Abstract Expressionism is the form of art that has developed after the most difficult periods in human history. This period began during the great depression in the 1930’s and ended with the end of World War II in 1945. All of this brought about a worldwide examination of basic human values and ethics and a period of dramatic change in art. Abstract Expressionism is the name given to a group of American artists who would gain international attention during the 1950s. As a result from the Second World War, many of the great European artists in which they found themselves expelled to New York.
The result of this advancement to the American art was the post-war international authority that had to the Abstract Expressionists, and the movement that would be the centre for the art world that progressed from Europe to New York. Even though the Great Depression and World War II were great disasters, these events were important in forcing a number of the European artists to flee Europe for the safety of the United States, where they influenced many younger American artists.
It was difficult to know exactly how much of this migration would affect American art, but in part of its impact, would be for the first time in which American artists would become internationally recognized for their new vision and a new artistic vocabulary, in which would be known as Abstract Expressionism. Even though abstract expressionism is the movement in painting that has emerged in New York City in the mid-1940s and has reached fame in American art for the following decade.
With the given impulsion from the work of Arshile Gorky, abstract expressionism would be marked by the attention that would surface qualities, like brushstroke and texture. Some of the major artists that were included in this movement would include: Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko. Abstract Expressionism was primarily concerned with the spontaneous declaration of the individual through the act of painting. The movement would contain lots of variety for styles in which they would be characterized more by the concepts that would be behind the art than by a specific look.
Generally, abstract art would be without recognizable images and wouldn’t adhere to the limits of predictable form. The roots of abstract expressionism would be in the nonfigurative work from the Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky and surrealists, who would deliberately use the subconscious and spontaneity in creative activity. The American painters that would be influenced by the subjective abstractions from the Armenian-born painter Arshile Gorky, who had immigrated to the United States in 1920, who in which he stressed the dynamic interaction of colored planes.
The abstract expressionism movement would be centered in New York City. Even though the styles would have embraced within the abstract expressionism that was as diverse as the styles from the painters themselves; there were two major tendencies that were noted in the movement. Abstract painters were concerned with the paint texture and consistency that was worked with the gestures from the artist and while the painters would be giving their impact on their work by using unified color and shape. Abstract art would also be flourished in Europe especially because it is where it was influenced by French painters such as: Nicolas de Sta? «l, Pierre Soulages, and Jean Dubuffet.
The European abstract expressionists were emphasized by the patches of color, and the art informal, in which it was a rejected formal structure, that had especially close resemblance with New York painting. Abstract Expressionism would be classified by two basic categories: the gestural Abstract Expressionists, who are interested in brushstrokes and drips of paint; and the colour field Abstract Expressionists, in which they create large canvases of color, in the mark of the brush that is not important.
Basically, the individual artists that got to be involved with Abstract Expressionism would be that they all shared ideas about the nature of art, seeing it as an expression of the artist’s self, or of the basic creative urge that all humans share. Since one of the important developments that would be associated with the colour field of Abstract Expressionists would be the creation of a 20th century sublime. Traditionally, the sublime would be a piece from the 19th century art, in which it was the power of nature would be revealed by the character of God. Artists began to express their feelings and thoughts in abstract form.
However, the difference here would be that they are expressing these abstract ideas and feelings within their energy that had never been seen before as they tried to find a way of putting their excitement, inner feelings and even torment into a concrete form. The Abstract Expressionists were thought as a group that shared a common experience, however, as individuals they did not think of themselves as a group with common ideals. The similarities that were between the artists was that they all wanted to use their personal intuition in order to make something new and distinctively American, yet commonly valid and unprovincial.
Within The Abstract Expressionist Movement, there were different groups of artists that had a particular style. The emergence of the Abstract Expressionist in America had a profound effect on the rest of the art world, because it was relocated to the center of the art. Many factors caused America to be the new center of Creativity. Political and economical causes such as the Great Depression and world war II, as well as former artistic genres such as Surrealism, Social Realism, and primitive American art influenced the Abstract Expressionist new style.
