• OBJECTIVES:

• --Use artworks to derive the

traditions/history of the various art
movements. (A10PL-Ih-2)
• --Discuss the Abstract
expressionism and its style.
 ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM
WORLD EVENTS IN THE MID-20TH
CENTURY IMMENSELY INFLUENCED
THE COURSE OF ART HISTORY. WORLD
WAR I AND WORLD WAR II SHIFTED
THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND
CULTURAL WORLD STAGE AWAY FROM
EUROPE AND ON THE “NEW WORLD”
CONTINENT, AMERICA.
 THE NEW
YORK SCHOOL
IN THE 1920's AND 1930's, ASPIRING
YOUNG AMERICAN PAINTERS,
SCULPTORS AND WRITERS SAILED TO
EUROPE TO EXPAND THEIR HORIZONS.
BUT DURING THE DARK DAYS OF
WORLD WAR II, A REVERSE MIGRATION
BROUGHT EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS,
ARCHITECTS, AND ARTISTS TO
AMERICAN SHORES.
NEW YORK BECAME THE
HAVEN FOR THE NEWLY
ARRIVED ARTISTS AND
THEIR AMERICAN
COUNTERPARTS.
THE RESULT CAME TO BE KNOWN
AS “THE NEW YORK SCHOOL”---AS
OPPOSED TO “THE SCHOOL OF
PARIS,” WHICH HAD BEEN VERY
INFLUENTIAL IN EUROPE. THEIR
STYLE CAME TO KNOWN AS
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM.
 ACTION
PAINTING
ONE FORM OF ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM WAS SEEN IN
THE WORKS OF JACKSON
POLLOCK. THESE WERE
CREATED THROUGH WHAT
CAME TO BE KNOWN AS
“ACTION PAINTING.”
POLLOCK WORKED ON HUGE
CANVASES, SPREAD ON THE FLOOR,
SPLATTERING, SQUIRTING, AND
DRIBBLING PAINT WITH NO
PREPLANNED PATTERN OR DESIGN IN
MIND. THE TOTAL EFFECT EFFECT IS
ONE OF VITALITY, CREATIVITY,
“ENERGY MADE VISIBLE.”
 COLOR
FIELD
PAINTING
USED DIFFERENT COLOR
SATURATIONS (PURITY,
VIVIDNESS, INTENSITY) TO
CREATE THEIR DESIRED
EFFECTS. SOME OF THEIR
WORKS WERE HUGE FIELDS OF
VIBRANT COLOR.