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Abstract Expressionism
Clyfford Still’s art is usually considered within the context of Abstract Expressionism, a movement of artists who independently developed approaches to abstraction around the time of World War II. These artists mostly avoided combat (by virtue of their age) but were keenly aware of the details of WWII through newsreels, newspapers, radio, and popular magazines. After WWII, these same news outlets began to cover the emergence of an American avant-garde art born from the horrors of the Great Depression, world wars, and collective need for a spiritual and emotional reformation.
Although Abstract Expressionist artists’ paintings look very different, their work tends to share several key characteristics.
Imagery
Abstract Expressionist artworks do not generally contain realistic images of objects or figures (the “seen world”). Instead, in Abstract Expressionism, shapes, colors, and lines combine to create the “image.” Many Abstract Expressionists wanted people to be able to react to their paintings without the interference of associations with recognizable imagery.
Many Abstract Expressionist artists wanted to immerse the viewer in a total experience of their art. Making art that was very large in scale helped draw the viewer’s focus into the artwork to achieve this goal—creating art that could be experienced, not just seen.
All-over Composition
Abstract Expressionist artists commonly activated the entire surface of their paintings. Their images often “played” with the edge of the canvas. In a typical Abstract Expressionist composition, there is not one focal point. Instead, a viewer’s eyes might be directed “all over” the canvas by the colors of paint, brushstrokes, and the artist’s technique.
Abstract Expressionist artworks often show motion or the movement made by the artist in the act of making the painting. Even artists who did not create their artwork by using big movements or gestures did, in many cases, achieve a sense of implied movement in the finished artwork by how they made marks on the canvas. A sense of movement is also created by the all-over compositions that keep viewers’ eyes moving around the artwork.
Abstract Art Ideas
Have you ever tried to remember the first time when you found yourself looking at an abstract art or an abstract painting? Do you remember the thoughts or feelings you had about what you were looking at?
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ABSTRACT art is both a misleading word and accurate. It is misleading in the sense that it implies that it is not a picture of anything, that it is a deviation from any kind of realism. It is an accurate designation insofar as such art is concerned with the conceptual over and above the perceptual (though access to the conceptual is via the perceptual). It is furthermore important to note that there are various kinds and degrees of the abstract, just as there are variations in figurative and ‘realistic ” works of art whether considered traditional or modern. Some abstract art can be considered to be what I term ” thought-constructs “. They are a kind of mathematical logic read not from left to right and down but as part of a painting can be viewed as gestalt, holistic imagery so that the logic is ” wilder ” (an ” other ” logic I dub it`) or less uni-dimensional. Such works of art use line to suggest not only a feeling and sensation but could be viewed as an ” equals ” sign; while numbers, circles, points, triangles and squares add to the description of an intellectual process. But we cannot get to the thought for these imagery are merely signs and devices and pictures, not the substance itself. And herein lies the insurmountable duality, namely the fact that on the one hand there is a concept and yet on the other hand, the ” object ” is a painting where the visual language (style, technique through texture, colour, line and so on and so forth) is a language unto itself and it is unclear how the two combine to form a coherent message. I believe the quandary was made explicit by Mel Bochner’s ” blah, blah, blah… ” painting in that the introduction of the word is nullified through the abundance of paint, surface, colour, drippings, markings and so on. Then there is the difficulty where somebody (presumably someone that calls themselves an artist) takes on abstract art as if it were some kind of style or technique. In this case, it is not clear whether it is abstract art or just a playing with materials. Newman claimed there was no good art about nothing and to this I agree and therefore caution those who see nothing in abstract art but the production of a pretty picture whether conceived in aesthetic terms or simply as retinal art as Duchamp might put it. Abstract art is distinct from the literal attack of Plato on mimesis and his recoil into a (Platonic) ideal. Rather one might consider abstract art more like Wittgenstein’s’ notion
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Online Journal of Arts and Design OJAD, Volume: 7, Issue: 3, July – 2019; pp: 20 – 36. (DAAI Index)
Before modernity arts and crafts produced by cultures were rooted in the common societal values and traditions of practice. Modernity as a corollary of political, cultural, and scientific revolutions caused radical changes in the constitution of cultures. At the beginning of the twentieth century arts experienced radical changes in their themes and communication techniques. Scientific advances that influenced all the world intellectuals while on the one hand, elevated arts to a universal level and enriched their themes with concepts such as movement, dynamism and simplicity, on the other hand rendered artistic interpretation, criticism and education questionable. In the 1960s the moving of the epicentre of artistic prominence from the mid-Europe to the USA supported first the Minimalism and later the social Expressionism via the artistic visionaries. Abstract art that at the same time opens itself to the criticism of the ordinary man but lacks the true interpretation of the basic meaning is deplete with serious innate problems of reading and methods of teaching apposite for the age. This study encouraged by the practice-based research that is promoted in the western world during the last couple of decades dwelt upon the readability of some concepts from the samples of abstract art. Upholding an assumption that artistic concepts are related to learning and remembering and might stem from the tacit knowledge, eight national abstract art pieces were selected and re-read via the concept of space/time. In the study that adopts persuasion method, the cases were read with semantic significance. It was concluded that although the cases seemed abstract artistic endeavours they hid a latent meaning. Thus the research proposes that the teaching of painting via concepts prove possible and pose a reliable pedagogical tool.
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Abstract Painting in the 1950s
Abstract Expressionism is a form of art (mainly painting) that developed after one of the most difficult periods in human history. This period began during the great depression in the 1930’s and ended with the end of World War II in 1945. When the war ended, Germany, Italy and Japan had been defeated and much of Europe and Japan were in ruins. The human loss in the Nazi concentration camps had been exposed in all of its horror and the United States had dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, unleashing destructive power of an unprecedented nature. All of this, of course brought about a worldwide examination of basic human values and ethics and a period of dramatic change in art.
Although both the Great Depression and World War II were great disasters, these events were important in forcing a number of the European avant-garde artists to flee Europe for the safety of the Americas, where they also influenced many younger artists in the United States. It is difficult to know exactly how much this migration affected American art, but part of its impact was that for the first time, American artists became internationally recognized for their new vision and a new artistic vocabulary, all of which soon became known as Abstract Expressionism.
Clement Greenberg was an important critic in the twentieth century, who was very influential in the promotion of Abstract Expressionism. Watch this video to learn about this perspective on art. See this video at:
These artists, like others earlier in the century, began to express their feelings and thoughts in abstract form. However, the difference here was that they expressed these abstract ideas and feelings with an energy that had never been seen before as they tried to draw upon their deepest essence, or a pure expression, from which generated excitement and even torment into a concrete form. They also took artistic license to an extreme that had never been seen before; and in doing so, they redefined what could be considered art and artistic process.
Because this art movement was centered in New York, it is often referred to as the “New York School.” But Abstract Expressionism is often called “Action Painting” because the movement of painting, they felt, drew from innate parts of the artist’s mind. These artists often applied paint rapidly, painting on large canvases, sometimes applying paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping the paint onto the canvas or even throwing it onto the canvas. What appears to be painting done by accident, chance and random activity, was actually the result of planned and highly controlled attempts to tap what they considered was most essential and true in the subconscious. In this way, they often considered the process of making the painting as important as the painting itself.
Like most other modern movements, which have been defined by critics and historians rather than artists, Abstract Expressionism does not describe only one particular style, but rather signifies an attitude toward making art. Confusing as it may seem, not all the work classified as Abstract Expressionism was abstract, nor was it all expressive, at least on a grand scale. This art stood in sharp contrast to the social realism and regionalism that characterized American art of earlier years, and the Abstract Expressionist artists valued, more than anything, their individuality and spontaneous improvisation of their artistic methods. This attitude was also characterized by a spirit of revolt and an intense belief in freedom of expression.
Now we turn to reading biographies of major Abstract Expressionists. Read the artists under Abstract Expressionism on the web book menu at http://aaep1600.osu.edu/book/menu1950s.php
Or follow this list:
- Elaine de Kooning
- Willem de Kooning
- Grace Hartigan
- Lee Krasner
- Jackson Pollock
Others include Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell and Sam Francis.
