Abstract Expressionism

By: Tori Veltri, Maddy Salo, & Emily Lundh

Definition

• A movement embracing many individual styles marked in common by freedom of technique, a preference for dramatically large canvases, and a desire to give spontaneous expression to the unconscious.

History

• Started in New York in 1940’s• New York School:– Artists wanted to express feelings about World

War II– Main Artists: Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock,

& Mark Rothko– First U.S. movement to become famous

Influences

• Abstractionism & Expressionism• Surrealism• Great Depression• World War Two• Holocaust

Features

• Pieces of art are very large• Applied paint expressively• No realistic subject• Expression of feelings and emotions• Trying to depict the subconscious mind• Same attitude about art but not technique or

style• Expresses universal emotions

Types

Action Painting• Not carefully applied• Applied paint roughly• Personal expression• Paint is spontaneously

dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas

Colorfield Painting• Carefully painted• Intense squares of color• Few colors• Large fields of flat, solid

color spread across or stained into the canvas

• Areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane

JACKSON POLLOCK

• January 28, 1912, born in Cody, Wyoming• 1930, moved to New York• 1935, he started work on the WPA Federal Art

Project as a painter• 1937, began psychiatric treatment for alcoholism• 1943, Pollock's first one-man art show in New York• 1945, Pollock married Lee Krasner • 1947, Pollock developed the "dripping" process• August 11, 1956, died in East Hampton, New York

Going West, 1934-1935

Blue (Moby Dick) 1943

Full Fathom Five 1947

Autumn Rhythm 1950

Number 14 1951

Convergence 1952

Willem de Kooning• 1904- Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands• Left home at 12 to work at a design &

decorating firm• Depicted the human form using different

methods• Work was constantly changing• At the age of 20 he traveled to America as a

stowaway• Influenced by Picasso, Cubism, Surrealism, &

Dadaism• Gestural Abstraction• Worked on Women Series for 30 years• Died of Alzheimer's in 1997 at age 92

Pink Angels 1945

Woman 1 1950-52

…Whose Name was Writ in Water 1975

Mark Rothko

• Born in Russia, moved to New York • Started as a surrealist• Part of the New York School• Style: Color field paintings• Avoided subjects• Transcendental Experience• Mentally unstable

Slow Swirl at the End of the Sea (1943)

Orange and Yellow (1956)

Red on Maroon (1959)

Seagram Murals

Untitled (1969)

Rothko Chapel

Louise Nevelson• Born in 1899 in the Ukraine and moved to

Maine in 1905 with her father• Gave found objects a “spiritual life” inspired

by feminism• Grouped wood together into monochromatic

cubist structures

Sky Cathedral (1982) by Louise Nevelson