Abstract
Expressionism was an art movement that emerged in America in the early 1940s.
In the early 1940s, many artists and scholars moved from Paris, the capital of
art, to New York to escape the war that was ravaging Europe, and their arrival
had a profound impact on American art. The emergence of this art movement in
the United States was related to the desire of New York to replace Paris as the
world's art center. It was also the first modern art movement to have an
international impact after World War II and almost became a symbol of the
success of American art. It was the beginning of a long period of post-war
stylistic experimentation and marked the dawn of a new era. Since then,
America's international artistic status has increased dramatically, gradually
taking over the position of Paris as the center of art.
Clement
Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg were two important art critics who, together
with their advocates, created a movement of Abstract Expressionism in America,
a style of non-realistic painting that combined abstract forms with the
emotional values of Expressionist painters. Covering several distinct forms,
the aim of this artistic movement was not only the desire to redefine the
nature of painting but to create a new type of art in the process.
Abstract Expressionist
painting was usually divided into two categories: action painting and color
field. Action painting (movement painting), proposed by Rosenberg, was a style
in which painters paint with intensity and exaggeration, with free and varied
strokes and an emphasis on arbitrariness and randomness. Representative artists
include Pollock and de Kooning. Color field, proposed by Greenberg, also known
as (coloring abstraction), was a style that mainly emphasizes the color
atmosphere and symbolic meaning or expressive power caused by the large color
field. Representative painters include Rothko, Newman and Still.
Abstract
Expressionism was art that flaunts individuality, has an inherent emotional
temperament and was a fantasy of personal heroism. These painters included in
the movement did not have much in common, except for the same abstract
characteristics in their artistic style, and many of their works were
diametrically opposed in form.
Characteristics
Art was
considered by Abstract Expressionists to be abstract and mainly improvised. In
terms of technique, the most important predecessor of abstraction was
Surrealism. The concepts of unconsciousness, spontaneity and random creation
emphasized by Surrealism were generally considered to be not aimed at depicting
concrete things but conveying various emotions through points, lines, surfaces,
colors, shapes, and compositions and stimulating people's emotions. In later
times, this ideology was used continuously in Jackson Pollock's oil paintings
that were randomly splashed on the floor. It is generally believed that Pollock
studied the works of Max Ernst.
Abstract
Expressionists did not need to refer to nature, nor did they need to adhere to
past perceptions, but simply expressed their inner thoughts through variations
in line, color and pattern. Abstract Expressionism had no theory or form and could
be described as a painting of absolute freedom. Since America, where it
originated, did not have many historical roots, there was no need to maintain a
traditional style, and there was no need to deliberately maintain cultural
traditions. In the social and spiritual aspects of the time, it was only
logical that Abstract Expressionism was born in America.
Techniques
The painting
techniques of Abstract Expressionism are mainly improvisation. Because their
paintings are generally very large in size, they seem to dominate the viewer.
The larger the size of the painting, the more difficult it was for the artist
to master the language of composition, proportion, rhythm, and so on. Most of
the lines and colors on the canvas appear in the form of twists and spurts, and
flows. The use of paint often leaves expressive traces, such as blocks of paint
and rough brush strokes, which record the movements of the artists as they
create. The different trajectories and strengths of arm-driven brush movements
create a visual sensation of varying forms and dynamics.
Influence
Abstraction was
in its own right because it expresses the emotional intensity of art, as well
as the self-representation of the artists. This echoed the Expressionist
anti-figurative aesthetic and some European art styles that emphasized abstract
iconographies, such as Bauhaus, Futurism, or Cubism. Abstract paintings also
tended to be rebellious, disorderly, and detached from nothingness.
Abstract painting
has swept the world at a relatively fast speed since it came out a hundred
years ago. The reason for this is that this style had not only changed the way
people understood and observed the world but also expanded the function of
painting so that it no longer satisfied aesthetic enjoyment, sensual pleasure,
or moral obedience but focused more on the expression of the painter's inner
feelings, which in turn resonated within the viewer.
Representative
figures of Abstract Expressionism include Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell,
Franz Kline, Ad Reinhardt, and Morris Louis.
