Abstract expressionism

Abstract Expressionism is a term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American artists in the 1940s and 1950s. These works are often characterised by gestural brushstrokes or mark-making, large scale, and an impression of spontaneity and direct emotional expression. The movement was the first to make New York, rather than Paris, the centre of the postwar art world. Two main tendencies are distinguished within it. The first is action painting, represented by Jackson Pollock, who poured and dripped paint onto canvas spread on the floor, and Willem de Kooning with his energetic strokes. The second is colour field painting by Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, in which large areas of colour create a meditative, almost sacred effect. The movement was shaped by Surrealism, the idea of automatism and the experience of European émigrés. Abstract Expressionism emphasised the process of creation, the individual gesture and psychological depth, becoming decisive for the development of postwar art.