7 Featured ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM Artists

The abstract expressionism It was a pictorial movement that emerged in the United States in the early 1940s, reaching a peak in the early 1950s. This movement arose from the hand of the European surrealists exiled in New York during the Second World War. Thus, Max Ernst, Roberto Matta, Salvador Dalí and André Masson settled in the New York gallery "Art of This Century" and from there they exerted an enormous influence on North American painters, especially on New Yorkers, becoming over the years regular at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you a list of artists of abstract expressionism featured so you can identify the main names of this movement.

Index

1. 5 important characteristics of abstract expressionism
2. Jackson Pollock, one of the most important artists of Abstract Expressionism
3. Clyfford Still, the movement's least known artist
4. Willem de Kooning, one of the great outstanding artists
5. 4 other important abstract expressionist artists

Among the most prominent features of expressionism are:

1. Preference for large formats and oil painting on canvas.
2. Use of abstract motifs, although there are also concessions to the figurative.
3. The color gamut is limited, sometimes being reduced to the use of black and white.
4. They flee from aesthetic conventions, always seeking to show the author's subjectivity and giving free rein to freedom of expression.
5. In his compositions they usually show anguish, drama, conflict and great dynamism.

Along with jazz, rock, film, and television, Abstract Expressionism was another of America's most iconic cultural innovations. The list of abstract expressionist painters it is broad, without there being a firm agreement on who makes up that first generation.

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was one of the first expressionism artists abstract that incorporated one of the most representative artistic techniques of the movement, the dripping or drippingThus he did not use the easel or brushes and let the paint drip or pour it on the canvas placed on the floor.

After the drip, Pollock spread the paint and textured with glass or sand. Another of its most distinctive features is the mixture of pictorial lines and calligraphic signs. Pollock has a very prolific work with some 400 paintings and 500 drawings.

Clyfford Still (1904-1980) is another of the most important artists of Abstract Expressionism, although not well known. A painter who stood out for making color field paintings, being recognized as one of the most talented.

Being less known is a consequence of how little he exhibited his works. Thus, when he died in 1980, Still kept more than 95% of his works unexposed. In 2011, when the Clyffor Still Museum in Denver, most of Still's 3,000 works had never been exhibited.

Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) had a great influence on the american abstract expressionism, since he was fully involved in its development by being one of the directors of the weekly art club and bringing together all the artists to socialize and discuss art, being a place where all the important artists of the moment.

In addition, Kooning devoted himself to gestural painting or action painting, a style in which figures and landscapes are mixed as graffiti. The artist had started his career with a style that synthesized the cubism and abstraction, without abandoning a figurative base that it still maintained in its expressionist phase by choosing the human figure as an essential theme, especially the female figure.

In addition to the three great names mentioned, here we are going to discover other artists that are also worth knowing. They are as follows:

Janet Sobel, pioneer of abstract expressionism

But the pioneer within the group was Janet Sobel (1893 - 1968), an influential and relevant figure in the abstract expressionism and in one of its greatest figures, Jackson Pollock and in the art critic Clement Greenberg. And is that Janet was the pioneer in the use of the drip technique, a technique later popularized and made famous by Pollock.

Robert Motherwell, the intellectual voice of abstract expressionism

Robert Motherwell (1915 –1991) is the youngest Abstract Expressionism of what is known as New York School, the first generation of artists of the movement. Motherwell was a writer, speaker and with extensive knowledge of art history. With a novel aesthetic style, she soon became a relevant figure alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning.

Mark Rothko, one of the greatest representatives of abstraction

Rothko (1903-1970) was a Latvian-born painter and printmaker, spending most of his life in the United States. He was considered a member of Abstract Expressionism, although he always refused to be part of a concrete movement considering that it was alienating. Rothko tried to express the most basic universal emotions through color field painting and abandoning all figurative reference.

Franz Kline, an artist with a unique visual language

Franz Kline (1910 -1962) is another of the outstanding artists of Abstract Expressionism, his energetic technique with strong lines and in which abstract figures abound. He was also characterized by the use of oversized brushes and common household paint, and by drawing inspiration from tunnels, buildings, tunnels, and industrial buildings. His compositions were always large.

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• Anfam, David (2017). Abstract expressionism, Turner
• Hess, Barbara (2008). Abstract expressionism, Taschen