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{{Short description|American post–World War II art movement}}{{Distinguish|Abstract art|Abstract impressionism|Expressionism}}
{{Infobox art movement|name=Abstract
'''Abstract expressionism''' in the United States emerged as a distinct [[art movement]] in the immediate [[aftermath of World War II]] and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American [[social realism]] of the 1930s influenced by the [[Great Depression]] and [[Mexican muralism|Mexican muralists]].<ref>The work of Mexican muralists would also influence the work of Jackson Pollock, a leading representative of the New York School and Abstract Expressionism.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Paul |first=Authors: Stella |title=Abstract Expressionism {{!}} Essay {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |language=en}}</ref> The term was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic [[Robert Coates (critic)|Robert Coates]]. Key figures in the [[New York School (art)|New York School]], which was the center of this movement, included such artists as [[Arshile Gorky]], [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Franz Kline]], [[Mark Rothko]], [[Norman Lewis (artist)|Norman Lewis]], [[Willem de Kooning]], [[Adolph Gottlieb]], [[Clyfford Still]], [[Robert Motherwell]] and [[Theodoros Stamos]] among others.
'''Abstract expressionism''' was first used in Germany in 1919 in the magazine ''[[Der Sturm]]'', regarding [[German Expressionism]]. [[Alfred Barr]] was the first to use this term in 1929 for works by [[Wassily Kandinsky]].<ref>Hess, Barbara; "Abstract Expressionism", 2005</ref>▼
The movement was not limited to painting but included influential collagists and sculptors, such as [[David Smith (sculptor)|David Smith]], [[Louise Nevelson]], and others. Abstract Expressionism was notably influenced by the spontaneous and [[subconscious]] creation methods of [[Surrealism|Surrealist]] artists like [[André Masson]] and [[Max Ernst]]. Artists associated with the movement combined the emotional intensity of [[Die Brücke|German Expressionism]] with the radical visual vocabularies of European [[avant-garde]] schools like [[Futurism]], the [[Bauhaus]], and [[Cubism|Synthetic Cubism]].
Abstract Expressionism was seen as rebellious and idiosyncratic, encompassing various artistic styles, and was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put [[New York City]] at the center of the Western [[art world]], a role formerly filled by [[Art in Paris|Paris]]. Contemporary art critics played a significant role in its development. Critics like [[Clement Greenberg]] and [[Harold Rosenberg]] promoted the work of artists associated with Abstract Expressionism, in particular Jackson Pollock, through their writings. Rosenberg's concept of the canvas as an "arena in which to act" was pivotal in defining the approach of [[Action painting|action painters]]. The cultural reign of Abstract Expressionism in the United States had diminished by the early 1960s, while the subsequent rejection of the Abstract Expressionist emphasis on individualism led to the development of such movements as [[Pop art]] and [[Minimalism]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rawlings |first=Kandice |date=2015-08-19 |others=Originally published by [[Oxford Art Online]] |title=The Impact of Abstract Expressionism |url=https://smarthistory.org/the-impact-of-abstract-expressionism/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=Smarthistory}}</ref> Throughout the second half of the 20th century, influence of AbEx can be seen in diverse movements in the U.S. and Europe, including [[Tachisme]] and [[Neo-expressionism]], among others.
▲The term "'''
== Style ==▼
▲== Style ==
Technically, an important predecessor is [[surrealism]], with its emphasis on spontaneous, [[Surrealist automatism|automatic]], or subconscious creation. [[Jackson Pollock]]'s dripping paint onto a canvas laid on the floor is a technique that has its roots in the work of [[André Masson]], [[Max Ernst]], and [[David Alfaro Siqueiros]]. The newer research tends to put the exile-surrealist [[Wolfgang Paalen]] in the position of the artist and theoretician who fostered the theory of the viewer-dependent possibility space through his paintings and his magazine ''[[DYN (magazine)|DYN]]''. Paalen considered ideas of [[quantum mechanics]], as well as idiosyncratic interpretations of the totemic vision and the spatial structure of native-Indian painting from [[British Columbia]] and prepared the ground for the new spatial vision of the young American abstracts. His long essay ''Totem Art'' (1943) had considerable influence on such artists as [[Martha Graham]], [[Isamu Noguchi]], [[Jackson Pollock|Pollock]], [[Mark Rothko]] and [[Barnett Newman]].<ref>Andreas Neufert, ''Auf Liebe und Tod, Das Leben des Surrealisten Wolfgang Paalen'', Berlin (Parthas) 2015, S. 494ff.</ref> Around 1944 Barnett Newman tried to explain America's newest art movement and included a list of "the men in the new movement
The movement's name is derived from the combination of the emotional intensity and self-denial of the German [[expressionism|Expressionists]] with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools such as [[Futurism (art)|Futurism]], the [[Bauhaus]], and Synthetic [[Cubism]]. Additionally, it has an image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and, some feel, nihilistic.<ref name="Shapiro 2000 p. 189-190">Shapiro, David/Cecile (2000), "Abstract Expressionism: The politics of apolitical painting." pp. 189–190 In: Frascina, Francis (2000–1): ''Pollock and After: The Critical Debate''. 2nd ed. London: Routledge</ref> In practice, the term is applied to any number of artists working (mostly) in New York who had quite different styles, and even to work that is neither especially abstract nor expressionist. California abstract expressionist [[Jay Meuser]], who typically painted in the non-objective style, wrote about his painting ''Mare Nostrum'', "It is far better to capture the glorious spirit of the sea than to paint all of its tiny ripples." Pollock's energetic "[[action painting]]s", with their "busy" feel, are different, both technically and aesthetically, from the violent and grotesque ''Women'' series of [[Willem de Kooning]]'s [[Figurative art|figurative paintings]] and the rectangles of color in Rothko's [[Color Field]] paintings (which are not what would usually be called expressionist, and which Rothko denied were abstract). Yet all four artists are classified as abstract expressionists.
Abstract expressionism has many stylistic similarities to the Russian artists of the early 20th century such as [[Wassily Kandinsky]]. Although it is true that spontaneity or the impression of spontaneity characterized many of the abstract expressionists' works, most of these paintings involved careful planning, especially since their large size demanded it. With artists such as [[Paul Klee]], Kandinsky, [[Emma Kunz]], and later on Rothko, Newman, and [[Agnes Martin]], abstract art clearly implied expression of ideas concerning the spiritual, the unconscious, and the mind.<ref>Catherine de Zegher and Hendel Teicher (eds.). ''3 X Abstraction''. NY: The Drawing Center and /New Haven: Yale University Press. 2005.</ref>[[File:SMITH CUBI VI.JPG|thumb|upright|[[David Smith (sculptor)|David Smith]],'' [[Cubi]] VI'' (1963), [[Israel Museum]], [[Jerusalem]]. David Smith was one of the most influential American sculptors of the 20th century.]]
Why this style gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s is a matter of debate. American [[social realism]] had been the mainstream in the 1930s. It had been influenced not only by the [[Great Depression]], but also by the [[Mexican muralism|Mexican muralists]] such as [[David Alfaro Siqueiros]] and [[Diego Rivera]]. The political climate after World War II did not long tolerate the social protests of these painters. Abstract expressionism arose during the war and began to be showcased during the early forties at galleries in New York such as [[The Art of This Century Gallery]]. The post-war [[McCarthy era]] was a time of artistic [[censorship]] in the United States, but if the subject matter were totally [[abstract art|abstract]] then it would be seen as apolitical, and therefore safe. Or if the art was political, the message was largely for the insiders.<ref>Serge Guilbaut. ''How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art'', University of Chicago Press, 1983.</ref>
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While the movement is closely associated with painting, [[Collage|collagist]] [[Anne Ryan]] and certain sculptors in particular were also integral to abstract expressionism.<ref>Marika Herskovic, [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50253062&tab=holdings ''Americancan Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,''] (New York School Press, 2003.) {{ISBN|0-9677994-1-4}} pp12–13</ref> [[David Smith (sculptor)|David Smith]], and his wife [[Dorothy Dehner]], [[Herbert Ferber]], [[Isamu Noguchi]], [[Ibram Lassaw]], [[Theodore Roszak (artist)|Theodore Roszak]], [[Phillip Pavia]], [[Mary Callery]], Richard Stankiewicz, [[Louise Bourgeois]], and [[Louise Nevelson]] in particular were some of the sculptors considered as being important members of the movement. In addition, the artists [[David Hare (artist)|David Hare]], [[John Chamberlain (sculptor)|John Chamberlain]], [[James Rosati]], [[Mark di Suvero]], and sculptors [[Richard Lippold]], Raoul Hague, [[George Rickey]], [[Reuben Nakian]], and even [[Tony Smith (sculptor)|Tony Smith]], [[Seymour Lipton]], [[Joseph Cornell]], and several others<ref name="Marika Herskovic 2000. p.11-12">Marika Herskovic, [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50666793&tab=holdings ''New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists''] (New York School Press, 2000.) {{ISBN|0-9677994-0-6}} p.11–12</ref> were integral parts of the abstract expressionist movement. Many of the sculptors listed participated in the [[Ninth Street Show]],<ref name="Marika Herskovic 2000. p.11-12" /> a famous exhibition curated by [[Leo Castelli]] on East Ninth Street in New York City in 1951. Besides the painters and sculptors of the period the [[New York School (art)|New York School]] of abstract expressionism also generated a number of supportive poets, including [[Frank O'Hara]] and photographers such as [[Aaron Siskind]] and [[Fred McDarrah]], (whose book ''The Artist's World in Pictures'' documented the New York School during the 1950s), and filmmakers—notably [[Robert Frank]]—as well.
Although the abstract expressionist school spread quickly throughout the United States, the epicenters of this style were New York City and the [[San Francisco Bay area]] of [[California]].
== Art critics of the post–World War II era ==
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[[File:Newman-Onement 1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Barnett Newman]], ''Onement 1,'' 1948. During the 1940s Barnett Newman wrote several articles about the new American painting.]]
[[Barnett Newman]], a late member of the [[The Art of This Century Gallery|Uptown Group]], wrote catalogue forewords and reviews, and by the late 1940s became an exhibiting artist at [[Betty Parsons Gallery]]. His first solo show was in 1948. Soon after his first exhibition, Barnett Newman remarked in one of the Artists' Sessions at Studio 35: "We are in the process of making the world, to a certain extent, in our own image."<ref>''Barnett Newman Selected Writings and Interviews'', (ed.) by John P. O'Neill, pp. 240–241, [[University of California Press]], 1990</ref> Utilizing his writing skills, Newman fought every step of the way to reinforce his newly established image as an artist and to promote his work. An example is his letter on April 9, 1955, "Letter to [[Sidney Janis]]: — it is true that Rothko talks the fighter. He fights, however, to submit to the philistine world. My struggle against bourgeois society has involved the total rejection of it."<ref>''Barnett Newman Selected Writings Interviews'', p. 201.</ref>
Strangely, the person thought to have had most to do with the promotion of this style was a New York Trotskyist: Clement Greenberg. As long-time art critic for the ''[[Partisan Review]]'' and ''[[The Nation]]'', he became an early and literate proponent of abstract expressionism. The well-heeled artist Robert Motherwell joined Greenberg in promoting a style that fit the political climate and the intellectual rebelliousness of the era.
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[[File:'Symphony No. 1, The Transcendental', oil on canvas painting by Richard Pousette-Dart, 1941-42, Metropolitan Museum of Art.jpg|thumb|[[Richard Pousette-Dart]], ''Symphony No. 1, The Transcendental,'' 1941–42]]
During the period leading up to and during World War II, modernist artists, writers, and poets, as well as important collectors and dealers, fled Europe and the onslaught of the [[Nazism|Nazis]] for safe haven in the United States. Many of those who didn't flee perished. Among the artists and collectors who arrived in New York during the war (some with help from [[Varian Fry]]) were [[Hans Namuth]], [[Yves Tanguy]], [[Kay Sage]], [[Max Ernst]], [[Jimmy Ernst]], [[Peggy Guggenheim]], [[Leo Castelli]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], [[André Masson]], [[Roberto Matta]], [[André Breton]], [[Marc Chagall]], [[Jacques Lipchitz]], [[Fernand Léger]], and [[Piet Mondrian]]. A few artists, notably [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]], [[Matisse]], and [[Pierre Bonnard]] remained in France and survived.
The post-war period left the capitals of Europe in upheaval, with an urgency to economically and physically rebuild and to politically regroup. In Paris, formerly the center of European culture and capital of the art world, the climate for art was a disaster, and New York replaced Paris as the new center of the art world. Post-war Europe saw the continuation of [[Surrealism]], [[Cubism]], [[Dada]], and the works of Matisse. Also in Europe, [[Outsider art|Art brut]],<ref>[[Jean Dubuffet]]: ''L’Art brut préféré aux arts culturels'' [1949](=engl in: ''Art brut. Madness and Marginalia'', special issue of ''Art & Text'', No. 27, 1987, p. 31-33)</ref> and [[Lyrical Abstraction]] or [[Tachisme]] (the European equivalent to abstract expressionism) took hold of the newest generation. [[Serge Poliakoff]], [[Nicolas de Staël]], [[Georges Mathieu]], [[Vieira da Silva]], [[Jean Dubuffet]], [[Yves Klein]], [[Pierre Soulages]] and [[Jean Messagier]], among others are considered important figures in post-war European painting.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL22161138M/Younger_European_painters_a_selection.|title=Younger European painters, a selection.: [Exhibition] December 2, 1953 to February 21, 1954.|first=Solomon R. Guggenheim|last=Museum|date=December 23, 1953|ol=22161138M|via=The Open Library}}</ref> In the United States, a new generation of American artists began to emerge and to dominate the world stage, and they were called ''Abstract Expressionists''.
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[[File:Gorky-The-Liver.jpg|thumb|left|[[Arshile Gorky]], ''The Liver is the Cock's Comb'' (1944), oil on canvas, 73{{fraction|1|4}} × 98" (186 × 249 cm) [[Albright–Knox Art Gallery]], [[Buffalo, New York]]. Gorky was an [[Armenians|Armenian]]-born American painter who had a seminal influence on abstract expressionism. De Kooning said: "I met a lot of artists — but then I met Gorky... He had an extraordinary gift for hitting the nail on the head; remarkable. So I immediately attached myself to him and we became very good friends."<ref>''Willem de Kooning'' (1969) by [[Thomas B. Hess]]</ref>]]
The 1940s in New York City heralded the triumph of American abstract expressionism, a modernist movement that combined lessons learned from Matisse, Picasso, Surrealism, [[Miró]], [[Cubism]], [[Fauvism]], and early Modernism via eminent educators in the United States, including Hans Hofmann from Germany and John D. Graham from Ukraine. Graham's influence on American art during the early 1940s was particularly visible in the work of Gorky, de Kooning, Pollock, and [[Richard Pousette-Dart]] among others. Gorky's contributions to American and world art are difficult to overestimate. His work as [[lyrical abstraction]]<ref name =dorment>Dorment, Richard. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/7190303/Arshile-Gorky-A-Retrospective-at-Tate-Modern-review.html "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective at Tate Modern, review"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', February 8, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://www.artdaily.org/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=36171&int_modo=1 Art Daily] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111227141320/http://www.artdaily.org/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=36171&int_modo=1 |date=December 27, 2011 }} retrieved May 24, 2010</ref><ref>[http://artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=37112 "L.A. Art Collector Caps Two Year Pursuit of Artist with Exhibition of New Work"], ArtDaily. Retrieved May 26, 2010. "Lyrical Abstraction ... has been applied at times to the work of Arshile Gorky"</ref><ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/about/pressoffice/pressreleases/2010/21322.htm "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective"], [[Tate]], February 9, 2010. Retrieved June 5, 2010.</ref><ref>Van Siclen, Bill. [http://www.projo.com/art/content/projo_20030710_artwrap10.5e2b3.html "Art scene by Bill Van Siclen: Part-time faculty with full-time talent"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622073303/http://www.projo.com/art/content/projo_20030710_artwrap10.5e2b3.html |date=June 22, 2011 }}, ''[[The Providence Journal]]'', July 10, 2003. Retrieved June 10, 2010.</ref> was a "new language.<ref name=dorment/> He "lit the way for two generations of American artists".<ref name=dorment/> The painterly spontaneity of mature works such as ''The Liver is the Cock's Comb'', ''The Betrothal II'', and ''One Year the Milkweed'' immediately prefigured Abstract expressionism, and leaders in the [[New York School (art)|New York School]] have acknowledged Gorky's considerable influence. The early work of [[Hyman Bloom]] was also influential.<ref name="chaet">{{cite journal|last1=Chaet|first1=Bernard|title=The Boston Expressionist School: A Painter's Recollections of the Forties|journal=Archives of American Art Journal|date=1980|volume=20|issue=1|page=28|jstor=1557495|publisher=The Smithsonian Institution|quote=[Thomas] Hess's favorite painter, Willem de Kooning...made it very clear to me in a conversation in 1954 that he and Jackson Pollock considered Bloom, whom they had discovered in ''Americans 1942'', 'the first Abstract Expressionist artist in America.'"|doi=10.1086/aaa.20.1.1557495|s2cid=192821072}}</ref> American artists also benefited from the presence of [[Piet Mondrian]], [[Fernand Léger]], Max Ernst, and the [[André Breton]] group, [[Pierre Matisse|Pierre Matisse's gallery]], and [[Peggy Guggenheim]]'s gallery [[The Art of This Century]], as well as other factors. Hans Hofmann in particular as teacher, mentor, and artist was both important and influential to the development and success of abstract expressionism in the United States. Among Hofmann's protégés was [[Clement Greenberg]], who became an enormously influential voice for American painting, and among his students was [[Lee Krasner]], who introduced her teacher, Hofmann, to her husband, Jackson Pollock.<ref>[http://www.hanshofmann.org/1940-1949, Hans Hofmann.org/1940-1949],</ref>
==== Pollock and Abstract influences ====
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| first = Harold
| publisher = poetrymagazines.org.uk
}}</ref> and signaled a major shift in the aesthetic perspective of [[New York School (art)|New York School]] painters and critics. According to Rosenberg the canvas was "an arena in which to act". While abstract expressionists such as [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Franz Kline]] and [[Willem de Kooning]] had long been outspoken in their view of a painting as an arena within which to come to terms with the act of creation, earlier critics sympathetic to their cause, like [[Clement Greenberg]], focused on their works' "objectness
[[File:'Boon' oil on canvas painting by James Brooks, 1957, Tate Gallery.jpg|thumb|''Boon'' by [[James Brooks (painter)|James Brooks]], 1957, [[Tate Gallery]]]]
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File:Stankiewicz detail.jpg|[[Richard Stankiewicz]], Detail of ''Figure''; 1956; steel, iron, and concrete; in the collection of the [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]]
File:Calder-redmobile.jpg|[[Alexander Calder]], ''Red [[Mobile (sculpture)|Mobile]],'' 1956, Painted sheet metal and metal rods, [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]]
File:John Chamberlain at the Hirshhorn.jpg|[[John Chamberlain (sculptor)|John Chamberlain]], ''S'', 1959, [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]], [[Washington,
File:KMM Noguchi 01.JPG|[[Isamu Noguchi]], ''The Cry'', 1959, [[Kröller-Müller Museum]] Sculpture Park, [[Otterlo]], [[Netherlands]]
File:Spider. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.JPG|[[Louise Bourgeois]], ''[[Maman (sculpture)|Maman]],'' 1999, outside [[Guggenheim Museum Bilbao|Museo Guggenheim]]
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* [[Alexander Calder]] (1898–1976)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artfacts.net/artist/alexander-calder/1534|title=Alexander Calder | Artist|website=ArtFacts}}</ref>
* [[Nicolas Carone]] (1917–2010)<ref name="Herskovic" />
* [[Norman Carton]] (1908–1980)
* [[Giorgio Cavallon]] (1904–1989)<ref name="Herskovic" />
* [[John Angus Chamberlain|John Chamberlain]] (1927–2011)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/arts/design/john-chamberlain-artist-of-auto-metal-dies-at-84.html|title=John Chamberlain, Who Wrested Rough Magic From Scrap Metal, Dies at 84 (Published 2011)|first=Randy|last=Kennedy|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 22, 2011}}</ref>
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* [[Pierre Soulages]] (1919–2022)
* [[Nicolas de Staël]] (1914–1955)
* [[Frank Stella]] (
* [[Ary Stillman]] (1891–1967)
* [[Kumi Sugai]] (1919–1996)
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[[Category:Contemporary art movements]]
[[Category:Modern art]]
[[Category:American art movements]]
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