Abstract Expressionism and Frank O’Hara’s Writing
While researching everything about American cotemporary poet Frank O’Hara, it became very apparent that art was a driving force in both his personal life and his professional writing career. This can be proved by merely trying to find information about him in the literature section in a library. Only his collected poems can be found, but much more information about Frank O’Hara can be found in the art section. Many art books dedicate entire sections to celebrating O’Hara’s poetry as complementary to the art of the abstract expressionist movement that was occurring in New York at the same time that O’Hara was writing his poetry. Even general art books that merely explain the
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Defining their artistic vision is difficult because they were acting out at the very idea of defining artistic ideas. David Anfam, author of Abstract Expressionism, explains that the movement was groundbreaking and resulted in a drastic change in the attitude toward both the past and future of art. The movement ensued with astonishing speed and meticulousness, and Anfam further describes the movement as “at once striking yet inwardly complex” (7-8). The movement found its way into the New York art scene after World War II, and it continued for approximately fifteen years. The painters of the movement were survivors of the Great Depression, World War II, Holocaust, and age of nuclear weapons. This sparked a sense of anxiety and urgency in their painting, a feeling Americans identified with.
There was also a sense of renewal and rebirth at the end of the war era. The artists were searching for a way to step away from the conventional subjects and styles, neither of which they felt were able to convey their new vision. They drew inspiration from all directions and valued individuality. Abstract expressionists sought to express their subconscious through their art. The process of expressing their vision was also very important to the painters. How they painted the piece of art was just as important as the work itself. All were influenced by Existentialist ideas, which emphasized
Artists in the early 1900s commonly utilized techniques of distortion and exaggeration, characteristics of expressionism, to establish the element of emotion. According to Wolf (2017), expressionist artists often incorporate “swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes to convey the turgid emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world” (p. 1). Amplification of the human figure often evokes strong emotions for audiences of many different cultures. Additionally, the style reflects the consequences of urbanization, such as the alienation of individuals in society (Wolf, 2017). Expressionism allows artists to surpass realism and reflect the tribulations of living in a modern society.
Though, throughout this time period, “the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art,” it was an essential art movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and the “CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years,” creating a meaningful impact on the outcome of the Cold War (Saunders). “Abstract Expressionism stood for, above all else,
The largest downfall in the lives a century ago was the spanish flu that started during the november of 1918. It infected one in every five people of u.s during the calamity and took the lives of 675,000 people, close to 10 times as many lives as from ww1, leaving a deep wound on to the history of U.S. the next difficulties faced by the people of U.S was their work difficulties. 85% of adult men were working for labors in many factories for an average of 55 hours a week. And they were not working in good A.C conditions. Instead their fatality rate at work was 30 times higher than present day. And you would think that they would get a bad for it right? Indeed they did get a bad pay for it. They had to spend half of their pay for feeding themselves.yeah. It was not good. Now unlike men who had to work hard, women were treated differently coz women.. Working… let's move on…. Ok im not being a feminist. Contrary to popular belief, i treat women and men equally.. Coz i beat people no matter their what their gender is. Next up is Art…. the tool to find yourself and lose yourself at the same time. Now there is only one thing i want to talk about in art and that is the rise in expressionism, or like I call it, the start of a disaster.*rage*. If there is one thing the future generation will make fun of, it is the fact that people buy these. Let's get to the conclusion before i kill all the expressionists in the world*tear the paper.*. In
Expressionism appeared in poetry and drama in Germany and Austria just before World War I, and was influenced by Freudian Theories of the subconscious and Nietzsche’s anti-rationalism ideas. Expressionism was mostly popular during times of social change or spiritual crisis. This kind of art was a way for people to express their emotions and feelings during a time in the world when they didn’t know any other way to express themselves.
The intersection of social movements and Art is one that can be observed throughout the civil right movements of America in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. The sixties in America saw a substantial cultural and social change through activism against the Vietnam war, women’s right and against the segregation of the African - American communities. Art became a prominent method of activism to advocate the civil rights movement. It was a way to express self-identity as well as the struggle that people went through and by means of visual imagery a way to show political ideals and forms of resistance. To examine how a specific movement can have a profound effects on the visual art, this essay will focus on the black art movement of the 1960s and
is the most living influential postwar American artist moved beyond Abstract Expressionism toward Minimalism. He believes into shapes possibilities to be able to give you narrative sentence.
Abstraction is the creation of art without representation of objects, in which the artist has total freedom of the art that they are creating. I will be using three paintings from three different time periods in order to show the development and lasting effects of abstraction in the twentieth century. The first work that I will be looking at is Foghorns by Arthur Dove. I will use this piece to show the beginning of abstraction, and how ideas of abstraction were present before the movement began. The second painting that I will be looking at is Jackson Pollock’s Lucifer. I will be using this painting as an example of the height of abstraction in the 20th century and will be discussing Pollock’s influence on abstraction. The third piece of art I will be looking at is Many Mansion by Kerry James Marshall. I will use this work to show the remnants of Pollock’s influence, and the influence of abstraction in general, on art in the later half of the century. For the development of this paper I looked at two of the course readings. The first reading that I used was The Tradition of the New by Harold Rosenberg. I used this article to show how Foghorns by Arthur Dove relates to abstraction, and to show how ideas in creation of this painting can be linked to ideas of abstract art. The second reading that I used for this paper was The Legacy of Jackson Pollock by Alan Kaprow. I used this article to gain information about
Abstract Expressionism began in the 1940s and the 1950s in New York after World War II from the ideas of Surrealism about art that looks to examining the unconscious mind, and the feelings people hold that makes us all humans. Through the discussion of Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock, I will define Abstract Expression and why this work is part of this movement. Then, through the discussion of Canyon by Robert Rauschenberg, Target with Plaster Casts by Jasper Johns, and Marilyn Diptych by Andy Warhol, I will explain Assemblage and Pop Art and why each of these works belong to those movements.
Art has evolved and regenerated itself many times during our human existence. These differences are defined through changes in styles under various theories. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a style known as Expressionism became popular. During this movement the artists were trying to use their artwork as a tool of expression toward life. It was mainly dominant in the nonrepresentational arts, such as abstract visual arts and music. It also was probably one of the most difficult movements to understand because the whole point of the piece lay within the artist. Not only was it a movement, it defined the act of art as a whole. From the beginning of time, each work of art, excluding replicas, show a way of expressing
Abstract art achieved its way into America soon after World War II. A group of artists identified as Abstract Expressionists started designing pieces of art that embraced personal value. Abstract Expressionism is a movement that was established in New York City. Artists participating in the movement applied abstraction to communicate personal feelings in their design applying powerful colors, structures, and lines. The fascinating feature regarding abstract art is there is rarely no topic to the portrait / statues. Still with no theme abstract artists apply unpredictability and passion to describe what they are compassion on the painting. Throughout this era, there were a number of artists who adopted this type of painting. Georgia O’keeffe happened to be one.
During the twenty years after World War One, three major art movements appeared: dadaism, functionalism, and surrealism. Dadaism, a movement which conveyed erratic and random movements that were supposed to contradict human behavior, was a response to the anxiety of those who didn’t know how to react because of all of the strange and despairing behavior in the world. Because of these conveyed ideas, dadaism promoted outrageous and random behavior. Functionalism, a movement which tried to explore the functions and purpose of things and nature, was an attempt to find the purpose of humans in the dark times following the war. Surrealism, a movement which painted wild dreams and complex symbols, tried to spread the idea of hope from the current scary world. Through surrealism, imagination and hope was brought out through paintings that featured crazy illusions and impossible dreams. Overall, these artistic movements tried to answer and embody the general sense of anxiety felt by
Characteristics of Abstract Expressionist Paintings-optical buzz, all-over composition, Matisse sometimes painted images on large canvases, as did Picasso but paintings still retained an object like character- the viewer needed to stand back to see the complete composition. Abstract expressionist paintings, on the other hand, draw the spectator into them. The field of vision is thus larger than the field of vision of the spectator, who finds himself in a world beyond measurement (class handouts) "Portable Mural"
Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation
Each artist of the Dada era had a new way of expressing Freud?s ideas. They also felt that art was a powerful means of self-revelation, and that the images came from ones subconscious mind had a truth of its own. As Marcel Duchamp mocked the Mona Lisa by drawing a Padilla 3 mustache on her, stated that the painting was a lewd message set by the conventional way of thinking. Since the Dada artist did not believe in western culture this made sense, because people only want believe what is told to them, instead of what is true. The Dada movement marked a meeting of people to have ?noise concerts? where they recited poems in a free association verse. In these poetry readings the artist perceived how they felt about the world. As World War I began the Dadaist perceived it as a world gone mad. Not only did they express their work in unconventional ways; they used the subconscious as a way of making their views true. Although the Dada era was short lived it influenced and questioned the traditional concepts of the western world. These techniques set an agenda for a new trial by error art form of this same era. The spirit of Freud in the Dadaist era never really died, it is shown today as ?Pop art? or sometimes known as neo-Dada art forms. Also this revolution of thinking and art paved the way for the Surrealist movement. The Surrealist movement of the 1920?s through 1930?s captivated the world with its bizarre way of thinking. Just as the Dadaist used
Before minimalism in the 1950s, the dominant art movement in the United States was Abstract Expressionism. The artists at that time’s goal were to express their personal emotions through their artwork (“Introduction to Minimal Art”). One popular branch of Abstract Expressionism was called Action Painting. This style of painting was spontaneous; paint would be