Abstract Expressionism — Subconscious Art
What is Abstraction? Why a lot of people don’t like Abstract Expressionism? How did Great Depression influence Abstract Expressionism and Art generally? Where was Abstract Expressionism born?
Chapter 1
The 1940s. Great Depression. America. There were 2 popular trends in Art. It’s Regionalism and Social Realism. Regionalism is an American realist modern art movement, which shows us life (sad life) in America. Social Realism tells us about the working class’s problems. But Abstract Expressionists don’t like these things. They were thinking that Realism is just too old. And we need something new, something unusual. They wanted to express feelings in pictures. (Well, a lot of painters think the same). And The United States has created few powerful government programs to provide unemployed Americans with jobs, so many Painters started with this thing.
In 1947 was a huge breakthrough. Jackson Pollock created a new technic of drawing. Name of this method: Drip painting. I think you understand what it means. That was an incredible breakthrough. And at that moment Abstract Expressionism started to actively develop. And that was the first group of Abstract Expressionists. In 1951, after artists boycotted a contemporary art exhibition, they were captured in a group photo for the journal «Life» and journalists named their «The Irascibles» So they got something like local purpose — draw irascible
When Abstract Expressionism was less popular, a new group of painters appeared. They named their method «Painting of colour field.» They wanted to evoke a feeling, like meditation, contemplative feelings. Interesting fact: Mark Rothko wanted to evoke crying :)
(That was History of Abstract Expressionism)
Chapter 2
At first, we need to understand what is Abstraction. Abstraction’s something unreal. However attentive readers can say: «Um, surrealism is unreal too.» Yeah, you're right. The differences are that in surrealism you can see familiar figures and things, but Abstraction is not so easy. For example Malevich Square. You can’t see there something that may be real. What’s the purpose of Abstract Expressionists? I have an answer. They want to express feelings. But Abstract Expressionism has unusual features. Abstract Expressionism is very spontaneous. For example, 10 minutes ago painter just didn’t have an idea about his picture. But in 50 minutes he almost drew his picture. In the picture, the painter needs to capture spontaneous emotions.
There is an interesting feature of Abstract Expressionism: Almost every painting in this genre is very huge. For example this painting Interchange: 200.7 cm Å~ 175.3 cm. Painters explain Moreover emotions — big paintings. Size — one of the instruments in Abstract Expressionism. Yeah, in impressionism, in Fauvism and etc using many colours, like in Abstract Expressionism. Moreover, Abstract Expressionism take this idea from the earlier genre. It is common in the Arts. Abstract Expressionism likes an unusual style. Drip-style helped to express feelings. Very engrossing, gripping, sad feeling. Yeah, sad. We can say stressful. Partly, Abstract Expressionism took this mood from Expressionism.
And the last question: «A lot of people hate Abstract Expressionism. Why?» I think, for people, who isn’t ready for innovations — Abstract Expressionism is bad. For example, everyone hated Malevich’s Square. There is 1 reason, why they don’t like it:
1. «Oh, this is very stupid, just square»
Well, someone just doesn’t think and doesn’t understand this. I can write the whole article about Malevich’s square. In this square so much history! In every project, for example, there are people like this. It’s inevitable.
Thank you for your attention!
