Design Blog Journal : ART MOVEMENT

MY KIND OF ART - ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time

Canticle, casein on paper by Mark Tobey, 1954

My favourite out of all as it's obvious I really like the galaxy.

Breaking away from accepted conventions in both technique and subject matter, the artists made monumentally scaled works that stood as reflections of their individual psyches—and in doing so, attempted to tap into universal inner sources. These artists valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process. Their work resists stylistic categorization, but it can be clustered around two basic inclinations: an emphasis on dynamic, energetic gesture, in contrast to a reflective, cerebral focus on more open fields of color. In either case, the imagery was primarily abstract. Even when depicting images based on visual realities, the Abstract Expressionists favored a highly abstracted mode.

Abstract Expressionism a.k.a. Action Painting or Color Field Painting exploded onto the art scene after World War II with its characteristic messiness and extremely energetic applications of paint. To the contemporary audience, the whole enterprise seemed like youthful antagonism--hardly worthy of the name "art."

Abstract Expressionism is also referred to as Gestural Abstraction , because its brush stokes revealed the artist's process. This process is the subject of the art itself.

Although at first glance it seems like a Kindergarten work . However, these artists cultivate the interplay of skill and unplanned occurrences to determine the painting's final outcome.

Mark Tobey (1890-1976) drew his painted marks, as if he were inventing an unintelligible alphabet for an exotic language that no one knew or would ever bother to learn. His work was based on his study of Chinese calligraphy and brush painting, as well as Buddhism.

The key to understanding Abstract Expressionism is to understand the concept of "deep" in 1950s slang. "Deep" meant not decorative, not facile and not insincere. Abstract Expressionists strove to uncover their most personal feelings directly through making art. Also, they are able to achieve some transformation or personal redemption.

How Long Has Abstract Expressionism Been a Movement?

Abstract Expressionism evolved through the work of each individual artist. Generally speaking, each artist arrived at this free-wheeling style by the end of the 1940s and continued in the same manner to the end of his or her life. The style has remained alive well into the current century through its youngest practitioners.

What Are the Key Characteristics of Abstract Expressionism?

· Unconventional application of paint, usually without a recognizable subject that tends toward amorphous shapes in brilliant colours.

· Dripping, smearing, slathering, and flinging lots of paint on to the canvas.

· Sometimes gestural "writing" in a loosely calligraphic manner.

· In the case of Color Field artists: carefully filling the picture plane with zones of color that create tension between the shapes and hues.

Gestural Abstraction emphasizes the process of making art, often through a variety of techniques that include dripping, dabbing, smearing, and even flinging paint on to the surface of the canvas. These energetic techniques depend on broad actions directed by the artist's sense of control interacting with chance or random occurrences. For this reason, Gestural Abstraction is better known as Action Painting. The artists and the various techniques are associated with the movement Abstract Expressionism and The New York School of the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.