Art Report – Abstract Expressionism
Art Report – Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism was first used in the Germany magazine Der Sturm in 1919, regarding as “German expressionism”. The term “abstract expressionism” was first applied to American art in 1946 and gained acceptance in the 1950s. It was mostly used in New York and San Francisco Bay area of California. Abstract Expressionism mainly comes from “Surrealism”, which represents spontaneous artwork. In combination, abstract expressionism has an image of being rebellious and highly idiosyncratic.
Abstract Expressionism can be mostly applied to “Action Painting”, “Figurativism” and “Colour Field Paintings”. |[pic] |An example of Action | | |Painting. | | |Franz Kline, Painting | | |Number 2, 1954, The | | |Museum of Modern Art | Action Painting is a kind of gestural abstraction.It is actually about splashing and dribbling on the canvas instead of carefully painting on it |[pic] | |An example of Figurativism | |The Creation of Adam, a figurative work by Michelangelo | Figurativism is a kind of painting that is clearly derived from real object sources like human and animals. It focuses mainly on the line, shape, colour and the perspective of the painting.
[pic] | |An example of Colour Field Paintig | |Kenneth Noland, Beginning, magna on canvas painting by Hirshhorn Museum and | |Sculpture Garden, 1958. Kenneth Noland working in Washington, DC. , was a | |pioneer of the color field movement in the late 1950s. | Colour Field Painting is also closely related to Modernism. It focuses on flat and solid colour creating an unbroken surface and a flat picture plane.It has less emphasis placed on gesture, brushstrokes and action but more on overall consistency of form and process.
Other valuable art movements started to develop based on Abstract Expressionism in the late sixties and seventies. Pop Art and Lyrical Abstraction are some examples. Artists and painters developed in those arts further in details (e. g. Donald Judd) while some of them still continue to work in the abstract expressionism style (e.
g. Fuller Potter).
