Abstract Expressionism
An American art movement born in the early 1940’s
in New York - post World War II
The group were dissatisfied with the American art
which came out of the Great Depression 1930’s
1929 - Museum of Modern Art opened in New York.
Suddenly artists could see the work of the European
Modernists
The first American art movement to achieve
international influence
The Style
• Automatic, spontaneous and subconscious creations
taken from the principles of the Surrealists
• The artists had varying styles which fall into two
main categories - Gestural painting and Colourfield
painting
• Some works were full of dynamic energy, some were
static yet humming with electricity and some were
violent and grotesque
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The two groups within Abstract Expressionism,
influenced by Surrealism and Cubism:
Colour Field Painters
- worked with simple, unified blocks of colour.
• Mark Rothko
• Barnett Newman
• Clyfford Still
Gestural Painters
- used Surrealist techniques of automatic art.
• Jackson Pollock
• Willem de Kooning
• Hans Hofmann
• Franz Kline
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Mark Rothko
Russian/ American painter 1903-70
Four Darks in Red, 1958
Untitled, 1946/7
Untitled, 1944
No.8, 1952
Jackson Pollock - 1912-1956
The She-Wolf, 1943
“Any attempt on my part to say
something about it, to attempt
explanation of the inexplicable, could
only destroy it"
Number 5,1948
Franz Kline(1910-1962)
Chief
Franz Kline, 1950
“spontaneity is practiced!”
The title refers to a train which passed through his hometown.
Many of his titles suggest bridges, railroad tracks, and the
machinery of America, even though they are abstract in design.
He used cheap household materials expressing Americas interest
in industry and consumerism
Willem de Kooning
1904-1997 - Dutch American
Excavation, 1950
Woman V, 1952-53
Seated Woman, 1940
Known for his reworking, his pieces still feel unfinished and
full of pent up energy and anger
David Smith - 1906-65
Although predominantly painters, Abstract Expressionism also
attracted sculptors
Instead of casting metal David Smith would weld his
sculptures together like a painter applying paint to a canvas
Hudson River Landscape,
1951
Head as still life
1940
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Pop Art
• A movement closely associated with New York in the from the
mid 1950’s-70’s
• An International art movement
• Pop art reintroduced identifiable imagery taken from popular
culture
• Celebration of commonplace objects, people and everyday life
• Sought to elevate popular culture to the level of Fine Art
• Sought to rid art of its culture of hierarchy
Pop Artists
• Andy Warhol - American - Painter, printmaker, photographer
• Roy Lichtenstein - American - Painter
• Claes Oldenburgh - Swedish /American - Sculptor
• Jasper Johns - American - Painter
• James Rosenquist - American - Painter
• Eduardo Paolozzi - Scottish - Sculptor, printmaker, multi-media
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Eduardo Paolozzi -1924-05
I was a rich man’s plaything
Collage, 1947
Bash, Screenprint, 1971
The MS of Montecarlo
bronze, 2005
Andy Warhol - 1928-87
• Trained as a magazine illustrator
• Used techniques from magazine illustration to
create screenprint collages
• Managed the 1960’s rock band - The Velvet
Underground
• His studio was called - The Factory
• Warhol attracted a Bohemian following who
among other things worked on his Factory films
Marilyn Diptych, Screenprint painting, 1962
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Coca-cola
Screenprint
1962
“What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the
richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be
watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks CocaCola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A
Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one
the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes
are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you
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know it” - Andy Warhol
Roy Lichtenstein - 1927-93
• Hard edged painting style made up of dots replicating the
appearance of commercial printing
• Humorous and tongue in cheek
• Critics challenged the works originality
• He did alter his compositions from the original sources
• There is argument over whether he wanted to produce aesthetically
please compositions or to shock with the garish impact of popular
culture
Whaam!, 1963
Drowning Girl, 1963
Claes Oldenburgh - 1929 French Fries and
Ketchup
Vinyl and kapok fibres on
wood base
1963
Spoonbridge and cherry
1988
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Oldenburg uses images and objects from the everyday world,
especially small and usually unnoticeable ones. One of the goals
of Pop Art was, to make the ordinary extraordinary.
American Supermarket, 1964
Food in art has been a long tradition in
the western world. Pop Art put a
modern twist on it
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