Abstract Expressionism

Art II

Abstract Expressionism

Period: Late 1940s , early 1950’s Locale: New York, East Hampton Aim: Express inner life through art Technique: Free application of paint, no

reference to visual reality Theory: Image not result of a preconceived

idea , but of creative process

Wassily KandinskyComposition VIII

Kandinsky Contrasting Sounds

Wassily Kandinsky

Influence: Wassily Kandinsky Russian painter, whose exploration of the

possibilities of abstraction make him one of the most important innovators in modern art.

Impressed by the works of the Fauves and Post Impressionists, his paintings became more highly colored and loosely organized.

Around 1913 he began working on paintings that derived their inspiration and titles from music.

Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky In 1911, along with Franz Marc and other

German Expressionists, Kandinsky formed Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group (so called for Kandinsky's love of blue and Marc's love of horses).

Wrote Concerning the Spiritual in Art, the first theoretical treatise on abstraction, which spread his ideas through Europe. He also taught at the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts from 1918 to 1921 and at the Bauhaus in Dessau,

Paved the way for abstract expressionism, the dominant school of painting since World War II (1939-1945).

Abstract Expressionism

The center of the art world shifted to New York.

Not just the product of artistic creation but the active process of creating it.

Discovered the act of anarchy from the Dadaists and Surrealists.

Jackson Pollock

Influences

Took the concept of “Automatism” that they learned from Dadaists one step further; relying on instinct to shape the works of art that were not only irrational but unpremeditated accidents.

Action Painting

“Jack

the

Dripper”

Willem De Kooning

“Old Master of Abstract Expressionism” Worked in a realistic style until 1948 Developed a mature style of slashing brush

strokes Until other AE, he kept his interest in the

human figure and is known for a series of “Woman” paintings

Willem De Kooning

Woman

Willem DeKooning

Whose Name Was Writ in Water, 1975. Oil on canvas, 76 3/4 x 87 3/4 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 80.2738. © 2007 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Willem DeKooning

Untitled, 1958. Oil on paper, mounted on Masonite, mounted on wood, 23 x 29 1/8 inches. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. 76.2553.158. © 2007 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Hans Hofmann

What element of the paintings seems to be closest to the viewer?

Hans Hofmann

Hans Hofmann

Early advocate of the freely splashed pigment Highly influential teacher Push / pull method (repulsion/ attraction of

certain colors) First to experiment with pouring paint German –American painter known for

rectangles of high-key contrasting colors that seem to collide.

Color Field Painters

Helen Frankenthaler

Nature Abhors a Vacuum, 19738 feet 7 1/2 inches wide by 9 feet 4 1/2 inches tal

How do you think Frankenthaler applied this paint?

Helen Frankenthaler

Student of Hans Hofmann Saw the work of Pollock and watercolor artist

John Marin and combined their methods to make “stain paintings”.

Used diluted oil paint on sailcloth to create paintings- guided the paint with sponge and wipers.

Helen Frankenthaler

Jacob’s Ladder

Mark Rothko

Untitled (Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red), 1949    

Mark Rothko

“Multiforms" developed into the signature style; by early 1949 Rothko exhibited these new works.

For critics, the paintings were nothing short of a revelation.

Striking symmetrical rectangular blocks of two to three opposing or contrasting, yet complementary colors

Wanted people to view the images from 18 inches away to create intimacy

Jasper Johns

His work is often described as a 'Neo-Dadaist' Johns played with and presented opposites,

contradictions, paradoxes, and ironies, much like Marcel Duchamp

Though the Abstract Expressionists disdained subject matter, in the end it could be said that they simply changed subjects. Johns neutralized the subject, so that something like pure paint--painted surface--could declare itself

Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns

Jasper JohnsThree Flags