Expression

Introduction

Abstract Expressionism was the first American movement to have worldwide impact. In the years after World War II, a group of Americans, influenced by the European Surrealists and Expressionists, created paintings in which the very weight, shape, and direction of paint and brushwork embody feelings and meanings. The three painters we will look at in this section are: Jackson Pollack, Willim De Kooning, and Wassily Kandinsky

Jackson Pollack

"Jack the Dripper"
(b.1912--d.1956) American painter, a commanding figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement. He began to study painting in 1929 at the Art Students' League, New York, under the Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton. During the 1930s he worked in the manner of the Regionalists, being influenced also by the Mexican muralist painters (Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros) and by certain aspects of Surrealism. From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project. By the mid 1940s he was painting in a completely abstract manner, and the `drip and splash' style for which he is best known emerged in 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his paint from a can; instead of using brushes he manipulated it with `sticks, trowels or knives' (to use his own words). This manner of action painting was similar to the Surrealists' theories of automatism that it was supposed by artists and critics alike to result in a direct expression or revelation of the unconscious moods of the artist.
Pollock's name is also associated with the introduction of the style of painting which avoids any points of emphasis or identifiable parts within the whole canvas and therefore abandons the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among parts. The design of his painting had no relation to the shape or size of the canvas and sometimes the finished canvas was cropped to suit the image.

Wassily Kandinsky

Composition IV, 1911 (170 Kb); Oil on canvas, 159.5 x 250.5 cm (62 7/8 x 98 5/8 in); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, Dusseldorf

Composition VIII, 1923 (140 Kb); Oil on canvas, 140 x 201 cm (55 1/8 x 79 1/8 in); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Willem de Kooning

Willem de Kooning in his studio with Woman I in progress (after the sixth state), c. 1952. Photo by Kay Bell Reynal, courtesy of Kay Bell Reynal Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Oil on canvas, 1950; 206.2 x 257.3 cm Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Purchase Prize; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah Goldowsky and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., 1952.1

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Student Project

Introductory Exploration

Create several abstract (no recognizable images) drawings that interpret the feelings of confusion, melancholy, elation, doubt, and defiance. Select your medium carefully-you may use markers, oil or chalk pastels, colored pencils, or any combination of the four. As you interpret the feeling, decide the kind of line quality you wish to achieve-an oil pastel will create a dark, rough line while a pencil would be thin and smooth. Make marks with the medium/media you choose that you feel communicates the feeling you are trying to describe. You can make lines, dots, abstract shapes-as long as there are no recognizable images.

Written Assignment

Write an essay that explores how we interpret emotion. Do we use similar colors or marks for the same emotion? How do we differ? Why would or wouldn't we interpret emotion the same? What influences our choice of medium and mark making?

Independent Project

Create a painting that abstractly expresses a specific experience in your life. Select colors that you feel communicate how you felt at the moment. Create marks that help express your sensory memories of the experience.