New York began to expand its own confidence rather than mimicking styles from Paris. Cocky and brash; the American artists began to shake off their European influence and claim themselves as the new superior art force. Within a few short years and without many groups becoming aware of it New York had displaced Paris as a world centre of the arts. Something that arguably still exists today (however capitals such as London have begun to take centre-stage).
During this period a small section of artists had the courage to challenge social realism and regional life that had characterised American art of previous decades. They drew their inspiration from the bright-hued art of the American Indians and their picture writing, the Mexican revolutionary muralists, Surrealism in some forms and Russian Abstraction. They admired the scale of cave paintings, the lack of composition and the feeling of freedom. Like the Expressionists they felt that ‘…the true subject of art was man’s inner emotions, his turmoil, and to this end they exploited the fundamental aspects of the painting process – gesture, colour, form, texture – for their expressive and symbolic potential’ (Robert Motherwell, 1951). They felt that the frame of mind of the artist when he creates a work of art could be instantaneously revealed by gesture and brushstroke, explaining themselves using arm movement before inappropriate objects or pre-determined meaning. The term ‘Abstract Expressionism’ was first coined by critic Robert Coates in an article in 1946 about the work of Gorky, Pollock and De Kooning, there were many terms around at the time for this type of work but Abstract Expressionism was the one that stuck. European and American critics were at first very hostile towards Abstract Expressionists and labelled them ‘paint-splattering monkeys’, this may have been due to the originality and recentness of the works. It would always have taken them some time to accept a relatively new movement, especially if it meant shifting centuries of ideology and European art overwhelming the American scene, this would have been bitterness.
Abstract Expressionism was to take the world by storm because it gave the impression of being fresh and innovative. Abstract expressionists responded to personal experiences and valued the action of the subconscious mind, the accidental mark and the spontaneous. ‘It welcomed the image that rose unbidden from a chaos of marks’ (Modern Art 3rd Ed, p.265) I feel an image which demonstrates this these values and theories well is Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles (1952) Arguably one of the best action paintings created by this artist and the preverbal ‘ice-breaker’ of the modern style. When I first laid eyes upon Blue Poles it was not the spontaneity or the haphazard appeal of the image that first drew me to it, but the almost rigid uniformity and methodical nature in which the painting has been created. Far from random, this piece is a consistent and accurate image. There is always something interesting to pleasure you in an action painting of Jackson Pollock and looking into this piece, I believe, opens up the world of the artist. I can visualize Pollock pacing up, down and around his canvas delicately flicking domestic house paint in an orderly fashion trying to portray his emotions on that day. His technique was to lay the canvas on the floor and ‘attack’ the page from above this way he could really get ‘inside’ the piece. Blue Poles for me does not represent anything harsh or cruel. This painting is, for me, Pollock’s exploration of his own feelings of thoughtfulness and attention to detail and beauty. The carefully mixed colours and paints are not straight out of the tube or tin and are well thought-out and work well layered together. The paint is so thick that it stands out of the page and gives the feeling of depth. I feel that with the cautious strokes and flicks he is striving to achieve a definite aesthetic beauty and therefore must be feeling sensitive or must be reflecting on some sort of soft beauty. If I had to describe Blue Poles in two words it would be considered and uniform.
Another piece with stays with me is ‘No.3’ (1949) by Mark Rothko. This piece is in Rothko’s signature style of soft-edged bands of colour, which he arrived at after experimenting with realism and surrealism, and has come to be regarded by most critics as a sublime abstract expression. This image is luminous and rich in its use of colour, Rothko intended his large oil paintings to be seen up close so that the viewer can be enveloped by their colourful quality. Rothko made few public statements about the mechanics of colour or pictorial space in his work, especially after 1949. During the 1940s, however, he described the notion of a painting in which 'shapes' or 'performers' first emerge as 'an unknown adventure in an unknown space.' Rothko is quoted to have said; “I belong to a generation that was preoccupied with the human figure and I studied it. It was with utmost reluctance that I found that it did not meet my needs. Whoever used it mutilated it. No one could paint the figure was it was and feel that he could produce something that could express the world. I refuse to mutilate and had to find to find another way of expression. I used mythology for a while substituting various creatures who were able to make intense gestures without embarrassment. I began to use morphological forms in order to paint gestures that I could not make people do. But this was unsatisfactory. My current pictures are involved with the scale of human feeling, the human drama, as much of it as I can express." No.3 is, at risk of categorising his work, a typical Rothko piece and in true Abstract Expressionist style Rothko is exploring a human emotion. The deep underlying reds expose feelings of passion, Rothko is known to use themes such as tragedy and death in his pieces and I feel the large black section is meant to represent this. The green looks like decay and putrefying material and I think this is meant to symbolise a factor outside of anyone’s control, maybe a lament or regret. The dark red/purple strip at the top next to the white section I feel shows optimism, and hope to make the tragic concept more tolerable. His palette was quite broad although the best paintings are dominated by yellows, reds and oranges. Near the end of his life, before he committed suicide, his paintings became much darker and his palette narrower.
Abstract Expressionism affected people. It stood out as an unsullied form of expression and has been admired by artists, collectors and critics alike. Its influence knows no bounds in positive and negative forms. By 1960 reaction against the emotionalism of the movement was under way, in the shape principally of art and . Sculptors as well as painters were influenced by Abstract Expressionism, the leading figures including Ibram Lassaw (1913), Seymour Lipton (1903-86), and Theodore Roszak (1907-81). Today Abstract Expressionism has become part of the standard critical vocabulary but in the 1940’s it was as fresh as the Sensation Show was at the peak of its success. A movement which can unmistakably be described as influenced by Abstract Expressionism is that of Minimalism. In Minimalism objects are cut down to their fundamental, geometric form, and presented in an impersonal manner. This movement is a direct descendant of Abstract Expressionism, and colour-field painters in particular. Large scale washes of colour in sections and the overall emotion evoked being far more important than any kind of subject matter. A number of famous developments were led by artists associated with Abstract Expressionists and New York school artists. As the influence of abstract expressionism decreased in the 1960s, artists came to question the very philosophy underlying modernism. As the force and vigour of diminished, new artistic movements and styles arose during the 1960s and 70s to challenge and displace modernism in painting, sculpture, and other media. This is how Pop art reared its head. -like styles employed in the early 1960s and thereafter by Robert and Jasper had widespread influence, as did the styles of many other artists. Abstract Expressionism, far from dead however, is still very much alive and living. It lives in modern pieces and artists across the globe; its influence knows no bounds.
