing avant-garde culture
until early adulthood. It was
then that she enrolled in the
Dalton School where she
studied under the great
Mexican muralist Rufino
Tamayo. After graduating
from Bennington College,
Frankenthaler met the critic
Clement Greenberg who
introduced her to prominent
artists like Willem de
Kooning, Jackson Pollock,
Lee Krasner, and Adolph
Gottlieb.
(http://www.cwhf.org)
Canal, 1963. Acrylic on canvas, 81 × 57 1/2 inches. Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum, New York
The Bay, 1963, by Helen Frankenthaler
"Nature Abhors a Vacuum," a 1973 painting by Helen
Frankenthaler. Image courtesy the National Gallery of
Art
In the work of Franz
Kline, two main tendencies
emerged at an early stage
that would later develop
into a powerful
contribution to the
‘gestural’ trend within
Abstract Expressionism.
Numerous small graphics,
sketches and oils and the
mural series Hot Jazz, 1940,
reveal an interest in
translating animated
subjects into quick,
rudimentary strokes. Kline
admired and found
inspiration in a wide range
of artists notable for their
fluency in handling paint,
including Rembrandt,
Goya, Manet, Sargent and
Whistler. By contrast, an
inclination to compose in
terms of simplified areas
was derived from academic
training and perhaps also
reflected Kline’s memories
of his native Pennsylvania’s
coal-mining region, with its
stark scenery, locomotives
and similar massive
mechanical shapes to
which the titles of his later
abstract images sometimes
referred.
Against the context of
contemporary New York
painting a move towards
abstraction was inevitable
for Franz Kline.
In 1946 Kline began to
generalize his subjects
into series of lines and
planes, which produced
the semi-abstract mosaic
of broad facets influenced
by Cubism found in The
Dancer, 1946. During the
next three years a very
dynamic and fluid
handling emerged,
revealing the impact of
Bradley Walker Tomlin,
Gorky and especially the
black-and-white
abstractions of de
Kooning. From these
artists Kline evidently saw
that his oil medium was
capable of a calligraphic
freedom and that the
vestiges of figures and
objects could become
those rapid marks,
halfway between ciphers
and pure brushstrokes,
that collide together in
shallow space.
(www.moma.org)
Franz Kline (1910-1962), Untitled, 1949, oil on paper,
Alpha
Channeled,
oil on canvas by
Franz Kline, 1953;
in the Albright-Knox Art
Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y. 200
×128 cm.
Studies in ink on
paper simultaneously reinforced
Kline’s sense of
black and white as
terse equivalents
and allowed him to
develop small
emblematic
compositions,
usually based on a
flurry of interlocking curves and
grid-like vectors.
When de Kooning
enlarged some of
these drawings in
1948 as part of his
own work using a
Bell-Opticon
projector, it
affirmed Kline’s
growing awareness
that the sketch
could be expanded
to dramatic effect.
(www.moma.org)
Franz Kline; Mahoning,
1956, Oil and paper collage on canvas. 80 x 100 in. (203.2 x 254 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.