Preliminary Syllabus Instructor: Kevin Muller Course title: Abstract Expressionism and the Reinvention of American Art

Notes from the instructor:

Week One: Session one will set the stage for the development of Abstract Expressionism. We will focus primarily on the artistic climate in New York City, attending to the influence of European artists fleeing fascism in Europe, the perception of then contemporary American art among younger artists, and the critical discourse circulating in the art press. We will also touch on issues related to the Depression and WWII including, most notably, the horror associated with the atomic bomb.

Week Two: This week we focus on those artists identified as “Action Painters.” As the label suggests, these artists pursued a dynamic and gestural approach to putting paint on canvas. The best known among these artists was Jackson Pollock, and we will devote considerable class time to understanding his technique and objectives. We will also look at work by Franz Kline and William De Kooning, but also lesser-known artists like Jack Tworkov.

Week Three: Today we turn to those artists identified as “Color-Field Painters.” Whereas the Action Painters drew on the connotative power of line, these artists were more interested in the effective nature of color. We will examine the work of Mark Rothko, Clifford Still, and Barnett Newman in light of long-standing assumptions about color in Western culture. We will also compare the different viewing experiences prompted by Action Painting and Color Field Painting.

Week Four: The Abstract Expressionists were characteristically white male painters. This week we examine those artists who were not necessarily white, nor male, nor painters. In particular, the art and careers of Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, David Smith, and Norman Lewis will be examined so we can see how each used his or her art to negotiate artistic and social conventions.

Week Five: While Abstract Expressionism was primarily associated with New York City, a significant branch of the movement developed here in the Bay Area. We will turn our attention toward local painters like Hassel Smith, Edward Corbett, James Budd Dixon, and Richard Diebenkorn. We will explore whether the Bay Area’s cultural climate or unique geography or other factors entirely enabled these artists to create works that were significantly different than those made by their New York City peers.

Week Six: For our last class, we consider how the Abstract Expressionist aesthetic was employed by a younger generation of artists to move American art in different directions. Robert Rauschenberg, for example, combined the movement’s gestures and drips with found imagery in order to evoke urban life. Allan Kaprow focused on Pollock’s technique, rather then his finished paintings, as the basis for a radically new genre called Performance Art. Finally, we will address Abstract Expressionism’s lasting cultural legacy.