World War II was in 1938-1945: so this period of time would have been heavily influenced by that, with a lot of modernist artist, writers and poets from Europe fleeing to the US.
Many who didn't flee perished. Among the artists who arrived in New York during the war were; Hans Namuth, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Roberto Matta.
Pablo Picasso was one who chose to remain in France and he luckily survived. Because of this war, New York replaced Paris as the new center of the art world...
In the US a new generation of American artists began to emerge and to dominate the world stage, they were to be the abstract expressionists.
Abstract Expressionism (which had subcategroies- 2 of them being)...
-action painting
- colorfield
Abstract expressionism has a reputation of being rebellious, anarchic and highly personal. In practice, the term is applied to any number of artists (who generally worked in New York) who had quite different styles, and is often applied to work which is not especially abstract nor expressionist.
Picasso: Le Chapeau a fleurs, 1941This work 'Le Chapeau a fleurs' was made by Picasso during the WW2 period. Picasso chose to remain in France.
The colour used in this work is rather dark, and gory, I would wonder if this is related to the fact that there was a horrific war going on around him. The saying 'Le Chapeau a fleurs' translates to 'The hat with flowers'...He was part of the expressionist movement. we can see this work is abstract in the way it is potrayed.
Only later, after Picasso’s death, when the rest of the art world had moved on from abstract expressionism, did the art community come to see that Picasso had already discovered neo-expressionism and was, as so often before, ahead of his time.
'NUMBER 5', 1948 BY JACKSON POLLOCKLike Picasso, Pollock redefined what it was to produce art.
Pollock Challenge the traditional western way of using 'easel and brush'. He moved away from the use of hand and wrist and started using his whole body to paint.
"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting…I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter add” -- Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956
He came to be one the founders of a style called 'Action Painting'. This style ran until the early 1960's. It runs hand in hand with abstract expressionism.
Pollock's energetic action paintings, with their "busy" feel, are different technically and aesthetically.
Artists realized that Jackson Pollock's process (the placing of unstretched raw canvas on the floor where it could be attacked from all four sides using art and industrial materials; linear fields of paint dripped and thrown; drawing, staining, brushing; images and often non-images) blasted the art-making process beyond any prior boundary.
In 1956, Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" as a result of his unique painting style.
Jackson Pollock was taught under Benton. (Benton's work 'crash' shown on the left)... It is often said that Benton's traditional teachings gave him something to rebel against.
What Pollock did was liberating to other artists of his era, he was the beginning of a radical legacy to come.
Color field painting also emerged in NY during the 40’s and 50’s.
Rothko is an example of this: He would paint large flat fields of flat solid color onto the canvas; creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane.
This movement places less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes and action in favour of an emphasis on 'form and process'.
No. 3/No. 13 1949, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art.
Very large-scale designs were used in order to overwhelm the viewer, or, in Rothko’s words, to make the viewer feel "enveloped within" the painting.
Rothko denied any connection to Abstract Expressionism or any other Art Movement.
Rothko spoke clearly about his paintings in 1956: "I am not an abstractionist ... I am not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. ... I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on — and the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures show that I communicate those basic human emotions. ... The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!". All I can say is, how strange?!....
The Color Field painters sought to rid their art of 'superfluous rhetoric'... Superfluos meaning more than is needed, desired, required, or appropriate... and Rhetoric meaning ''speech or discourse that pretends to significance but lacks true meaning''...
Interesting...
7 comments:
I agree that Picasso didn't get recognized for his Neo-Expressionism artworks until after his death. There isn’t much information linking him to Neo-Expressionism movement. Is it because Picasso after the Cubism movement changed his style and as a result his works moved into more realism context?
I don’t really like this painting by Picasso because of the unrealism and color it has. The colors are very dull and dark. Artwork makes me feel like a cloudy and death.
Jackson Pollock work "No.5 1948" is a very large abstract painting and is the reason why I hate it. Abstract painting isn't the reason why I love art; it’s the realism and detail work of the renaissance artists. Pollock work makes me feel confused and daze; Lines of colors are splattered onto the canvas and overlapping each other. There’s no point of focus and no realism but random lines all over the canvas.
I don’t understand why Rothko denies being an abstract expressionist when his paintings clearly indicate they are. His artwork "No.5,1948" is a boring painting in my opinion. Reason behind my feeling is that I thought it was a window but he explained at Betty Parsons Gallery where he first exhibited this painting. He quoted "the rectangles sometimes seem barely to coalesce out of the ground, concentrations of its substance. The green bar in "Magenta, Black, Green on Orange", on the other hand, appears to vibrate against the orange around it, creating an optical flicker"
So his idea behind this work was the colors? This is the reason why i don't like abstract art because they focus too much on the color, density and so fourth, when they should actually paint something real or have some realism viewpoint to it like The renaissance masters.
Also during the 1940's, filming industry Walt Disney introduced studios released more theatrical animated movies in the 1940's and became very renown studio after the success of Cinderella in 1951.
In sport Joe Louis was heavyweight boxing Champion and had a title reign from 1937- 1949. A record 25 successful title defend and regarded by many as the Greatest Boxer of All time.
In India, Mahatma Gandhi, world-renowned leader of the Indian Independence movement was assassinated on the 30th of January 1948.
Another Artist who was around this time was surrealist artist Salvador Dali, his painting "Christ of Saint John of the Cross"1951 was influence by a dream. He explains and quoted "I had a 'cosmic dream' in which I saw this image in color and which in my dream represented the 'nucleus of the atom.' This nucleus later took on a metaphysical sense; I considered it 'the very unity of the universe,' the Christ!" I thought the painting is influence from the renaissance artist with its religious context but sticking to his surrealism style with the crucifix Christ placed in the sky. The viewpoint the crucifix is presented is astonishing; I make me think about Christ and take me back to the bible stories. Christ depiction is the dominant image in Dali painting where he shines light on the Crucifix Christ body and Cross. The painting itself is very dark with the clouds and Christ in light colors giving away the painting main point of focus.
http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSE00477
Wow Faafeu, you have almost written an essay! You have expressed your opinions and backed them up with research and explanations, this is great. You have described the works well, which highlights the time you spent looking/thinking about them. You have also contributed some research, which is helpful. As a note, try to have your research link directly with the works/artist that is being discussed.
Cheers Hobbs
Also in Tess'a wise words:
"This is truly a "beyond and above the cause of duty" post! Brilliant work, but don't feel as though you have to do this every time!"
Hi Rebecca,
I felt that your post, while thorough, contained too many phrases from the web to be truly your own work. I know it's hard when you are researching to re-write everything and sometimes it's easier to copy and paste or transcribe, but really, it sticks out like dogs balls, and you need to ALWAYS put quote marks around any phrases that aren't your own. Wherever possible, say it in your own voice.
TX
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