Abstract Expressionism Flashcards

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Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52

First variety of AbEx-attempts to record artist’s gestures-uses Surrealist psychic automatism- then goes back to reveal with gestural abstraction

attempt to revesal universally recognizable imagery from collective unconscious (Jung)

what is woman? pendulous breasts=fecundity/fertility (Woman of Willendorf); Gorgon-like face- Greek vase painting- woman as threatening

references 50s grimacing smile ads for Camel cigarettes, bra/heels= 40s pin-up girls

repainted 200x in 2 years- trying to remove conscious control; brushstrokes similar to German Expressionists- expressing artist’s emotions

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Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950

Form of AbEx- gestural abstraction- mature style-captures movement of whole body, pure psychic automatism, communication of collective unconscious, completely non-objective- no outside references

“Action Painting”- buckets of house paint dripped on floor, capturing rhythms of his body as dances around

8’9”X17’3”- horizontal canvas- beginning and end is arbitrary- 3 layers- black=ground plane, light brown/taupe, then gray/white- creates depth

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Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952

Chromatic Abstraction- large chromatic planes of color

title suggests landscape

gestural abstractions with graphite, outline large areas of color formed by pouring paint onto unprimed canvas

primary focus not violent activity of artist’s movements (Pollock) but large, flat areas of color/hue, like watercolor

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Mark Rothko, Lavender and Mulberry, 1959

uses color as transcendent vehicle for contemplative moods w/ rectangular shapes, vertical format

Chromatic Abstraction: Color Field Painting

title is color themselves; shapes as “ideas” (supernatural/sublime), unmediated by recognizable subject; pure color is conveyor of meaning/emotion

content like Caspar David Freidrich’s Monk By the Sea (1809-10); contemplate vastness of nature/God

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