SUMMARY:
Abstract expressionism acted as a label for colourful and abstract forms, as well as vigorous gestural expressionism. The movement started in the 1940s and 1950s in New York, where Americans stole the modern art limelight from Parisians. Profound emotion and universal themes were clear in the artwork, which mostly stemmed from surrealism.
The work of abstract expressionists was 'American in spirit'; enormously sized, romantic, and reflecting strong individual freedom. Surrealist painters came over from Europe in the 1930s, bringing over their ideas of painting as struggling between expressing themselves and their chaotic unconscious.
Early influences
Henri Matisse
Pablo Picasso
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Robert Motherwell
Willem De Kooning
Modern day artists
Kostas Gogas
https://www.behance.net/kostasgogas
Ryan Dix
https://www.behance.net/ryseye
Dispute
http://dispute.tumblr.com
Mark Posey
http://www.markposeyart.com
Pablo Picasso
http://www.pablopicasso.org/
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-picasso-pablo.htm
SUMMARY:
Pablo Picasso has been labeled as the most influential artist of our time. He is known for his eccentric style, nonconforming attitude and his ability to not care about others' opinions on his creativity.
Starting with painting and etched works, as his career moved on he focused on comical and fantasy creations, using graphic arts, ceramics and sculpture work to capture his ideas.
His interest in Cubism led him to experiment with collage, as he thought of artwork as more of an arrangement of signs, sometimes metaphorical, rather than a window into real life objects.
"I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them." - Pablo Picasso
Henri Matisse
http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/matisse.html
SUMMARY:
Matisse was very influential by the late 1940s, when his techniques were seen in the work of young painters in America.
His way of varying thinnesses of paint with his strokes made the white ground breath and show through. The paint surface would maintain its liveliness no matter what.
Corners and margins of artwork would take care of themselves as paintings expanded in size and design: they didn't have to be filled in any longer. This is something Matisse influenced.
The work of Matisse speaks for itself through it's form and mechanics, transcending the illustrated subject.
"Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence."
"I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me."
Jackson Pollock
Modern Art by Michael Kerrigan
SUMMARY:
"New arts need new techniques. The modern artist cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture."
Pollock created 'Action Painting' which placed its emphasis on gestures by which the paint was applied and the picture created. He would put his work flat on the floor so he could approach it freely from any angle without giving it a definite orientation, and dribble paint from the can or a stick. Such paintings have lots of passion, tension and energy.
"Abstract painting is abstract. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was."
Robert Motherwell
Modern Art by Michael Kerrigan
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-motherwell-robert.htm
SUMMARY:
Simple shapes, bold colour contrasts and contrasting brushstrokes are what made up his work. Art history, philosophy and comtemporary art were referenced quite often in his work, aswell as life, death, revolution and oppression.
Motherwell has described himself as 'unwedded to the universe', so his work was an attempt to join himself with the wider scheme of things.
He would tend to reference works of literature or historical events in his abstract work to 'belong', which made some think that he took himself and artistic tradition too seriously.
"Without ethical consciousness, a painter is only a decorator."
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