Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism

Characterized by gestural brush strokes or mark-making and the impression of spontaneity.

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Pollock, One: Number 31

Fully freeing color and line from its descriptive role- drawing influence from the Fauves.

Exhibits a new relationship between the painter and the canvas, as the canvas is on the floor.

The hyper-masculinity of Pollock is reflected in this work with his unconventional use of house paint and beer bottles.

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Klein, Intersection.

Demonstrates the idea of “painting about the act of painting”

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Rothko, No. 61 (Rust and Blue)

Choosing and layering color very deliberately; is more complex than meets the eye.

Demands time and meditation

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Norman Lewis, Blending

Part of the Harlem Renaissance— the tension between creating art about social inequity vs. work that “fits in” to the abstract expressionism style.

Claims the art is apolitical—uses the color Black in purely visual terms.

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Lewis, Alabama

The white at the center being overtaken by black reflects Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement

Lewis found a way into an artist movement designed to exclude him.

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Krasner, Gaea

Krasner was married to Pollock and can never shake her identify as his feminine counterpart.

Unlike Pollock, she is interested in shapes that move gesturally across the surface and feminine Earth themes.

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Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea

Each decision about where paint goes is deliberate, but the paint has a life of its own as it soaks and drips onto the canvas.