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Abstract Expressionism
However great a disaster World War II was, it did at least
mean that artists such as Piet Mondrian and Max Ernst, in leaving Europe for
the safety of the USA, greatly extended their artistic influence. It is impossible
to estimate how much they affected American art, but the fact remains that in
the 1940s and '50s, for the first time, American artists became internationally
important with their new vision and new artistic vocabulary, known as Abstract
Expressionism. The first public exhibitions of work by the ``New York School''
of artists-- who were to become known as Abstract Expressionists-- were held
in the mid '40s. Like many other modern movements, Abstract Expressionism does
not describe any one particular style, but rather a general attitude; not all
the work was abstract, nor was it all expressive. What these artists did have
in common were morally loaded themes, often heavyweight and tragic, on a grand
scale.
In contrast to the themes of social realism and regional life
that characterized American art of previous decades, these artists valued, above
all, individuality and spontaneous improvisation. They felt ill at ease with
conventional subjects and styles, neither of which could adequately convey their
new vision. In fact, style as such almost ceased to exist with the Abstract Expressionists,
and they drew their inspiration from all directions. The painters who came to
be called ``Abstract Expressionists'' shared a similarity of outlook rather than
of style -- an outlook characterized by a spirit of revolt and a belief in freedom
of expression. The main exponents of the genre were Pollock, de Kooning, and
Rothko, but other artists included Guston, Kline, Newman and Still. The term
Abstract Expressionism was first used by Robert Coates in the March issue of
the New Yorker in 1936. The movement was hugely successful, partly due to the
efforts of the critics Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg who also originated
the terms Action Painting and American Style. |
© Joy Walker
Pink Rain
Painting
© Joy Walker
Swan's Away
Painting
"The function of an artist is to express
reality as felt."
Robert Motherwell
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