Abstract Expressionism In America

Abstract Expressionism is defined as “an artistic movement of the mid-20th century comprising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist's liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually nonrepresentational means” (Merriam-webster). Abstract expressionism is the first are movement of America and it is one of the most diverse movements. A few of the leading artist of this movement were Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, and Jackson Pollock.

Abstract Expressionism, which is simular to Automatism, emerged as the first movement in America in the 1940’s while the country was still recovering from World War II (visual-arts-cork.com). Abstract Expressionism is a work of art that shows the artists feelings and emotions through the random looking colors and stroks but even though it looks random it is usually well thought out and planned (artlex.com).

According to visual-arts-cork.com, the Abstract Expressionism movement was made of two expansive groupings.

The two groupings were “action painters” like Jackson Poolock who “focused on an intensely expressive style of gestural painting” and the more passive “color-field” painters like like Mark Rothko who were more concerned with reflection and mood (visual-arts-cork.com). It is a very diverse movement, each atrist protrayed it differently. It was and is a very personal style of art, it shows what the artist is feeling and their views on certain things.

An artists most important tool is their body, their hands, fingers, and arms which are guided by their minds. Creating art is a very personal thing and artists constantly touch their work as it is created. An example of this is in figure 11.6 Fanny (Fingerpainting) by Chuck Close and the entire painting was done with his hands and fingerprints (Lazzari &

Schlesier,

2015). Some artists use the movement of their entire body to create an artwork, which is called action painting.
Jackson Pollock was one of the biggest artists of the abstract expressionism movement. He mostly used action painting for his art work. When he painted the painting Lucifer (figure 11.38) the movement of his body played a huge role in the paiting. He laid the canvas on the ground and poured, dripped, and flung paint at it from where he stood at the side, he even walked across (Lazzari & Schlesier, 2015).
Another big artist of the abstract exprssionism movement was Mark Rothko, his paintings were more on the side of “color-field” and he used his paintings to show more of his mood and inner thoughts (visual-arts-cork.com). An example is his painting Green, Red, Blue (figure 11.33), Rothko used his paintings “to address these broad and fundamental feeling and ideas because figurative or narrative imagery was too specific and too limiting” (Lazzari & Schlesier, 2015). His painting were meant to be a feeling, a feeling that couldn’t be desrribed but is fealt none the less.
Robert Motherwell was another artist that was part of the abstract expressionism movement, Although he was also influenced by Surrealism’s process of expression called Automatism. Elegy to the Spanish Republic XXXIV (figure 10.8) is part of Robert Motherwell’s series of more then one hundred and fifty paintings (Lazzari & Schlesier, 2015). The series does not tell a story but it communicates the struggle between life and death and between freedom and oppression (Lazzari & Schlesier, 2015). In his paintings he is trying to “express his mourning