Abstract Expressionism Beginnings and Stylistic Influences
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“By the early 1950s, the idea of a general movement named Abstract Expressionism was more a critics’ convenience than anything else. The styles of the New York artists were too divergent. On the one hand there were painters whose work was mainly based on gestural drawing [Willem de Kooning & Jackson Pollock]… on the other hand, there were those whose relied on large fields
Barnett Newman, Eve (1950)
Willem de Kooning, Woman VI (1953)
of colour to produce solemn and elevated effects [Mark Rothko & Barnett Newman]…”
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Abstract Expressionism is thus a title of convenience
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it describes a group of young US artists who gathered in New York after WW2
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some prefer the name ‘The New York School’
Willem de Kooning Jackson Pollock Barnett Newman Mark Rothko 3
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this grouping helped identify the diverse artists, especially within the dealer/critic system
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numbers conveyed legitimacy
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collectors and dealers like Peggy Guggenheim were vital to the success of the New York artists The Surrealism Gallery in Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century Gallery, New York
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Peggy Guggenheim on her balcony in Paris, with Brancusi’s Maiastra, in 1940.
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Abstract Expressionism represents an American rather than a European avantgarde
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countered a sense of cultural inferiority to Europe before WW2 — e.g. large expatriate community of Americans in Paris (Hemingway, Man Ray, the Steins, Peggy Guggenheim)
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American awareness of European modernism was stimulated by the 1913 Armory Show in New York
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it featured 1,300 American and European works, including 14 Cézannes, 18 Van Goghs, 8 Picassos (all Analytical Cubism), and 4 Marcel Duchamps (including Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2)
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The American artists exhibiting here consider the exhibition as of equal importance for themselves as for the public.The less they find their work showing signs of development indicated in the Europeans, the more reason they will have to consider whether or not painters or sculptors here have fallen behind through escaping the incidence through distance, and for other reasons, of the forces that have manifested themselves on the other side of the Atlantic.
—from the foreward to the catalogue of the 1913 Armory Show
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European artists in exile, New York, 1942
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Cubism and Surrealism were regarded in the 1930s and 1940s as the major developments of C20th art
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understanding of Cubism was assisted by the Armory Show and later exhibitions at MOMA
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awareness of Surrealism was helped by large expatriate community of artists living in New York between the wars…
André Breton Yves Tanguy (Surrealism) (Surrealism)
Fernand Léger (Cubism)
Robert Matta Piet Mondrian Max Ernst (Surrealism) (Abstraction) (Surrealism) 8
The influx into New York of European artists, chiefly the Surrealists, at the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1939 ranks in importance second only to the Armory Show itself in the history of American art‌ Although the Surrealists took little part in the art life of New York and did relatively little work themselves, the impact of their presence as the chief representatives of the last great European movement exerted a strong influence on New York artists.
—Herschel B Chipp, Theories of Modern Art
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Both Cubism and Surrealism were examples of the European avant-garde. The artists of the growing New York School actively pursued the creation of an American avant-garde.
Winslow Homer, Song of the Lark (1876)
Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930)
In so doing, they stood in opposition to the prevailing regionalism of American painting‌
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Georges Braque, Bach (1912)
René Magritte, The Banquet (1958)
Cubism and Surrealism may appear to be mutually exclusive:
Concerned with formal considerations: analytical and visual.
Concerned with literary and/or theatrical ideas/activities: essentially anti-visual.
Concerned with relationships between the 3D world and its illusory depiction on a 2D plane surface.
Concerned with the ‘liberation of the spirit’; a ‘revolution of consciousness’.
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The appeal of both movements to the New York painters was‌
CUBISM
SURREALISM
Its importance as a leading European avant-garde.
Its importance as a leading European avant-garde.
Its abstraction.
Its radicalism (in opposition to accepted academic traditions). Encouraged younger US artists in the face of post-Depression regionalism in art.
Its flatness, or shallow depth: (acceptance of the two-dimensionality of the picture plane).
The strain of fantasy, an element rare in the traditions of American painting yet thriving in its literature.
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the introspection of regionalism was heightened by the effects of the Great Depression
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these were reflected in US political isolationism
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this was countered by the internationalists, who looked to New York and beyond — across the Atlantic to Europe Walker Evans, cotton farmers in Alabama, 1941
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The emergence of a vigorous and independent school of painting in New York followed closely on the emergence of the United States at the end of the war as an influential cultural as well as political and economic world power. For the first time an artistic movement originating in America was recognised on the international scene as one of the significant epochs in the development of contemporary art.
—Herschel B Chipp, Theories of Modern Art View of the exhibition ‘Jackson Pollock 1912-56’ at the Kunsthalle in Basle, 1958
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The first half of the century has belonged to Paris, but the second will be claimed by New York.
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Sculptor Philip Pavia, New Year’s Eve, 1949
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Expressionism is the search for expressiveness of style by means of exaggerations and distortions of line and colour. This sense of emotional force is in general found in German or Nordic art, an early example being Grünewald… although in the modern movement it springs from van Gogh
Edvard Munch, The Scream (1893)
Mathis Grünewald, Crucifixion (detail of the Isenheim Altarpiece (c. 1515)
and early twentieth-century artists such as the Norwegian Edvard Munch…
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CUBISM
SURREALISM
Conscious and analytical = formal.
Exploration of the unconscious through automatist procedures = spontaneous.
Tends to the abstract in hermetic Analytical Cubism.
Tends to the abstract because it is not controlled.
The conscious: straight lines, ‘designed’ shapes, abstract language.
The unconscious: soft lines, obscured biomorphic shapes, automatism.
Georges Braque, Bach (1912)
André Masson, Battle of Fishes (1926)
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Representative Artists Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko & Newman
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Arshile Gorky (1904-48)
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an Armenian who emigrated to USA in 1920 — a precursor to Abstract Expressionism
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worked in both Cubist and Surrealist styles
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developed a style based on a new painterliness “freed from a depicting function” Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock’s Comb (1944)
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Arshile Gorky (1904-48)
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influence of Picasso’s Guernica (1937) — “Picasso was God”
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epitomizes the transition from Europe to America
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combined automatist techniques of spontaneity with an interest in heroic or epic subjects Pablo Picasso, Guernica (1937)
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Jackson Pollock (1912-56)
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reconciled the automatist, ‘exploratory’ techniques of Mirò and Masson with the epic subject matter of Mexican mural painting
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Joan Mirò was a Surrealist painter whose automatist technique and use of abstract biomorphic shapes influenced the US artists Joan Mirò, Painting (1933)
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typical of his work of the early 1940s
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characterized by archetypal, aggressive, animal, sexual, mythic imagery
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sources are to be found in ceremonial, commemorative bas-reliefs of ancient civilizations…
Maya relief from Piedras Negras, Guatemala (late C18th)
Guardians of the Secret (1943)
Osiris in the Cedar Coffin Drawing after an ancient Egyptian relief at Dendera
Jackson Pollock
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Jackson Pollock Guardians of the Secret (1943)
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influence of Jungian* philosophy: Snakes and gods are guardians of the treasure… the sacred cave in the temple at Cos consisted of a rectangular pit covered by a stone slab with a square hole in it.
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the carefully guarded secret is interpreted by Jung as being the subconscious
*Carl Jung (1875 -1961): Swiss founder of analytic psychology. The quotation is from his discussion of the Hiawatha myth. 25
Jackson Pollock Guardians of the Secret (1943)
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two sentinels stand guard on either side: they are totemic figures like those found in Egyptian, Mayan or North American Indian cultures
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the central rectangle is the most commanding and mysterious part of the picture and it foretells future developments in Pollock’s art
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it appears iconographic, rune-like
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Jackson Pollock Mural (1943)
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Jackson Pollock Mural (1943)
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commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim for her home
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it’s vast — 2.5 x 6 metres
Peggy Guggenheim with Jackson Pollock in front of Mural.
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Jackson Pollock Mural (1943)
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ambiguity of figures to ground
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awareness of the physical act of painting: forms match the scale of a human body
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Jackson Pollock Mural (1943)
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calligraphic rendering of figures: but now figures as calligraphy, not by calligraphy
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Jackson Pollock Eyes in the Heat (1946)
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typical of the ‘all-over’ paintings of 1946: flat, with no illusion of depth
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overpowers the imagery developed in the earlier, less spontaneous stages
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expressive process of painting does not lead to a depiction of an intended form but physically expresses the significance of the form
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Jackson Pollock Eyes in the Heat (1946)
Painting is not the means to the depiction of form, but is the physical expression of the significance of that form.
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Jackson Pollock
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from 1946 Pollock worked on his ‘allover’ and ‘drip’ paintings
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lessening of hermetic symbolic imagery: more automatist and spontaneous
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process is paramount, even if it is automatist: “I want to express my feelings rather than to illustrate” (Pollock)
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Jackson Pollock
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process is expressive and gestural: Pollock’s physical violence of painting
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new techniques: use of sticks, hardened brushes, enamel house paint, metallic paint, and unstretched canvases on floor
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practical solutions to the need for more room in which to paint and gestural process
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Jackson Pollock
My painting does not come from the easel. I hardly ever stretch my canvas before painting. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or on the floor. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since in this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting… When I am in the painting I am not aware of what I am doing. It is only after a getacquainted period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes… because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is a pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well. —quoted in John Golding, Paths to the Absolute
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Jackson Pollock Lavender Mist (1950)
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from 1947, his ‘dripped’ or ‘poured’ technique allowed (or required) an almost total immersion in the process of painting
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Pollock assumes an almost mystical view of painting as a rite or act of magic
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he saw his breakthrough into abstraction as a form of salvation
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Jackson Pollock Lavender Mist (1950)
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his earlier abstractions had started with allusions to the human figure, albeit buried beneath the dense skeins of paint
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after 1948, these references are abandoned altogether as he moves to a more complete abstraction
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these later abstractions invite analogies with the rhythms and forces of nature
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Jackson Pollock The Deep (1953)
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a partial return to the process of cancellation that had featured in works like Guardians of the Secret
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the initial almost monochromatic painting in sooty blues and blacks is covered by white, working from the edges in
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establishes a spatial ambiguity: the darker area is behind the lighter, but is also the central abstract imagery
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Thus in the work of Jackson Pollock we see the…
…automatist, spontaneous processes and mythic subjects of Surrealism
Guardians of the Secret (1943)
The Deep (1953)
Lavender Mist (1950)
…shallow, compressed space of Cubism
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Willem de Kooning (1904-97)
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Dutch, emigrated to USA in 1926
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his style epitomizes the expressionist component of Abstract Expressionism
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his most abstract works were painted between 1946 and 1950
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celebrated for his Woman series of the early 1950s Willem and Elaine de Kooning, 1950
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Willem de Kooning Excavation (1950)
Cubist influences:
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forms are derived from letters, numerals and collage elements
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“heads” are reminiscent of Picasso’s Guernica
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abstraction and surface orientation
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Willem de Kooning Excavation (1950)
Surrealist influences:
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semi-automatist techniques
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amorphous shapes that suggest human forms (similar to Masson)
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Willem de Kooning Excavation (1950)
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“Excavation resists inventory” — shapes assume figural identity but remain elusive
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it’s vastness and complexity encourage careful investigation and discovery (like an archæological site — excavation)
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figural elements: the original ‘visual cue’ may have been a scene of five women in a 1949 Italian film called Bitter Rice…
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Willem de Kooning Woman I (1950-52)
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de Kooning worked on Woman I for two years, continually repainting the canvas
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his wife estimated he had painted, then scraped away, 200 individual images before completion
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Woman I created a major controversy: critics thought he had lost direction — did de Kooning want to be figurative or abstract?
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Willem de Kooning Woman I (1950-52)
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essentially figurative subjects — the women — loom out of the abstract and expressionistically painted background
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assume a totemic, mythic quality — like a pin-up (Marilyn Monroe)
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de Kooning employed a vigorous, almost violent gestural style — “De Kooning, attacking the canvas, attacked himself”…
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Willem de Kooning Woman I (1950-52)
Cubist influences are subverted by the palpability of the forms (e.g. the ‘great globular breasts’)
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Surrealist influences remain in the forceful expression of sexuality
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primitive and atavistic — aspects of both Cubism and Surrealism, respectively — reminiscent of primitive votive figures…
Venus of Lauselle (c. 20,000-18000 BC)
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Willem de Kooning Easter Monday (1956)
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signals a return to total abstraction
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the title is not descriptive: it identifies the time de Kooning worked on it (completed Easter Monday, 1956)
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this approach to titling paintings is adopted by others of the Abstract Expressionists — solves the problem of titling non-figurative work
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Willem de Kooning
Easter Monday is one of the most ambitious and noisy paintings produced during the height of Abstract Expressionism. The amplitude of the work, its range of brushwork, its abundance of planes and spatial congestion, its muscularity and toughness, and the complex substantiality of its surfaces add up to a phenomenal experience that refuses to fade away.
—Harry F. Gaugh, De Kooning
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Willem de Kooning Easter Monday (1956)
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the scope and content are epic
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there is an irritated energy: the paintings of this period are loud and brash
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they condense the noise and energy of New York, not its appearance
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frenzied, gestural painting is combined with collage elements… Detail of collage elements in Easter Monday
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Both Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning represent one aspect of Abstract Expresssionism — their work is energetic and gestural. The other aspect, typified by Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, is more purely abstract and
Barnett Newman, Eve (1950)
Willem de Kooning, Woman VI (1953)
tranquil, even meditative‌
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Mark Rothko Vessels of Magic (1946)
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early works show influence of Max Ernst (Surrealist) and Paul Klee
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fragile forms are arranged in a rectilinear composition (Cubist influence)
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small scale; gouache on paper
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suggestion of automatist creation
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Mark Rothko Multiform (1948)
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larger scale and painted in oils
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shapes and colour no longer reference natural forms — pure abstraction
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reductive: recognizable imagery has been suppressed — from now, Rothko’s art is concerned with enlarging and simplifying the forms
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Mark Rothko
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Joan Mirò and Arshile Gorky were important influences
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both were great colourists
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both used nebulous or amorphous shapes whose blurred outlines were surrounded by a nimbus of a paler or darker colour that created a shimmering luminosity Arshile Gorky, JoanThe Mirò, LiverPainting is the Cock’s (1933)Comb (1944)
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Mark Rothko
Ochre and Red on Red (1954)
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painted large scale so that the viewer could be a part of the painting — “I want to be very intimate and human”
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the vast scale reflects the overwhelming vastness of the American landscape
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there is a ‘theological’ dimension (both Rothko and Newman were Jewish)
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Mark Rothko
Ochre and Red on Red (1954)
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concerned with qualities of light
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the areas of colour (which have an emotive power) are motionless but have a vast sense of depth
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the colours have an emotive power and suggest a spiritual content
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completely frontal pictorial structure
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Both Rothko and Newman worked on an implied absorption of the spectator by the painting — the solitary viewer being taken into the void of the vast colour field. This represents the heroic/epic assertion of the painting over the viewer in solitude.
Barnett Newman, Eve (1950)
Mark Rothko, Ochre and Red on Red (1956)
Rothko preferred to exhibit his paintings on their own, creating an almost spiritual presence.
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Mark Rothko
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in May 2007, Rothko’s White Centre (Yellow, Pink, Lavender on Rose), painted in 1950, fetched US$72.8 million
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this is the highest price at auction for a contemporary painting
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the most expensive contemporary painting ever sold is Jackson Pollock's No. 5, 1948, which sold in a private sale for $US140 million
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Barnett Newman
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didn’t produce his paintings until he was in his mid-40s
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his works are coolly intellectual, grounded in a knowledge of Nietzsche
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influence of traditions of Jewish mysticism Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock and Tony Smith at the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York (1951)
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Barnett Newman Eve (1950)
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from the early 1950s “scale equals feeling” — Newman pushes scale to its limits (canvasses up to 2.75m x 6m)
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raises issue of the sublime in art — questions the relationship between man and his environment
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these are ‘human scale’ paintings
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Barnett Newman Adam (1951-52)
the human-scale paintings are extreme in
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their monumental scale
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their extreme non-figurativeness
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their expressive and individual use of colour
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their denial of depth
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Barnett Newman
“In making the distinction between the subject of a work and the objects in the work, [Meyer Shapiro] makes a remarkable distinction that should help people understand that even though my painting as it developed did not have any of those objects, it did not necessarily mean therefore that there was no subject there.�
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Barnett Newman Adam (1951-52)
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his one motif is the ‘zip’, the line that divides the canvas vertically
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it echoes the edges at either end of the canvas rather than modulating relationships of the various parts of the canvas
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the zip assumes a transcendental quality of heroic or epic significance
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Barnett Newman
Newman made his division as straight as a column or the crack between two doors; and whatever its origins, this minimal form came to be invested with powers one might hesitate to attribute to Paradise Lost or Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It was, Harold Rosenberg wrote, “recognized by Newman as his Sign; it stood for him as his transcendental self… the divided rectangle took on the multiplicity of an actual existence — and a heroic one”. Other critics compared the zip to God’s primal act of creation, to the division of light from darkness, to the figure of Adam, and to passages in the Kabbalah. —Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New
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