Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism is the term used to describe the gestural abstraction that dominated painting after World War II. The style emphasises spontaneity and intuition, and was not based in the geometry that had underpinned much earlier abstract art. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner are two of the painters most closely associated with Abstract Expressionism. Their work captures the rebelliousness and emotional intensity of this period.

Pollock assimilated aspects of indigenous cultures into his work. Totem lesson 2 1945, and some of his early drawings, reflect the contemporary enthusiasm for American Indian art. The ritual practice of sand images, according to the artist, was a factor that led to his  drip works, painted on canvases laid flat on the floor.  Blue poles 1952 reveals Pollock’s expressive spontaneity, which allowed him to bypass the constraints of Western artistic tradition.

Krasner was a mature artist when she and Pollock met in 1941; they married in 1945. She had studied under Hans Hofmann in the late 1930s, establishing a strong reputation as a colourist. Krasner often recycled her earlier drawings as collage and her magnificent Untitled 1953, with its rich blacks and layered textures, exemplifies this approach. Later, she began to develop similar forms and shapes in large monochrome paintings and, finally, mural-sized works.

The radical painters who worked in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s are known collectively as Abstract Expressionists or the New York School. Characterised  by a spirit of revolt and aggressive self-determination,  they shared a similar outlook rather than a cohesive style.  The New York School is regarded as the first major American art movement, and its development marks  the waning of Paris as the centre of the art world.

Abstract Expressionism has its roots in the social and artistic climate of the 1920s and 1930s, a period dominated by social realism and regionalism. The European émigrés to the United States who escaped the horrors of Nazism and World War II included Hans Hofmann, who founded an art school in New York in 1934. He influenced generations of younger artists from Clyfford Still to John Seery, and was known for his defence of abstraction, automatic painting and innovative techniques such as dribbled and ‘pulled’ paint. Willem de Kooning was another immigrant who also contributed to this lively cultural milieu.

In New York, the newly-established Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Non-Objective Art (now Guggenheim), offered artists diverse opportunities to assimilate outside developments. Arshile Gorky’s works show the impact  of Surrealism, especially the influence of Pablo Picasso. Mark Rothko retains Surrealist elements in Multiform 1948, while his later canvas, suffused with paint, anticipates Colour-field painting.

Abstract Expressionism is concerned with gesture and texture. Another tendency of the style may be identified in Colour-field painting: the main characteristics of which include radically simplified compositions, colours close in tonal value and intensity, and very large canvases. Jules Olitski used a spray-gun to achieve an expansive and seamless surface, a technique which preserves the richness and purity of his colours.

Helen Frankenthaler’s work combines aspects of both Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock. The ‘staining’ of Other generations 1957 is produced by pouring diluted oil paint onto an unprimed canvas laid on the floor, a technique that causes the image to merge into the surface of the work. In this painting, as elsewhere, the weave of the raw canvas is visible. In the 1960s Frankenthaler began to work in series, to adopt more structured, formal compositions and to use synthetic polymer paints.

Morris Louis’ introduction to Frankenthaler in 1953 was the catalyst for developing his own ‘staining’ technique. With Dalet zayin 1959, part of a group of paintings known as Veils, he began to experiment using unprimed canvas. Louis considered his next series, Unfurleds, to be his most ambitious works. In these paintings, which were made during the last five years of his life, he created a new style of Abstract Expressionism.

Painters continued to work in an Abstract Expressionist style into the 1960s and 1970s, long after new tendencies such as Pop and Minimalism became dominant modes. The artists associated with Colour-field painting and the second-generation Abstract Expressionists increasingly exploited the qualities of paint. Their canvases are emphatically flat, or are made to achieve an ‘overall’ effect.

Abstract Expressionism was more than an American phenomenon, and the impact of influential painters was felt beyond the United States. Works by Australians such as Tony Tuckson and Peter Upward reveal how these artists developed in related ways. In his evocative and beautiful Watery c.1960, Tuckson spreads layers of pale paint and then ‘writes’ across the surface. Upward’s large, expressive gestures — his paint thickened with medium — seem to defy materiality and speak instead of calligraphy, jazz and poetry. By using enamel, artists such as Ralph Balson and Michael Taylor develop layer upon layer of thread-like paint.

The drawings, lithographs and collages on display here emphasise how artists exploit gesture and mark-making across a range of mediums. Willem de Kooning continued to refer to the human body throughout his long career. Glimpses of the figure remain, even in the 1980s, when he adopted a white ground for his marks, which seem to glide over the surface.

The original website for this exhibition was published in 2012 and has been archived for research purposes.