Abstract
Expressionism or abstract expressionism - A painting
movement in which artists
typically applied paint
rapidly, and with force to their huge canvases
in an effort to show feelings and emotions, painting gesturally,
non-geometrically, sometimes
applying paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even
throwing it onto canvas. Their work is characterized by a strong
dependence on what appears to be accident and chance, but which
is actually highly planned. Some Abstract Expressionist artists
were concerned with adopting a peaceful and mystical approach
to a purely abstract image.
Usually there was no effort to represent
subject matter. Not all
work was abstract, nor was all
work expressive, but it
was generally believed that the spontaneity
of the artists' approach to their work would draw from and release
the creativity
of their unconscious minds.
The expressive method of
painting was often considered as important as the painting itself.
Artists who painted in this style include Hans Hoffman (German-American, 1880-1966), Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974), Mark Rothko (American, 1903-1970), Willem De Kooning (Dutch-American, 1904-1997), Clyfford Still (American, 1904-1980), Barnett Newman (American, 1905-1970), Franz Kline (American, 1910-1962), William Baziotes (American, 1912-1963), Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956), Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980), Ad Reinhardt (American, 1913-1967), Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991), Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994), and Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-). Abstract Expressionism originated in the 1940s, and became popular in the 1950s.
Examples:
Listed
chronologically by artist's birth year
Use ctrl-F (PC) or command-F (Mac) to search for a name
Hans Hofmann (American, born Germany, 1880-1966), Self-Portrait with Brushes, casein paint on plywood, 1942, André Emmerich Gallery, New York City.
Hans Hofmann, Rising Sun, 1958, oil
on canvas, 60 x 72 inches,
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.
Hans Hofmann, Pompeii, 1959, oil
on canvas, 214.0 x 132.7
cm, Tate Gallery, London. See push
and pull.
Hans Hofmann, Simplex Munditis, 1962, oil
on canvas, 84 x 72 inches,
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA.
Mark Tobey (American, 1890-1976), Electric Night, 1944, tempera on paper mounted on board, 17 1/2 x 13 inches (46 x 34.2 cm), Seattle Art Museum, WA. Tobey was greatly influenced by Asian art. His works after 1935 were entirely generated by lines in a style he called "white writing" — typically calligraphic white patterns ranging over non-objective color backgrounds. He influenced the French painters of tachisme.
Mark Tobey, Cloud, 1954, tempera
on paper, 21 x 20 cm, Tehran Museum
of Contemporary Art, Iran.
Mark Tobey, Untitled, 1961, color lithograph, image 23.2 x 31.8 cm, sheet
44.1 x 51.9 cm inches, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA.
Mark Tobey, Trio, 1970, intaglio,
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974), Sundeck, 1936, oil on canvas, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Gottlieb painted Sundeck before he turned to abstraction. See New Deal art.
Adolph Gottlieb, Pictograph, c. 1941-1946, National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C. Gottlieb referred to the elements of his paintings as pictographs — meaning signs, symbols, calligraphs, or glyphs. Sometimes he set each of these within its own compartment, as he did here, and sometimes he layered one above another, as he did in many later examples of his work.
Adolf Gottlieb, Apaquogue, 1961, oil on canvas, 72 x 90 inches, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX.
Adolph Gottlieb, Blues, 1962, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
Adolph Gottlieb, Night Glow, 1971, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
Mark Rothko (born Marcus Rothkowitz) (American,
born Russia, 1903-1970), Number 2, 1954, oil
on canvas, 291.5 x 207
cm, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran. See rectangle.
Mark Rothko, Sienna, Orange & Black on Dark Brown,
1962, oil on canvas,
193 x 175 cm, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran.
Mark Rothko, N° 14 (Browns over Dark), 1963, oil and acrylic
on canvas, 228.5 x 176
cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Arshile Gorky (born Vosdanig Manoog Adoian) (American, born in Turkish Armenia, 1904-1948), Still Life of Flowers, 1928, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC.
Arshile Gorky, Composition, 1936-1939, oil
on canvas, 30 x 37 inches,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See New
Deal art.
Arshile Gorky, The Artist's Mother, 1938, charcoal,
63 x 48.5 cm, Art Institute of Chicago, IL.
Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock's Comb, 1944, oil on canvas, 73 1/4 x 98 inches (186 x 249 cm), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.
Arshile Gorky, Virginia Landscape,
1944, oil on canvas,
40 x 51 inches (101.6 x 129.5 cm), Cincinnati Art Museum, OH.
Arshile Gorky, Landscape-Table, 1945, oil
on canvas, 92 x 121 cm,
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Arshile Gorky, Summation, 1947, pencil,
pastel, and
charcoal on buff paper
mounted on composition
board, 6 feet 7 5/8 inches x 8 feet 5 3/4 inches (202.1 x 258.2
cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
Willem de Kooning (American, born Netherlands,
1904-1997), Woman, 1944, oil
and charcoal on canvas,
46 x 32 inches (116.8 x 81.3 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art,
NY.
Willem de Kooning, Light in August, 1946, oil
and enamel on canvas, 139.8 x 105.5 cm,
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran.
Willem de Kooning, Night, 1948, oil
on canvas, 23 x 28 inches,
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See nocturne.
Willem de Kooning, Seated Woman, 1952, pastel, pencil, and oil
on two hinged sheets of paper,
overall 12 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches (30.8 x 24.2 cm), Museum of Modern
Art, NY.
Willem de Kooning, Women Singing II, 1966, oil
on paper laid on canvas,
91.4 x 61.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Willem de Kooning, The Visit, 1966-1967, oil
on canvas, 152.4 x 121.9
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Clyfford Still (American, 1904-1980), Painting, 1951, 1951, oil on canvas, width 192.4 cm, Detroit Institute of the Arts, MI.
Clyfford Still, 1951-N, 1951, oil
on canvas, 92 5/16 x 69
1/8 inches (2.345 x 1.756 m), National Gallery of Art, Washington,
DC.
Clyfford Still, 1956-J No. 1, Untitled, 1956, oil on canvas, 104 1/2 x 115 inches, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX.
John Ferren (American, 1905-1970), The Windows,1958, National Museum of
American Art, Washington, DC.
Barnett Newman (American, 1905-1970), Moment, 1946, oil
on canvas, 76.2 x 40.6
cm, Tate Gallery, London. See zip.
Barnett Newman, Pagan Void, 1946, oil
on canvas, National Gallery
of Art, Washington, DC.
Barnett Newman, Dionysius, 1949, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Barnett Newman, The Name, 1949, brush and black ink,
.611 x .380 m (24 1/16 x 15 inches), National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC.
Barnett Newman, Eve, 1950, oil
on canvas, 238.8 x 172.1
x 5.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Barnett Newman, The Name II, 1950, Magna
and oil on canvas,
104 x 94 1/2 inches (2.642 x 2.400 m), National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC. See zip.
Barnett Newman, Adam, 1951-2, oil
on canvas, 242.9 x 202.9
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Barnett Newman, Not There-Here, 1962, oil
and casein on canvas,
198 x 89.4 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Barnett Newman, The Third, 1962, oil on canvas, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
Barnett Newman, Untitled Etching #1, 1969, etching and aquatint, National Gallery of Art, Washington,
DC.
James Brooks (American, 1906-1992).
David Smith (American, 1906-1965), Becca, 1965, stainless steel, 113 1/4 x 123 x 30 1/2 inches (287.7
x 312.4 x 77.5 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Lee Krasner (American, 1908-1984), Self-Portrait, c. 1930, oil
on linen, 30 1/8 x 25
1/8 inches, Estate of Lee Krasner. See feminism
and feminist art and self-portrait.
Lee Krasner, Gothic Landscape, 1961, oil
on canvas, 176.8 x 237.8
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Jack Bush (Canadian, 1909-1977)
Enrico Donati (American, 1909-), From Body to Soul, oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of Arts, MI.
Morris Graves (American, 1910-2001), Wheelbarrow, 1934, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC. See New Deal art.
Morris Graves, Logged Mountains, c. 1935-1943, oil
on canvas, 26 1/8 x 36
1/8 inches (66.3 x 91.6 cm), National Museum of American Art,
Washington, DC.
Morris Graves, Oregon, from the United States Series, c. 1948, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC.
Morris Graves, Hibernation, 1954, National Museum of
American Art, Washington, DC.
Franz Kline (American, 1910-1962), Palmerton, Pa., 1941, painting, National
Museum of American Art, Washington, DC.
Franz Kline, New York, N.Y., 1953, oil on canvas, 79 x 51 in. (200.6 x 129.5 cm), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.
Franz Kline, Untitled, c. 1954, oil
on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches, Modern
Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX.
Franz Kline, Four Square, 1956, oil
on canvas, 1.99 x 1.29
m (78 3/8 x 50 3/4 inches), National Gallery of Art, Washington,
DC.
Franz Kline, C & O, 1958, oil
on canvas, 1.96 x 2.79
m (77 x 110 inches), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Franz Kline, Siskind, 1958, oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of Arts, MI.
Franz Kline, Untitled, c. 1959, National Museum of
American Art, Washington, DC.
Franz Kline, Merce C, 1961, National Museum of American
Art, Washington, DC.
Franz Kline, Untitled, 1961, National Museum of American
Art, Washington, DC.
William Baziotes (American, 1912-1963), Dusk, 1954, oil on canvas, New Britain, CT.
Morris Louis (American, 1912-1962)
Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956), Naked Man with Knife, c. 1938-40, oil on canvas,
127.0 x 91.4 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Jackson Pollock, Birth, c. 1941, oil
on canvas, 116.4 x 55.1
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Jackson Pollock, The Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle, 1943,
oil on canvas,
109.5 x 104 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris. See the WebMuseum's
page about Pollock.
Jackson Pollock, Night Mist, 1945, oil
on canvas, Norton Museum,
West Palm Beach, FL.
Jackson Pollock, Shimmering Substance (Sounds in the Grass Series), 1946, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 24 1/4 inches (76.3 x 61.6 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.
Jackson Pollock, Cathedral, 1947, enamel and aluminum paint on canvas, 71 1/2 x 35 1/8 inches (181.6 x 89.2 cm), Dallas Museum of Art.
Jackson Pollock, Summertime: Number 9A, 1948, oil,
enamel and house
paint on canvas, 84.8 x
555.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Jackson Pollock, Number 23, 1948, enamel on gesso
on paper, 57.5 x 78.4 cm, Tate
Gallery, London.
Jackson Pollock, Number 26 A, Black and White, 1948, oil on canvas,
205 x 121.7 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Jackson Pollock, Painting (Silver over Black, White, Yellow and
Red), 1948, painting on paper
mounted on canvas,
61 x 80 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Jackson Pollock, Mural on Indian Red Ground, 1950, oil and enamel on board, 183 x 243.5 cm, Tehran Museum
of Contemporary Art, Iran.
Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (#30), 1950, oil
on canvas, 105 x 207 inches
(266.7 x 525.8 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Jackson Pollock, One (Number 31, 1950), 1950, oil
and enamel on unprimed canvas,
8 feet 10 inches x 17 feet 5 5/8 inches (269.5 x 530.8 cm), Museum
of Modern Art, NY.
Jackson Pollock, Untitled, c. 1950, ink
on paper,
17 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches (44.5 x 56.6 cm), Museum of Modern Art,
NY.
Jackson Pollock, Number 14, 1951, enamel on canvas,
146.5 x 269.5 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Jackson Pollock, Yellow Islands, 1952, oil
on canvas, 143.5 x 185.4
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Jackson Pollock, The Deep, 1953, painting on canvas,
220.4 x 150.2 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980), The Return, 1956-8, oil
on canvas, 178.1 x 199.1
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Philip Guston, Barnett Newman (American, 1905-1970), c. 1960, ink on paper, Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy McKee Gallery, New York City.
Conrad Marca-Relli (American, 1913-), Winter Blue, 1982, mixed-media on canvas, Columbia Museum of Art, SC.
Ad Reinhardt (American, 1913-1967), Untitled, 1940, oil
on canvas, National Museum
of American Art, Washington, DC.
Ad Reinhardt, Red and Blue Composition, 1941, oil
on canvas, National Museum
of American Art, Washington, DC.
Ad Reinhardt, Untitled, 1947, oil
on canvas, 40 x 32 inches
(1.016 x .813 m), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting, c. 1951-2, oil
on canvas, 203.2 x 106.7
cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Ad Reinhardt, Abstract Painting No. 9, 1960-1966, oil on canvas,
62 x 62 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Ad Reinhardt, Black Painting No. 34, 1964, oil on canvas, 60 1/4 x 60 1/8 inches (1.530 x 1.526 m), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. See Minimalism.
William Scott (British, 1913-1989)
Alberto Burri (Italian, 1915-1995)
Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991), Personage (Autoportrait) , December 9, 1943, paper collage, gouache, and ink on board, 108 x 65.9 cm, Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Robert Motherwell, Ulysses, 1947, oil
and cardboard on wood, 85.7 x 71.1 cm, Tate Gallery,
London.
Robert Motherwell, Mural Fragment, 1950, oil on composition board, 96 x 144 inches, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, U of Minnesota.
Elmer Bischoff (American, 1916-1991). Elmer Bischoff is most widely known for the paintings he did after he had broken away from abstract expressionism, as a proponent of Bay Area Figuration (also called West Coast Figuration).
Hedda Sterne (American, 1916-)
Cleve Gray (American, 1918-)
Elaine Fried de Kooning (American, 1920-1989),
Self-Portrait, 1946, oil on Masonite,
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. See feminism and feminist art.
Elaine Fried de Kooning, Bacchus #3, 1978, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 78 x 50 inches, National Museum of Women in Art, Washington, DC.
Karel Appel (Dutch, 1921-2006)
Grace Hartigan (American, 1922-), The Massacre, 1952, oil
on canvas, 81 x 130 inches,
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.
The Abstract-Expressionist painters who followed the artists above are generally known as members of the "second generation" of Abstract Expressionists.
These include:
Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994), In Lovely Blueness, 1955-1957, oil
on canvas, 300 x 700 cm,
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.
Sam Francis, Around the Blues, 1957 / 62, oil
and acrylic on canvas,
275.1 x 487.1 cm, Tate Gallery, London.
Paul Jenkins (American, 1923-)
Jean-Paul Riopelle (Canadian, 1923-), Pavane, 1954, oil on canvas, 300 x 550.2 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Antoni Tàpies (Spanish, 1923-)
Kenneth Noland (American, 1924-)
Joan Mitchell (American, 1926-1992), City
Landscape, 1955, oil
on canvas, 80 x 80 inches
(203.2 x 203.2 cm), Art Institute of Chicago, IL.
Joan Mitchell, Untitled, 1959-60, oil
on canvas, 76 x 114 inches,
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.
Joan Mitchell, Wet Orange, 1971, oil
on canvas, Carnegie Museum
of Art, Pittsburgh, PA.
Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-), Coral Wedge, 1972, acrylic
on canvas, 81 1/2 x 46
1/2 inches, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.
Al Held (American, 1928-)
Cy Twombly (American, living in Italy since
1957, 1928-), Untitled, c. 1953, oil
based house paint and graphite
on paper, 19 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches,
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.
Cy Twombly (American, 1928-), The Italians, 1961, oil,
pencil, and crayon
on canvas, 6 feet 6 5/8
inches x 8 feet 6 1/4 inches (199.5 x 259.6 cm), Museum of Modern
Art, NY. Art critics
have described Twombly's
paintings as akin to painted palimpsests.
Cy Twombly, Untitled,
1961, oil and charcoal
on canvas, St. Louis Art
Museum.
Cy Twombly, Leda and the Swan, 1962, oil,
pencil and crayon
on canvas, 6 feet 3 inches
x 6 feet 6 3/4 inches (190.5 x 200 cm), private collection.
Cy Twombly, Ohne Titel (Roma), 1969, oil
and crayon on canvas.
Jasper Johns (American, 1930-)
Choi Wook-Kyung (American, 1940-1985)
Raphael Collazo (American, born Puerto Rico, 1943-1990), The Magic Is Back, 1986, mixed media on panel, 96 x 80 inches, Collazo Foundation, NY.
Visit the Museo Collazo website (Collazo Foundation) for reproductions of and information about 300 paintings.
Raphael Collazo, Wing Venation, 1986, mixed media on panel, 90 x 96 inches, Collazo Foundation, NY.
Raphael Collazo, Forest Rendezvous, 1989, mixed media on panel, 80 x 82 inches, Collazo Foundation, NY.
George Morrison (Native American)
Photographs of the artists:
Nina Leen (American, 1909-1995), The Irascibles, 1950, Life magazine. Front row, left to right: Theodore Stamos, Jimmy Ernst (son of Max Ernst), Barnett Newman, James Brooks, Mark Rothko. Middle row: Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin. Back row: Willem De Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, and Hedda Sterne.
Kay Bell Reynal (American, 1905-1977),
Mark
Rothko (American, 1903-1970), 1952, gelatin silver print,
Photos of Artists Collection 1, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.
Arthur Swoger (American, 1912-), Philip
Guston in his New York loft, 1957, gelatin silver print,
Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy McKee Gallery, New York City.
Hans Namuth (American, 1915-1990), Pollock
painting, 1950, gelatin silver prints, National Portrait
Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. This is one of at least five photographs Namuth
made of Pollock painting. Their publication in Life magazine
in 1951 caused a great sensation.
Here is a second one,
and a fifth.
Hans Namuth, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Tony Smith
at the Betty Parsons Gallery, gelatin silver print, April
1951, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC.
Hans Namuth, Clyfford Still, 1951, gelatin silver
print, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC.
Critics of Abstract Expressionism:
Hans Namuth (American, 1915-1990), Clement
Greenberg (American, 1909-1994) outside Jackson Pollock's studio, 1951,
gelatin silver print, collection of Mrs. Clement Greenberg. See
art critic.
Phyllis Herfield (American, 1947-), Clement Greenberg (American, 1909-1994), 1984, tempera on wood panel, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Elaine Fried de Kooning (American, 1920-1989), Thomas B. Hess (American, 1920-1978), 1956, oil on board, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
Elaine Fried de Kooning, Harold Rosenberg (American, 1906-1978), oil on canvas, 1956,
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Dealers of Abstract Expressionism:
Henry Schnakenberg (American, 1894-1970),
Betty
Parsons (American, 1900-1982), 1929, oil
on canvas, collection of
Mrs. Henry N. Tifft.
Also see Action Painting, aleatory and aleatoric, expressionism, Expressionism, flat, isms and -ism, and nonobjective art.
https://inform.quest/_art
Copyright © 1996-
