Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the Western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.
The first generation of Abstract Expressionism flourished between 1943 and the mid-1950s. The movement effectively shifted the art world's focus from Europe (specifically Paris) to New York in the postwar years. The paintings were seen widely in traveling exhibitions and through publications.
The abstract expressionist artists changed how art was viewed and how art was produced. The world culture changed forever in the 1950s and, in particular, the 1960s. In short, the Abstract Expressionism artists showed us that art and the world were now going to change forever.
Expressionism was an extremely important movement because it worked to change the purpose and standards of art for the rest of art history.
Characteristics and Style of Abstract Expressionism
Monumental in scale and ambition, Abstract Expressionist painting evokes the distinctly American spirit of rugged individualism. Valuing freedom, spontaneity and personal expression, the movement naturally produced a variety of technical and aesthetic innovations.
A school of painting that flourished after World War II until the early 1960s, abstract expressionism is characterized by the view that art is non-representational and chiefly improvisational.
Abstract Expressionist painters explored new ways of creating art, reinvigorating and reinventing the medium. They changed the nature of painting with their large, abstract canvases, energetic and gestural lines, and new artistic processes.
Painting Structure and Technique
Beckmann predominantly used industrial canvases, pre-primed in white, and stretched them with nails onto commercially avail- able stretcher frames. It is thus noteworthy that for Still Life with Fish the canvas was primed with a brush, by hand, after stretch- ing.
Abstract Expressionism had a great impact on both the American and European art scenes during the 1950s. Indeed, the movement marked the shift of the creative centre of modern painting from Paris to New York City in the postwar decades.
The key difference between the two is that abstract expressionism does not necessarily or deliberately abandon all elements which are sourced from external visual reality, but it does use abstraction to evoke an emotional response.
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the Western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.
The Abstract Expressionists were deeply influenced by the idea of exploring the unconscious which reigned in Surrealism, and by the ideas of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and his exploration of myths and archetypes. They also gravitated towards existentialist philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre.
Non-representational is a term best describes Abstract Expressionism.
Characteristics of Abstract Art
The main feature of the abstract art is that it is a non-representational practice, meaning that art movements that embrace abstraction departure from accurate representation – this departure can be slight, partial, or complete.
Prior to the 20th century these abstract elements were employed by artists to describe, illustrate, or reproduce the world of nature and of human civilization—and exposition dominated over expressive function.
Abstract artists responded to it with intuition and emotion. These complimentary forces both had their effect on the consciousness of Post War society. On one hand, the Western world was becoming as contemplative and existentially profound as it had ever been. On the other hand it was becoming its most materialistic.
Answer: Impressionists did not use the thin paint films and glazes that were popularised by Renaissance artists. Impressionists often painted at a time of day when there were long shadows. This technique of painting outdoors helped impressionists better depict the effects of light and emphasise the vibrancy of colours.
The Techniques of the Impressionists
Impressionists strongly emphasised the effects of light in their paintings. They used short, thick strokes of paint to capture the essence of the object rather than the subject's details. Quickly applied brush strokes give the painterly illusion of movement and spontaneity.
The term 'impressionism' comes from a painting by Claude Monet, which he showed in an exhibition with the name Impression, soleil levant ("Impression, Sunrise"). An art critic called Louis Leroy saw the exhibition and wrote a review in which he said that all the paintings were just "impressions".
Abstract Expressionism is the term used to describe the art movement developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s in New York. The phrase was not coined by the artists, because true to the artistic temperament, they did not all agree on their theories of modern art, and did not want to be labelled.
The main contribution of expressionism to "modern art" was to popularize the idea of subjectivity in painting and sculpture, and to show that representational art may legitimately include subjective distortion.
Abstract art gives you the freedom to explore the artwork and assign your own meaning to the piece. This intensely personal process enriches a viewer's experience of an artwork. Understanding abstract art does not come naturally for everyone.
Artistic paintings were introduced to Filipinos in the 16th century when the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines. During this time, the Spaniards used paintings as visual aid for their religious propaganda to spread Catholicism throughout the Philippines.
About. One of the most significant decades in 20th-century art, the 1960s saw the rise of Pop Art, Op Art, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Performance Art, and Feminist Art, among countless other styles and movements.