Abstract Expressionism

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[edit] Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s

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A group of key Abstract Expressionist artists -- Life magazine 1951

(Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, and Jackson Pollock are positioned in that order next one another in the back)

"Abstract Expressionism arrived with the atomic age. It was an American art movement -- the first to wrest control of the art world from Europe -- born of Depression era survivors, a generation shaken by World War II and the Holocaust and now living with the threat of nuclear destruction" (Kingsley 11).

The initial stirrings of abstract art in the United States occurred with the founding of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) organization in 1935. The group focused exclusively on geometric forms, and this rigid aversion to non-structural styles prevented them from delving into either Abstract Surrealism or what would become known as Abstract Expressionism (Sandler 19). None of the principal Abstract Expressionists belonged to the AAA, objecting to its narrow focus. The Abstract Expressionist movement came about in the 1940s, and was largely a reaction to World War II and the art forms such as Constructivism and Bauhaus that then seemed rendered irrelevant (Sandler 29). As Irving Sandler states, "In response to World War II and the intellectual climate generated by it, the future Abstract Expressionists came to believe that they faced a crisis in subject matter... Unwilling to continue known directions or to accept any other dogma, the Absract Expressionists turned their own private visions and insights into an anxious search for new values. The urgent need for meanings that felt truer to their experience gave rise to new ways of seeing -- to formal innovations" (1). However, William C. Seitz stresses, ""Abstract Expressionism" is nothing more than a label. No group of painters has officially chosen it as a banner around which to rally -- though that its combination of terms derived from the two most significant lines of modern form development is at least indicative of the sythesis of styles and viewpoints which has taken place" (151). What is most useful to remember in employing the label is that, "though the Abstract Expressionists always resisted a single collective identity based on a style, theories, or social ties, they came closest to an avant - garde nucleus between the end of the war and 1950- 51" (Anfam 105). The irrefutable existence of this artistic convergence serves to make the Abstract Expressionist classification valid.

The "formal innovations" brought forth by the Abstract Expressionists included a rejection of "any pictoral element that evoked the machine made and eliminated the presence of the artist" instead utilizing "unfinished forms to sugggest the presence of the artist" (Sandler 30). Furthermore, Anne Eden Gibson discerns the primary characteristic of the Abstract Expressionists to be an "abhorrence of any predetermining system which would obviate the free operation of the individual personality" (100). While the artists certainly valued individuality, they nevertheless hoped to access inner sources common to all. While working toward individual innovations, the Abstract Expressionists were most interested in the artistic movements of Cubism and Surrealism, and used the surrealist technique of automatism to access the unconscious (Polcari 23). Yet as Stephen Polcari asserts, "ultimately the Abstract Expressionist use of automatism differed from the central surrealist use because rather than free associating a flow of images and subverting a banal reality and logic with them, Abstract Expressionists used automatism as a key to creativity and creative life" (24). Polcari goes on to define four themes in Abstract Expressionist art:

  • The Return to Origins

Meaning a spiritual or inner state.

  • The Human Continuum

"Abstract Expressionist art represents an order of proccess and perpetual struggle, human effort without ultimate utopian climax."

  • Conflict and Dualistic Pattern of Human Life

"Central to Abstract Expressionistic thought is the representation of the fundamentals of human life, which the artists conceived of as filled with disorder, suffering, conflict, and terror, as well as sublime joy and hope."

  • New Beginnings, Creativity, Potency, Change, and Transformation

"Most Abstract Expressionist art aims at an eternally creative consciousness and ceaseless new growth."

As a means to convey these themes, many Abstract Expressionists turned toward the study of anthropology, and to the psychological work of Freud and Jung, since "it was through the new canons such as myths, psychology, and natural history that they were able to make sense of events that otherwise would have seemed merely accidental and calamitous" (Polcari 20, 45) As David Anfam muses, "Psychology to the Abstract Expressionist eye represented a cornucopia of visionary and poetic images with an existential edge, especially since Jung claimed that myth issued from same depths as art" (81). The prominent artist Jackson Pollock specifically referenced the influence of psychology on his work when he pondered, "We're all of us influenced by Freud, I guess. I've been a Jungian for a long time..." (Herskovic 262). Psychology offered a structured pathway to the inner world necessary to actualize the Abstract Expressionists' visions as they experimented with automatism and focused on being in the moment, ever "present" in their art.

Abstract Expressionism was an American art movement, centered in New York, and it arose in an environment that Anfram describes as ""The Great American Inquisition"... a time of "The Great Fear" when conformity reigned, hysteria over the supposed threat of Cummunism was pandemic and surveillance or repression pervaded the fabric of the culture" (106), As David Craven notes: "There can be little doubt that among the Abstract Expressionists there was a keen sense of the failings of U.S. society, which was related to the bleak terrain of the McCarthy years" (31). Indeed, in the 1950s senator George Dondero declared: "Modern art is Communistic because it is distorted and ugly, because it does not glorify our beautiful country... Art which does not glorify our beautiful country in plain, simple terms that everyone can understand breeds dissatisfaction. It is therefore opposed to our government, and those who create it and promote it are our enemies" (Craven 98). Abstract Expressionism could not escape the Communist anxiety of the 1950s climate, as it was neither plain nor simple, and utterly unconcerned with displaying the glory of the country. Gibson writes of the "Abstract Expressionists' emphasis on individual initiative as the appropriate corrective to mass culture at home and the perceived threat of a (Communist) collectivity imposed from outside merged powerfully with existentialist calls for a primarily inwardly determined subjectivity" (19). These artists worked foremost from within themselves, largely in reaction to the chaos that continually encroached from without. Yet their paintings were not political, as David Anfram explains, there was a "lack of overt political statement in the paintings which allowed them to be exploited by dealers, galleries, and writers as propagating freedom and individuality in the Cold War struggle against Communism (12). While this interpretation was not a conscious aim of the Abstract Expressionists, they did indeed esteem individuality, and it is easy to view their work as a response to the repressive Cold War environment.

The critical reception of Abstract Expressionism was mixed, most frequently manifesting as a negative reaction. Sandler reveals: "The radicality of the Abstract Expressionists renewal of art is indicated by the public's shocked and angry response to their pictures. The artists expected that their assualts on perceptual habits would not be kindly received at first, but they were hurt by the intensity of public hostility and its duration" (156). As the 1940s progressed interest in Surrealism lessened, and 1946 to 1947 served as what Sandler terms as an "incubation period" for the Abstract Expressionists, when they were mainly ignored by the art world and the public at large (211). After 1947, Abstract Expressionists' presence in galleries and art magazines became more common and "the public could no longer ignore it, but remained generally hostile" (Sandler 212). Artist Willem de Kooning considered the state of affairs in 1950 and proposed, "I think we are craftsmen... but we have no position in the world -- absolutely no position except that we just insist upon being around" (Craven 133). It was not until the untimely death of Jackson Pollock due to a car accident in 1956 that Abstract Expressionist paintings began to sell for sizable sums of money. Prior to this new elevation of the movement's art, Pollock had been referred to derisively as "Jack the Dripper" (Sandler 102), whose paintings were regarded as "violent" in their "assault" upon the audience (Sandler 111). Even Willem de Kooning's comparitively convention style did not escape critical ire. De Kooning is now known for his paintings of women, and as Sandler discloses, "when first shown in 1953 these monumental females were attacked by critics as vulgar, monstrous, perverse, infantile, and horridly and shamelessly revealing (133). Now, the two painters are known as the premier pioneers of Abstract Expressionism, although Pollock is arguably the more well known of the two. Polcari posits, "Jackson Pollock helped to establish American painting, Abstract Expressionism, and his own art as the vanguard of postwar modern painting. Joined with de Kooning's art, Pollock's led many observers to differentiate thematically as well as stylistically between the two branches of Abstract Expressionism" (233). Adolph Gottlieb has his own place, evoking "the underlying spiritual and ritual quality and power of Abstract Expressionism" (Polcari 182), and his works now command record prices on par with de Kooning and Pollock. Art which was once only "begrudgingly acknowledged by much of mainstream society" (Craven 42) is now part of American cultural heritage.

Ultimately, the legacy of the Abstract Expressionists lies in the innovations they displayed in their art. April Kingsley perhaps said it best when she proclaimed, "The Abstract Expressionists broke the strangehold of tradition on every aspect of art: on form -- by smashing the Cubist grid; on space -- by liberating from formulas of depth and decorative flatness; on color -- by setting it free of form; on technique -- by simply saying "Anything goes"; and perhaps, most importantly, on content -- by allowing it to emerge simply and directly from the artist's own internal reality" (372). Moreover, the art invites the viewer to come to his or her own conclusions and take part in an unique aesthetic experience. As Seitz concludes, "Abstract Expressionism -- or whatever else one chooses to call this alliance of forms, feelings, and ideas that constitutes what is at once the most universal and the most personal painting style in the history of the world -- reveals the functioning of the modern personality. As by-product rather than goal, it has produced new images of great beauty" (166). While beauty is a subjective perception, the images of the Abstract Expressionists are unanimously compelling. Most intriguing of all is the idea of critic Alfred Barr, that the Abstract Expressionists "did not think think of themselves as abstract painters. Far more than their work indicated they were striving for an art in which natural forms, including human figures, would once more emerge but without any sacrifice of spontaneity or of the direct impact, purity and reality of the painted surface as the primary instument of their emotions" (Seitz 117). Through these paintings, the viewer is allowed a dynamic view into the emotional life of the artist. Below are examples by three key members of the Abstract Expressionist movement: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, and Jackson Pollock.

[edit] Willem de Kooning

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Woman I -- 1950-1952

"In a patriarchal society she lampooned gender stereotypes from the All-American Mom to the career-girl vixen which the feminist Betty Friedan would later unveil as adjuncts of the era's 'feminine mystique'" (Anfram 162).

"De Kooning described the figure in Woman I as a conduit for the "forces of nature" (Polcari 285)

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Woman III -- 1953

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Gotham News -- 1955

Artist Statement: "Art never seems to me peaceful or pure. I always seem to be wrapped in the melodrama of vulgarity. I do not think of inside or outside -- or of art in general -- as a situation of comfort. I know there is a terrific idea there somewhere, but whenever I want to get into it, I get a feeling of apathy and want to lie down and go to sleep. Some painters, including myself, do not care what chair they are sitting on. It does not even have to be a comfortable one. They are too nervous to find out where they ought to sit. They do not want to 'sit in style'. Rather they have found that painting -- any kind of painting, any style of painting -- to be painting at all, in fact -- is a way of living today, a style of living, so to speak. That is where the form of it lies. It is exactly in its uselessness that it is free. Those artists do not want to conform. They only want to be inspired"(Herskovic 94).

[edit] Adolph Gottlieb

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W -- 1954

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Black, Blue, Red -- 1956

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From Midnight to Dawn -- 1956

Artist Statement: "I have always worked on the assumption that if something is valid or meaningful to me it will also be valid and meaningful to many others. Not to everyone, of course. On the basis of this assumption I do not think of an audience when I work, but only of my own reactions. By the same token I do not worry whether what I am doing is art or not. If what I paint is expressive, if it seems to communicate the feeling that is important to me, then I am not concerned if my work does not have known earmarks of art" (Ross 55).

[edit] Jackson Pollock

"Abstract Expressionism had come to stand for a certain kind of frontier heroism that supported American ideals of universalism, individualism, and freedom... The artist who emerged as the quintessential Abstract Expressionist hero was Jackson Pollock" (Gibson 2).

"He was the first artist to be devoured as a package by critics and collectors... and subsequently by the fashion magazines and gossip colums" --Elaine de Kooning (Craven 53).

"What did distinguish the man and his work was a unique and astonishing energy. There was no existing framework for his energy and it was not until 1947 that, throwing away what he knew -- the preconceived forms that hampered him -- that he arrived at what he was -- which he didn't know, finding paths impassable for anyone else in his own labyrinth" --Elaine de Kooning (Craven 114).

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Jackson Pollock in his studio -- 1949

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc. because it has a life of its own"(Sandler 102).


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Untitled (Green Silver) -- 1949

"The drip paintings shocked people who saw them when they first shown in 1948" (Sandler 102).

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Number 32 -- 1950

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Blue Poles 11 -- 1952

Artist Statement: "I don't care for "abstract expressionism"... and it's certainly not "nonobjective" and not "nonrepresentational" either. I'm very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you're painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge. We're all of us influenced by Freud, I guess. I've been a Jungian for a long time... painting is a state of being... painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is" (Herskovic 262).

[edit] Some Links

Rebel Painters of the 1950s

Willem de Kooning Biography

Adolph Gottlieb Biography

Jackson Pollock Biography

[edit] Bibliography

  • Anfram, David. Abstract Expressionism.

London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. 1990.

  • Craven, David. Abstract Expressionism As Cultural Critique.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 1999.

  • Gibson, Ann Eden. Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics.

New Haven: Yale University Press. 1997.

  • Herskovic, Marika, ed. American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s: An Illustrated Survey.

New Jersey: The New York School Press. 2003.

  • Kingsley, April. The Turning Point: The Abstract Expressionists and the Transformation of American Art.

New York: Simon & Schuster. 1992.

  • Polcari, Stephen. Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 1991.

  • Ross, Clifford. Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics.

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. 1990.

  • Sandler, Irving. The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism.

New York: Praeger Publishers. 1970.

  • Seitz, William C. Abstract Expressionist Painting in America.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1983.

  • Shapiro, Cecil, David Shapiro. Abstract Expressionism: A Critical Record.

Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press. 1990.