After the Second World War, a revolutionary art from began to emerge from avant-garde circles in New York City. This was a new form of painting called American abstract expressionism. The influence of this form was vast and unprecedented. It is the only US-born painting style that has managed to glean international acclaim.
Its origins lay with Cubism and Fauvism - works defined by primal, savage lines and colors. It also adopted some of the key features of the German Expressionist collective, especially concerning the exposition of extreme emotional states. Futurism and Surrealism also had a role to play.
This style was thus created from a combination of older European styles that defined early-twentieth century Western art. Since Paris was still recovering from the hardships of the war, New York was thrust into the public domain as the new cultural hub. Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock created works that represented the wild intensity of a uniquely iconoclastic American spirit.
One of the defining features of this style is action painting. This form is best demonstrated by the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock. Action painting sought to capture the temporality of the act of painting itself. It combined performance and painting in a ritualized procedure that that aimed to convey the spontaneity of the creative process. The haphazard drizzles and streaks of Pollock's works demonstrate the power of subconscious energies at work.
Mark Rothko's color field paintings stood in great contradiction to the fraught drip works of Jackson Pollock. These formal creations consisted of grand blocks of solid color. They were dramatic images that, however simple, served to communicate primal feelings evoked by the animalism of color.
The influences of American Abstract Expressionism echoed for many years after the fact. In the 1960's, artists like Andy Warhol adopted some of its surrealist elements to create Pop Art, a proto-Dadaist style that defined New York's underground style. Performance artist Allan Kaprow, inspired by action painting, creating Happenings that combined the temporal nature of performance with the static energy of art. Such developments defined international art in the years to come.
Its origins lay with Cubism and Fauvism - works defined by primal, savage lines and colors. It also adopted some of the key features of the German Expressionist collective, especially concerning the exposition of extreme emotional states. Futurism and Surrealism also had a role to play.
This style was thus created from a combination of older European styles that defined early-twentieth century Western art. Since Paris was still recovering from the hardships of the war, New York was thrust into the public domain as the new cultural hub. Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock created works that represented the wild intensity of a uniquely iconoclastic American spirit.
One of the defining features of this style is action painting. This form is best demonstrated by the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock. Action painting sought to capture the temporality of the act of painting itself. It combined performance and painting in a ritualized procedure that that aimed to convey the spontaneity of the creative process. The haphazard drizzles and streaks of Pollock's works demonstrate the power of subconscious energies at work.
Mark Rothko's color field paintings stood in great contradiction to the fraught drip works of Jackson Pollock. These formal creations consisted of grand blocks of solid color. They were dramatic images that, however simple, served to communicate primal feelings evoked by the animalism of color.
The influences of American Abstract Expressionism echoed for many years after the fact. In the 1960's, artists like Andy Warhol adopted some of its surrealist elements to create Pop Art, a proto-Dadaist style that defined New York's underground style. Performance artist Allan Kaprow, inspired by action painting, creating Happenings that combined the temporal nature of performance with the static energy of art. Such developments defined international art in the years to come.
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