Abstract Expressionism - Leith Academyleith.edin.sch.uk/arts/resources/pdf/er/Abstract Expressionism...

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An American art movement born in the early 1940’s in New York - post World War II The group were dissatisfied with the American art which came out of the Great Depression 1930’s 1929 - Museum of Modern Art opened in New York. Suddenly artists could see the work of the European Modernists The first American art movement to achieve international influence Abstract Expressionism

Transcript of Abstract Expressionism - Leith Academyleith.edin.sch.uk/arts/resources/pdf/er/Abstract Expressionism...

Page 1: Abstract Expressionism - Leith Academyleith.edin.sch.uk/arts/resources/pdf/er/Abstract Expressionism and... · 3 The two groups within Abstract Expressionism, influenced by Surrealism

An American art movement born in the early 1940’s

in New York - post World War II

The group were dissatisfied with the American art

which came out of the Great Depression 1930’s

1929 - Museum of Modern Art opened in New York.

Suddenly artists could see the work of the European

Modernists

The first American art movement to achieve

international influence

Abstract Expressionism

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The Style

• Automatic, spontaneous and subconscious creations

taken from the principles of the Surrealists

• The artists had varying styles which fall into two

main categories - Gestural painting and Colourfield

painting

• Some works were full of dynamic energy, some were

static yet humming with electricity and some were

violent and grotesque

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The two groups within Abstract Expressionism,

influenced by Surrealism and Cubism:

Colour Field Painters

- worked with simple, unified blocks of colour.

• Mark Rothko

• Barnett Newman

• Clyfford Still

Gestural Painters

- used Surrealist techniques of automatic art.

• Jackson Pollock

• Willem de Kooning

• Hans Hofmann

• Franz Kline

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Four Darks in Red, 1958

Mark RothkoRussian/ American painter 1903-70

Untitled, 1944

Untitled, 1946/7

No.8, 1952

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Number 5,1948

Jackson Pollock - 1912-1956

The She-Wolf, 1943

“Any attempt on my part to say

something about it, to attempt

explanation of the inexplicable, could

only destroy it"

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Franz Kline(1910-1962)

Chief

Franz Kline, 1950

The title refers to a train which passed through his hometown.

Many of his titles suggest bridges, railroad tracks, and the

machinery of America, even though they are abstract in design.

He used cheap household materials expressing Americas interest

in industry and consumerism

“spontaneity is practiced!”

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Excavation, 1950

Willem de Kooning 1904-1997 - Dutch American

Known for his reworking, his pieces still feel unfinished and

full of pent up energy and anger

Seated Woman, 1940

Woman V, 1952-53

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Although predominantly painters, Abstract Expressionism also

attracted sculptors

Instead of casting metal David Smith would weld his

sculptures together like a painter applying paint to a canvas

David Smith - 1906-65

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Hudson River Landscape,

1951

Head as still life

1940

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• A movement closely associated with New York in the from the

mid 1950’s-70’s

• An International art movement

• Pop art reintroduced identifiable imagery taken from popular

culture

• Celebration of commonplace objects, people and everyday life

• Sought to elevate popular culture to the level of Fine Art

• Sought to rid art of its culture of hierarchy

Pop Art

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Pop Artists

• Andy Warhol - American - Painter, printmaker, photographer

• Roy Lichtenstein - American - Painter

• Claes Oldenburgh - Swedish /American - Sculptor

• Jasper Johns - American - Painter

• James Rosenquist - American - Painter

• Eduardo Paolozzi - Scottish - Sculptor, printmaker, multi-media

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Eduardo Paolozzi -1924-05

Bash, Screenprint, 1971

I was a rich man’s plaything

Collage, 1947

The MS of Montecarlo

bronze, 2005

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Andy Warhol - 1928-87

• Trained as a magazine illustrator

• Used techniques from magazine illustration to

create screenprint collages

• Managed the 1960’s rock band - The Velvet

Underground

• His studio was called - The Factory

• Warhol attracted a Bohemian following who

among other things worked on his Factory films

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Marilyn Diptych, Screenprint painting, 1962

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“What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the

richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be

watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-

Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too. A

Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one

the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes

are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you

know it” - Andy Warhol

Coca-cola

Screenprint

1962

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Roy Lichtenstein - 1927-93

• Hard edged painting style made up of dots replicating the

appearance of commercial printing

• Humorous and tongue in cheek

• Critics challenged the works originality

• He did alter his compositions from the original sources

• There is argument over whether he wanted to produce aesthetically

please compositions or to shock with the garish impact of popular

culture

Whaam!, 1963

Drowning Girl, 1963

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French Fries and

Ketchup

Vinyl and kapok fibres on

wood base

1963

Oldenburg uses images and objects from the everyday world,

especially small and usually unnoticeable ones. One of the goals

of Pop Art was, to make the ordinary extraordinary.

Claes Oldenburgh - 1929 -

Spoonbridge and cherry

1988

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

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American Supermarket, 1964

Food in art has been a long tradition in

the western world. Pop Art put a

modern twist on it