Abstract Expressionism
Gestural American painting
Abstract Expressionism refers to the mid-20th-century American art movement as a defined historical period and school, typically dated from the mid-1940s through the 1950s.
The capitalized form appears in art history texts, museum labels, and academic discussions that treat it as a proper noun: Abstract Expressionism represented a decisive break from European artistic dominance. (Lowercase abstract expressionism is the general descriptive term.)
Institutional assemblage of artifacts
- gallerySpace for displaying artwork
- retrospectiveReviewing what came before
- manifestoPublished statement of principles
- MoMANew York contemporary gallery
Spontaneous, physical mark-making
- color fieldArt of saturated expanses
- post-warAfter military conflict ends
- mid-centuryHalfway through a hundred
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
pioneering · experimental · radical · groundbreaking · revolutionary · vanguard · breakthrough · progressive
Relating to body movements
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- automatismInvoluntary mechanical behavior
- stainingApplying dye or pigment
- palette knifeFlat blade for mixing colors
Philosophy stressing self-created meaning
- subconsciousBelow conscious awareness
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
- Jungian archetypesUniversal inherited thought patterns
artistic freedom · universal symbols · primitivism · myth-making · psychological depth · existential angst · spiritual longing
Jackson Pollock
museum collection
Institutional assemblage of artifacts
- gallerySpace for displaying artwork
- retrospectiveReviewing what came before
- manifestoPublished statement of principles
MoMA · art history · academic
action painting
Spontaneous, physical mark-making
- color fieldArt of saturated expanses
- post-warAfter military conflict ends
- mid-centuryHalfway through a hundred
avant-garde · pioneering · experimental · radical · groundbreaking · revolutionary · vanguard · breakthrough · progressive · bold
gestural
Relating to body movements
- improvisationSpontaneous, unplanned creation
- automatismInvoluntary mechanical behavior
- stainingApplying dye or pigment
existentialism
Philosophy stressing self-created meaning
- subconsciousBelow conscious awareness
- transcendenceSurpassing usual limits
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
Jungian archetypes · artistic freedom · universal symbols · primitivism · myth-making · psychological depth · existential angst · spiritual longing
- art stylesimpressionism, surrealism, cubism, realism, pop art
- American ArtAmerican art, Hudson River School, American Renaissance, Ashcan School, Pop Art
- art historyart history, Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism, modern art
- contemporary artconceptual art, contemporary art, digital art, contemporary artists, modern art
- art movementsPop Art, pop art, Impressionism, impressionism, Surrealism
- Avant-Garde ArtDada, Dadaism, Surrealism, Cubism, Futurism
Abstract Expressionismfigurative art
Art depicting recognizable subjects
Hyperrealism · naturalism · landscape painting · Realism · portraiture
Abstract ExpressionismMinimalism
Art stripped to essentials
Pop Art · Op Art · Andy Warhol
Abstract ExpressionismDiego Rivera
Mexican mural master
propaganda art · commercial art · illustration · kitsch · folk art
expressive, abstract, abstraction, abstracted, expressiveness, expressively, abstracting, abstractedly, abstractions