Jackson Pollock And Abstract Expressionism

The expressionist movement emerged in two separate cultural hearths in Germany. Centered in Dresden, a group of artists known as Die Brücke (The Bridge), “wanted to create a radical art that could speak to modern audiences, which they characterized as young, vital, and

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,

Jackson Pollock was not known for painting images, that's because he didn't use a brush He believed the brush would interfere with the dripping of the paint. Instead Jackson used a stick to pour paint onto the canvas. He would change the color, type of paint, and the thickness of the paint as the work progressed. Therefore, the painting would reflect the movements of his arm and body as he applied the paint. The activity of the painting would become part of the painting itself. That style of painting is called action painting. Jackson Pollock was the first "all-over" action painted just like Cernuschi stated on page 67 in his book Meaning and Significance, "He painted no image, just action." It looked like Pollock almost imitated a dance. Pollock dripped paint all over the canvas, but always had total control of where the splash of paint would be. That is how he got his nickname "Jack the

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.

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.

Norman rockwell was born in 1894 in New York City. By the age of 14 he was already enrolled in the art classics. In 1910 he had left high school to study his favorite thing art. Over time when he was there he learned technical skills that he would need over his long career.

In the early twentieth century Post-Impressionism was the avant-garde art movement in the world, with its central city Paris, France. Artists from different religious backgrounds, cultures, and societal hierarchies migrated to Paris to take their art in new directions. France was a city of tolerance during both Pre and Post WWI; therefore, it was a beacon for those who wanted to convey their emotions and ideas visually. Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, and Robert Delaunay came to Paris and sought to create art with a personal aesthetic and to capture the essence of the modern era.

The innovative and passionate presence in both Jackson Pollock’s and Wassily Kandinsky avant-garde paintings exemplifies the redefinition of boundaries throughout their art making practices. Both artists challenged traditions both materially and conceptually using innovative and diverse approaches to materials and techniques when painting. Wassily Kandinsky goes against traditions and academies to create vivid, sensual and symbolic large-scale semi abstract expressionist oil paintings in a heightened state of mind. Many artworks of his convey bright and cheerful spontaneous colours that make the audience fully consumed within his works due to hypnotic and distorted semi realist shapes. Consequently, Jackson Pollock also goes against

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

The dominant figure that steered the course of the Abstract Expressionist movement was the infamous painter Jackson Pollock. He was born Paul Jackson Pollock in Cody, Wyoming on January 28, 1912. He was the fifth and youngest son and grew up in Arizona and California after his family left him when he was a little over one year old. Pollock's artistic journey began at the Manual Arts School in Los Angeles, California where he joined two of his brothers. From there, he went on to New York to attend the Art Students' League after being convinced by one of his brothers whom also attended the school.

Music inspires me. It transports me away from the world and helps me to go deeper where I can access memory and emotion as I paint. I am inspired by light, atmosphere, and sudden changes in the weather. Abstract Expressionism/Action painting from the 1950's is a sustaining influence as well. I am in love with the world most of the time and everything and everyone that comes into my life are put into my work in some small

Location- Generally, due to severity of totalitarian regimes of Europe, modernist artists were forced to flee Europe in order to continue their art. This meant a shift from the art capitol of

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

For Rosenberg Abstract Expressionism is not a continuation or explanation on what was in the past or re-defining it as Greenberg had proposed, he says it was losing it. Whereas Greenberg wrote that action painting was a total drift away from art. On the basis where the two critics where trying to convince each other of what is and what art should be they came with a defining type of style of painting in abstract expressionism, well Greenberg’s idea was a response to Rosenberg’s idea of American Action Painting , but its aim was accurate. American Type Painting “is an empirical, sustained, and unrelenting attempt to refute the claim that abstract expressionism painting constitutes a break with the past” (O’Riordan, 1957:5). Greenberg states that art should be a self-justified meaning, art should be able to defend its reality through the means of its features and gives nothing similar to any other, and he then states that if that type of art is seen as similar it should be eliminated, for example “a representation of objects - trees, people, fruits, tables, buildings, horses, etc. they can be produced not only in painting , but just as well, if not better, in sculpture, photography, and film, thus they are not essential to painting and must be discarded in art that aspires to be modern” (O’Riordan, 1957: 6). In Greenberg’s American type painting an artist would be acquired to

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