1. Late 1940s-1950s
Abstract Expressionism

2. Abstract Expressionism
 A Modern Art Movement
 Began in New York in 1940’s
 Post World War II
 Response to conservative American Culture

3. Abstract Expressionism
 Artists needed to communicate feelings and
experiences
 New York replaced Paris as centre of Art
World
 Non coherent Art Movement
 Grew out of Surrealism

4. Where it Started-Influences
 Cubism
 Surrealism
 Abstraction

5. Influences
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?search=1&page=2&f=Works%20on%20View&cr=17
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79018
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1999.363.11
Cubism
Surrealism
Abstraction

6. Subject Matter
 Abstract imagery
 Expression through Colour and Line
 Work reflected individual Artists own
emotions
 Valued spontaneity & improvisation
 Expressive method of painting as important
as painting itself

7. Key Characteristics of Abstract
Expressionism:
 Emotional Expression
 Unconventional method of painting
 Dripping, smearing, slathering paint on
canvas
 Spontaneous, Automatic and Subconscious
Creation
 Vivid Colours

8. Key Characteristics of Abstract
Expressionism:
 Emphasis on process
 Allowed for Spontaneity
 Gestural Writing-loosely
calligraphic
 Large Scale canvasses
 Two main types of painting:
- Action Painting
- Colour Field Painting

9. Two Main Types of Painting:
Action Painting Colour Field Painting
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1982.147.27 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1985.63.5

10. Art Critic- Harold Rosenberg
 Rosenberg redefined Abstract Expressionism
as ‘Action Painting’.
 As he put it;
"At a certain moment the canvas began to
appear to one American painter after another
as an arena in which to act... What was to go
on the canvas was not a picture but an
event.“ – Harold Rosenberg

11. Action Painting:
 Painting was the result of the artist’s dynamic
action
 Act of painting more important than the
painting itself
 Gave freedom to the painter’s creative
impulses
 Paint energetically splashed, spilt or dribbled
on to canvas
 Usually placed face up on the floor

12. Key Artists: Action Painting
 Jackson Pollock
 William de Kooning
 Joan Mitchell
 Franz Kline
 Lee Krasner
http://www.vanguardia.com.mx/XStatic/vanguardia/images/espanol/9500316c.jpg

13. “Painting is a state of being…
Painting is self discovery. Every
good painter paints what he is…
When I am in my painting I’m not
aware of what I’m doing”.
Jackson Pollock

14. Jackson Pollock
abstracted4life.blogspot.com
No. 6, 1948,Oil on Paper
•American Painter
•Nicknamed ‘Jack the
Dripper
•Unique style of Drip
painting
•Enlarged Scale
•Many layers to his work
•Wanted to be ‘in’ the
painting- to be physically
part of it.

15. Jackson Pollock
• Un-primed Canvas
• Abandoned
conscious control of
painting
• Hand controlled
conscious
• Layering of colour
• Limited Palette
• Mark-making
• Visual Rhythms
• Sensations
Autumn Rhythm, No. 30, 1950,
Enamel on Canvas
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/57.92

16. William De Kooning
http://whitney.org/Collection/WillemDeKooning/5535/Audio
Woman and Bicycle, 1952-53,
Oil on Canvas
• Dutch Born Painter
• Bold and spontaneous
brushwork
• Abstract figurative work
• Women I
• Series of provocative
paintings of women
• Reversed traditional
representation of the
woman as ‘the idol’.

17. Joan Mitchell
http://www.artnet.com/usernet/awc/awc_workdetail.asp?aid=424260964&gid=424260964&cid=75384&wid=424342786&page=1
Harbour December, 1956, Oil on Canvas

18. Franz Kline
Ballantine, 1958-60,Oil on Canvas
http://martintomlinson.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/paint-it-black/

19. Lee Krasner
Gothic Landscape, 1961, Oil on Canvas
http://www.cavetocanvas.com/post/17453987164/lee-krasner-gothic-landscape-1961-from-the-tate

20. Colour Field Painting:
 Bold and assertive.
 Contemplative and questioning.
 Carefully constructed.
 Large scale canvasses.

21. Colour Field Painting:
 Sought to rid art of superflows and rhetoric.
 Artists used reduced references to nature.
 Eliminated recognisable imagery.
 Presented abstraction as an end in itself.

22. Key Artists: Colour Field Painting
 Mark Rothko
 Adolph Gottlieb
 Helen Frankenthaler
 Kenneth Noland
 Barnett Newman
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80566

23. Mark, Rothko, Untitled
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection
-online/show-full/piece/?object=78.2461&search=&page=&f=Title
1949, Oil on Canvas
• Russian Born Painter
• Distinctive Style-
• Large Canvasses
• Deliberate plain, soft edge
shapes
• Luminous, glowing
colours
• ‘Paintings were
about tragedy, ecstacy
and doom, fundamental
emotions and passions’-
-Rothko

24. Adolf Gottlieb
Adolf Gottlieb, Sentinel, 1951 Oil on Linen
http://arttattler.com/archivecolorasfield.html
• Adopted the term
“pictograph”
• Connection between
image making and
writing
• Fascinated by myth
• Sought painting that
was ‘timeless and
tragic’

25. Helen Frankenthaler:
Canyon, 1965, Acrylic on Canvas
HTTP://WWW.PHILLIPSCOLLECTION.ORG/RESEARCH/AMERICAN_ART/ARTWORK/FRANKENTHALER-CANYON.HTM

26. Kenneth Noland:
EAST WEST, 1963
http://www.kennethnoland.com/works/1960-1970.php

27. Barnett Newman:
http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/abstract-expressionism/barnett-newman
Vir Heroicus Sublimis. 1950–51

28. Acknowledgements
Art Associates
Maria Moore
Margaret O’Shea
Local Facilitator Team
Aine Andrews
Joe Caslin
Jane Campbell
Siobhan Campbell
Niamh O’Donoghue
Niamh O’Neill
Keith O’Rahilly
Sheena McKeon
Tony Morrissey
Monica White
Many thanks to the following for their invaluable contribution to the European
Art History and Appreciation series of workshops and resource materials.
Professional Development Service for Teachers

29. Professional Development Service for Teachers
The PDST is funded by the
Department of Education and
Skills under the National
Development Plan 2007 -
2013
Cultural & Environmental Education
Professional Development Service for Teachers
(PDST)
Dublin West Education Centre,
Old Blessington Road,
Tallaght,
Dublin 24
National Co-ordinator
Conor Harrison
Mobile: 087 240 5710
E-mail: conorharrison@pdst.ie
Administrator
Angie Grogan
Tel: 014528018 Fax: 014528010
E-mail: angiegrogan@pdst.ie.