
Abstract Expressionism as a style resumes the trend of rejecting representation in the art. In 20th century this trend manifested in biomorphic (organic) abstractions of Kandinsky and Surrealists, and in geometric (elementary) abstractions of Malevich and Constructivists. Abstract Expressionism completely rejects all forms (biomorphic as well as geometric) and uses color as the only tool for expression.
Two different modes of applying color divide Abstract Expressionism into two sub-styles. The first one is Action Painting and it’s based on a surrealist technique of automatic painting and on ideas of Freudian Psychoanalysis. Within this sub-style, the artist is trying to splash out his individual Unconscious, without applying structures of Conscious or censorship of Superconscious. He fulfills this intention by literally splashing out paint on canvas in expressive gestures (the other name of this sub-style is Gestural Painting). Thus, the painting becomes a spontaneous expression of the Unconscious - visualized in chaotic forms not organized by logical thinking.
Iconic artist of Action Painting was Jackson Pollock. He removed the canvas from the stretcher, put it on the floor and covered it with chaotic splashes and drips of paint (this technique is called dripping). Pollock circled around the canvas for many hours; since the process of painting was often public, spectators compared this obsessive motion to ritual actions of a shaman. As a result, the canvass was covered by intercrossing layers of paint. It contributed to the painting a kind of a physical depth which was drastically different from an imaginary depth, created in realistic paintings by means of optical properties of the color and the line (a perspective).
The second sub-style of Abstract Expressionism is Color Field Painting. Here, the artist rejects any form by applying large homogeneous arrays of color, quietly flowing one into another. This sub-style is associated with a Jungian Psychoanalysis and its concept of a collective Unconscious. Each color, or formless combination of color spots, expresses emotions and sentiments originated from certain archetype (an innate psychic structure that comes out in dreams or myths).
A representative example of this sub-style is Mark Rothko. He filled huge canvasses with flowing color arrays, creating predominantly horizontal compositions, both contrast or almost monochrome. While contemplating these arrays, a spectator was immersed into a semi-meditative state of dissolution in the surrounding space, as if he was transferred into the space of a dream or a myth.
Pollock and Rothko are two “poles” of Abstract Expressionism; however, we should keep in mind that this division is fairly nominal, since both sub-styles share many common stylistic features. One of those is using color as an autonomous mode of communication: it establishes a direct connection with deep structures of the psyche, bypassing symbols as mediators of representation. Both sub-styles tend to monumental size of canvasses, which must be viewed from a close distance. By this move Abstract Expressionism establishes a new type of contact between the painting and the spectator. This “intimate” communication is akin to religious ecstasy, when the spectator is "surrounded" by a picture and "dissolves" in it.
One more general feature of Abstract Expressionism is paying more attention to the process of painting then to the result of it. Here, the image is always fundamentally unfinished – as in space (when paint splashes come far beyond the canvass, they turn its frame into merely a conditional boundary), and in time (the artist can paint the image endlessly; it can not be “finished” in the traditional sense). Getting inspired by primitive myths and archaic art, Abstract Expressionism brings the concept of chronotope (mythological cyclic infinite time, not separated from space) to the formal level, using it as a paining strategy.
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism
- Gary Wragg
- Ilse D'Hollander
- Nemanja Vuckovic
- Vahram Gayfedjian
- Grégoire Cricorps KOBOYAN
- Abdullah Basuki
- Adnan Etel
- Altoon John
- Ardon Mordecai
- Arico Rodolfo
- Arikha Avigdor
- Atsuko Tanaka
- Baber Alice
- Balint Endre
- Barbeau Marcel
- Baron Hannelore
- Baziotes William
- Bearden Romare
- Beattie Basil
- Bell Larry
- Benjamin Karl
- Bernea Horia
- Bischoff Elmer
- Bluhm Norman
- Blumenfeld Rochelle
- Bontecou Lee
- Bowling Frank
- Bratescu Geta
- Brodie Gandy
- Brown Glenn
- Bury Pol
- Busa Peter
- Bush Jack
- Cage John
- Calder Alexander
- Carone Nicolas
- Cassinari Bruno
- Cavallon Giorgio
- Cesariny Mario
- Chamberlain John
- Chirino Martin
- Christensen Dan
- Cohen Bernard
- Coker Adnan
- Congdon William
- Corbett Edward
- Coronel Pedro
- Corpora Antonio
- Dali Salvador
- Dashti Mostafa
- Davis Gene
- Davis Ronald
- de Kooning Elaine
- de Kooning Willem
- DeFeo Jay
- Desta Gebre Kristos
- di Suvero Mark
- Diebenkorn Richard
- Dino Abidin
- Dobrian Vasile
- Dogancay Burhan
- Dzubas Friedel
- Ernst Jimmy
- Escobar Marisol
- Eyre Ivan
- Fahlstrom Oyvind
- Ferren John
- Fine Perle
- Flack Audrey
- Flavin Dan
- Forg Gunther
- Francis Sam
- Frank Jane
- Frankenthaler Helen
- Frost Terry
- Garabedian Charles
- Gibbons Charles
- Gilliam Sam
- Goeritz Mathias
- Goode Joe
- Goodnough Robert
- Gorky Arshile
- Graubner Gotthard
- Graves Morris
- Guanzhong Wu
- Guerrero Jose
- Guiragossian Paul
- Guston Philip
- Hafif Marcia
- Hambleton, Richard
- Hammersley Frederick
- Hare David
- Held Al
- Henderson Jeremy
- Herrera Carmen
- Hesse Eva
- Hodgkin Howard
- Hofmann Hans
- Holbrook Carter Clarence
- Horowitz
- Hotere Ralph
- Hoyland John
- Huebler Douglas
- Hugo Victor
- Huot Robert
- Husain M.F.
- Ikemura Leiko
- Irvin Albert
- Jenkins Paul
- Jensen Alfred
- Julio Pomar
- Kandinsky Wassily
- Kaprow Allan
- Kauffman Craig
- Kazuo Shiraga
- Khrushch Valentin
- King Phillip
- Krasner Lee
- Kupferman Moshe
- Kuroda Aki
- Kusama Yayoi
- Lancaster Mark
- Landfield Ronnie
- Lapa Alvaro
- Lee Ufan
- Lemaire Daan
- Levine Sherrie
- Lewis Norman
- Liberman Alexander
- Lipsky Pat
- Lobdell Frank
- Louis Morris
- Mabe Manabu
- Macdonald Jock
- Marc Franz
- Marca-Relli Conrad
- Marden Brice
- Massoudy Hassan
- Matisse Henri
- Matta Robert
- McCracken John
- Mehring Howard
- Miro Joan
- Mitchell Joan
- Mohamedi Nasreen
- Molinari Guido
- Mueller Stephen
- Nakamura Kazuo
- Nakian Reuben
- Nasiri Rafa
- Neri Manuel
- Nery Eduardo
- Nevelson Louise
- Newman Barnett
- Nickle Robert
- Noguchi Isamu
- Nozal Requena
- Okada Kenzo
- O'Keeffe Georgia
- Oliveira Nathan
- Paalen Wolfgang
- Palermo Blinky
- Parsons Betty
- Partenheimer Jurgen
- Pasmore Victor
- Pinajian Arthur
- Pollock Jackson
- Ponce Fernando Garcia
- Pousette-Dart Richard
- Rapoport Sonya
- Rauschenberg Robert
- Reed Paul
- Reinhardt Ad
- Resnick Milton
- Richter Gerhard
- Riopelle Jean-Paul
- Rohrer
- Rosenborg Ralph
- Roth Dieter
- Rothko Mark
- Ruben Richards
- Ruscha Edward
- Ryan Anne
- Sambo-Richter Daniel
- Schanker Louis
- Schapiro Miriam
- Scott William
- Sepehri Sohrab
- Shinoda Toko
- Siskind Aaron
- Smith David
- Smith Hassel
- Smith Richard
- Snyder Joan
- Stamos Theodoros
- Stefanescu George
- Stella Frank
- Sterne Hedda
- Still Clyfford
- Stout Myron
- Thursz Frederic Matys
- Tilson Joe
- Ting Walasse
- Tobey Mark
- Tomlin Bradley Walker
- Tucker William
- Turnbull William
- Tuttle Richard
- Twardowski Lech
- Twombly Cy
- Tworkov Jack
- Ubac Raoul
- Vaillancourt, Armand
- Valledor Leo
- Vicente Esteban
- Vigas Oswaldo
- Warhol Andy
- Weik Roger
- Welliver Neil
- Whiteley Brett
- Wilke Ulfert
- Wonner Paul
- Woodsey Thomas Alma
- Xuan Phai Bui
- Yamamoto Taro
- Yamazaki Tsuruko
- Yektai Manoucher
- Yongyu Huang
- Yunkers Adja
- Zaretsky Victor
- Zlotnikov Yuri
- Zox Larry
- Zvirynsky Karlo