Abstract Expressionism

     

Abstract Expressionism

 

Abstract Expressionism is known as an artistic movement that began after the Second World War between the 1940s and 1950s. The abstract focuses on expressing and stirring emotions through works of art. In the past American artist, the called the New York School started to use different techniques and show various ways to express their feelings and attitudes in an abstract way. Among these expression is the desire to freely express the feelings and attitudes felt by the audience. However, American artists were afraid that there would be consequences of the interpretation of their works. Abstract art began to appear as a means for the artist to express, and at the same time, it protected them from criminal interpretation of their works.[1]

One of most famous generation of artists active in New York since the 1940s is De Kooning Willem, who is considered an Abstract Expressionist who resists definition as coherent style, Willem’s violent treatment of the figure, the were associated with anxiety with varying degrees of abstraction used to show strong emotional or expressiveness.[2] De Kooning also focused his art on the creative use of ambiguity, which he achieved through confusion and fragmentation, manipulation of perspective, mutilation, dissolution and a reassemble of objects and figures. For de Kooning the process of painting and drawing was a way of experiencing, registering and appropriating reality, ideas and topics emerging in the process of creation through free association. The variety and constant transformation of basic themes reflected his view of the world as a sum of indefinite and ever-changing possibilities. The ambiguity that reigns in the formal structure of the paintings continues on a semantic level, evoking a multiplicity of meanings and moods: joy, lust and effusiveness to some; brutality, drama and violence to others. De Kooning maintained the style of contradictions in his artwork.[3]




Willem de Kooning: Untitled, 1950 (Private collection); © 2010 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society, NY/DACS/The Bridgeman Art Library International

 



De Kooning in his studio in 1961.[4]

 

 

Also, abstract artists include Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. Pollock was using an unprompted, direct method of painting, such as using liquid paint, without prior planning and this contradicts the European method. His way represented the individualism, subjectivity and freedom of expression that represented the values of the post-war period.[5] By the mid-1960s, Lee Krasner began painting lushly colored, sharply focused, emblematic floral forms, taking a more lyrical and decorative Fauvist-inspired approach.[6]



Jackson Pollock: One: Number 31, 1950, oil and enamel on unprimed canvas, 2.69×5.31 m, 1950 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2021 Pollock–Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY[7]

 



Jackson Pollock: Echo: Number 25, 1951, enamel on unprimed canvas, 2.33×2.18 m, 1952 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2021 Pollock–Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY[8]


 

[9]

 



Lee Krasner: Gothic Landscape, oil on canvas, 1.77×2.38 m, 1961 (London, Tate); © 2007 Pollock–Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo credit: Tate, London/Art Resource, NY[10]

 



Lee Krasner: Untitled, oil on composition board, 1219×940 mm, 1949 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2007 Pollock–Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY[11]


[12]



When I see a painting about abstract expressionism, at first glance it appears to be a scribble, but I know through my research that it has deeper meanings than that from the point of view of the artist who lived in difficult circumstances such as war or the inability to express his opinion. When I look at the artwork, it makes me wonder how the artist combined these different colors, lines and layers that made it look attractive and how he felt about it.

 

 

 

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