Abstract Expressionism

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A Visual History of the Visual Arts Part 2: From Abstract Art to Conceptual Art Piero Scaruffi www.scaruffi.com 1 The Space Age MOMA Flowchart for “Cubism and Abstract Art” (1936) 2 The Space Age • Painting – Abstract Expressionism • The center of mass of modernism shifts from Paris to New York • New York imports cubism (abstraction) and surrealism (automatism), which create the dialectic between the conscious (geometric shapes) and unconscious (spontaneous expression) • Alienation of humans from the technological world causes angst (while European abstract painters marvel and rejoice) • Little abstract expressionism in sculpture 3 The Space Age • Painting – Abstract Expressionism/Action Painting • Hans Hofmann (1880, Germany) • Arshile Gorky (1905, Armenia) • Wilhelm de Kooning (1904, Holland) • Jackson Pollock (1912, USA) • Adolph Gottlieb (1903, USA) • Robert Motherwell (1915, USA) • Joan Mitchell (1926, USA) 4 The Space Age • Abstract Expressionism – Arshile Gorky • Automatism but grounded in autobiography 5 “Garden in Sochi” series (1940-41) The Space Age • Abstract Expressionism – Jackson Pollock • The subconscious • Jung’s influence “Male and Female” (1942) 6 “Lavender Mist” (1950) The Space Age • Abstract Expressionism – Jackson Pollock • Action painting • Holistic • Non-referential “Autumn Rhythm” (1950) 7 “Blue Poles” (1952) The Space Age • Abstract Expressionism – Wilhelm de Kooning • More cubist than surrealist “Attic” (1949) 8 “Excavation” (1950) The Space Age • Abstract Expressionism – Wilhelm de Kooning • And even expressionist “Woman I” (1952) “Woman V” (1953) 9 The Space Age • Abstract Expressionism/ Europe (Art Informel) – Reaction to cubism – Tachisme in France (1951) – COBRA (1948): Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br), Amsterdam (A) – Gutai in Japan (1954) 10 Pierre Soulages (1919) Georges Mathieu (1921) The Space Age • Abstract Expressionism/ Europe (Art Informel) – Shozo Shimamoto (1928, Japan) throws bottles of paint at canvases – Kazuo Shiraga (1924, Japan) paints with his feet – Yves Klein (1928, France) uses women's nude bodies as paintbrushes for his "anthropometries" – Shigeko Kubota (1937, Japan) squats over a canvas to create "Vagina Painting" (1965) Kazuo Shiraga: “Dynamic of Red” (1969) 11 This is a chapter in piero scaruffi’s “A Visual History of the Visual Arts”: http://www.scaruffi.com/art/history .

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