It refers to the process the artists worked in conveying powerful emotions through the quality and size f the paintings. They were also greatly influenced by European Surrealism and Expressionist painters. This movement was about expressing ones feelings through the act of painting. Jackson Pollack might be the most well known example Of this With his drip paintings. This group Of artists first gained notice during the Great Depression. The term Abstract Expressionism was first used by art critic Robert Coates from the New Yorker in the context Of modern painting in 1945. 11 The movement gained momentum during and following WI when any artists came to the United States from Europe and went on to form the New York School, a group of like-minded avian-garden artists. The name New York School became synonymous with Abstract Expressionist painting. This was the first time American artists gained significant recognition in the art world. The recognition came after the “Fifteen Americans” show at New Work’s Museum tot Modern Art (Momma) in 1952.
The Momma show included Roth (who had eight paintings in a separate gallery), the other artists included in the exhibition were William Bassists, Edward Corbett, Edwin Dickinson, Herbert Ferber, Joseph Glasgow, Herbert Catamaran, V-redbrick Kessler, Irving Krieger, Richard Leopold, Jackson Pollock, Herman Rose, Clifford Still, Bradley Walker Tomlinson and Thomas Wilfred, Abstract Expressionism was a very modern enactment with artists being influenced by the two world wars and city life.
It was a period when it seemed as if everything was in motion, which created feelings Of discomfort, restlessness and anxiety. The artists during this time absorbed the new avian-garden ideas and feelings corning out Of the clubs and bars Of New Work’s SOHO and used that in their art. The painter William Suite described artists of the movement as valuing “expression over perfection, vitality over finish, fluctuation over repose, the unknown over the known. He veiled over the clear, the individual over society, and inner over the Two major styles of new modern painting that came out in this time were ‘action painting’ and color field painting. Rotator’s early work of the New York subways, city scenes and landscapes oeuvre very influential in the development of his later work– the color field paintings,[3] which focused mainly on using color fields to retreat art based on ‘myth’, which was influenced by poetry and philosophy.
Roth described his generation as embracing the myths Of antiquity “because they are the eternal symbols upon which we must fall back to express basic psychological idea. They are the symbols Of man’s primitive fears and motivations no matter in which land or what time, changing only in detail but never in substance-14] The idea of myth became central to his work. He wanted to communicate human drama and displace the recognizable and everyday. Roth said, ‘The fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with y pictures shows that communicate with those basic human emotions.
The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painted In the early 19405, influenced by European Surrealism and the theories of Sigmund Freud, Frederica Nietzsche “Birth of Tragedy*’ and Carl Junk’s collective unconscious, Roth began to abandon Expressionism in his work, He experimented with paint, using oils like watercolors -thinning the paints and layering them in overlapping glazes. [6] The late sass and early sass were critical in the development of this work.
He wanted to do away with any representational work and began to focus solely on developing a new and original style of abstraction. By 1949, after experimenting with compositions based on primitive, archaic art and biomorphic figures, *his work coalesced into floating color shapes with loose undefined edges within large expanses of Over the next 20 years, Roth explored this basic compositional style with infinite and subtle variations. [81 He said his ultimate goal was to provoke emotion and create a transcendental experience for the viewer. [9]
The way Roth used paint to express light, form and emotion affects me deeply. Each time look at one of his painting I experience something new – a deeper emotion. The painting ‘White Center” brings out both a conflicting sense of melancholy, along with deep feelings of comfort for me. It glows with deep luminous reds from its soft-edged rectangles and white center. Roth said of his paintings, “They are not abstractions at He said he ‘Was capturing the basic human emotion of tragedy, ecstasy, and expressing the deeper meaning of individual’s experiences. Appreciate the formal qualities and composition in his work. He uses dissolving color and soft lines in a floating space creating a unique place to have an intimate emotional experience. Rotator’s use of strong visual elements – line, shape, light, color, texture, space and time/motion make his paintings more than just abstract color forms. The simple but powerful shapes radiate, expanding and contracting. As you look at them. As sat for a while and enjoyed the painting, my emotions changed from feelings of happiness toward sadness for no particular reason.
I was having he experience he intended Reds had a strong emotional meaning to him representing life and ecstasy. He started to add more and more black to his images toward the end Of his life reflecting his declining mood and emotional state. Unfortunately Roth committed suicide in 1970. It was very important to Roth to have a unique experience when viewing his paintings. He insisted on controlling the way his works were exhibited, believing that an insensitive installation could affect his intentions and make the paintings appear merely decorative. 12] He demonstrated this need for control in 1952 tit the “15 Americans” group show at Momma He insisted his paintings be placed in bright light and hung together so the edges touched one another. He was unyielding about the space and light his work was seen; as his worked changed he wanted a dimmer environment. His paintings became darker reflecting more of twilight ‘tragedy than red ‘ecstasy’, He was commissioned in 1958 to create work tort the Seagram Building in New York tort the Four Seasons Restaurant. He did not like the location the commissioned art was going to be placed so he withdrew all of it and returned his commission.
The painting ‘White Center is placed in a corner at LACE with a comfortable bench placed in front of it, The piece beckons us to sit down and look at the painting – feel it, experience it. The balance of unity and variety are apparent in this work. It has its own unique rhythm It is both sensuous and spiritual containing universality not only because of his use of the principles of design but also because of a basic connectedness to our emotions. Don’t know if he would be happy with the placement of the painting at LACE.
