Abstract Expressionism Flashcards
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 reveal 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
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
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
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 Friedrich’s Monk By the Sea (1809-10); contemplate vastness of nature/God
