See also:  [Action Painting (art technique)`

Abstract Expressionism (?dates?)

Abstract expressionism basically extends the 
concepts of symbolism and expressionist painting 
styles. As with all modern art-work, it most 
often builds on what has come before. The ENV 
into which abex came was that of the post
World War I (ie, "The Great War", "The War to 
End all Wars", and of course the first "modern 
war" - implements of mass destruction). 


Abstraction had already been investigated by 
the cubists as well as the symbolists. However, 
with cubism it reflected the idea of multiple 
views of the same object from different POV's 
- a direct result of the camera. 


As regards symbolism, this tradition is found 
in all periods and world areas of art. If we 
think of the Ancient Egyptian murals and Horus
using a feather to measure the weight of a 
person's heart (soul) to judge whether they 
are worthy to continue into the "next world", 
then we see that the feather has a meaning of 
the scribe's quill-pen well and thus wisdom,
learning, and of course ultimately morality.

In fusing particularly symbolism and the looser 
style of cubism, abex sought to express directly 
and rapidly the ideas of intensity and depths of 
emotions of the artist.

As such, abex is immediately obvious *as* 
expressionist in a more classical style. 
We might directly see abex as the joy of 
pure creativity as oft expressed by artists
of all ages; but most especially that of 
children. 

Thus, unlike the renaissance style of 
"immedial" or "realistic art", the abex
style is "hypermedial" - the hand of the
artist is clearly seen; this will disappear
later in the works of the minimalists. The 
force of emotion is often so bold in the 
work as to overpower even compositional 
details or over-all design.

It won't be until the advent of graphic art
later in the 20th (1900c) century that the
use of this "action painting" will find a 
new form of expression. But, that's another story....

Extracting Expressionism

Clearly all art IS expressionist - even 
photography and reaslism/naturalism where 
the hand of the artist ISN't apparent.
We may say that in the case of the less
abstract works, that the very choice of
subject matter and the manner in which it
is depicted IS the expression of the artist.

Of course, in the case of commisioned works
the whatness and howness of the work may be
strictly guided. Note that any any case where
the work is commisioned for public consumption
(eg, design of a transit station, ritual objects 
in tribabl works, etc) this "freedom" of the
artist is usually at the most restricted. One
only has to contemplate the murals of the Chicago 
Station where Diego Rivera's (pro-socialist and 
even a bit pro-soviet) glorification of the 
worker - which were later painted over by the
owner; one of the Rockerfellers. ??verify??

Thus, again and again we are confronted with
the *context* within which the work was done
- echoing Umberto Eco's dictim that "Context
is King". This has several aspects:

 1. The style at the time. This is the kinds
    of work or working methods that the artist
    is pursuing at the moment.

 2. Recent events; which we may often take as
    starting out as a random input.

 3. The level of "directness" that the work 
    has as part of it; eg, for a show, for
    a commission, what other artists are 
    doing.

We might view that i'm just begging the question
with my word "directness", above.

Everything that an artist has done before necessarily
carries forward with the possibilites of new work. In
this, a lot of it has to do with how the artist has
viewed their work in that context before.

For example, as the biomorphic form in surrealism 
spread, and varous artists took up exploring that 
method - it either did or did not appeal to them.
Take for example a comment made to Gorky that some
of his recent works resembled Picasso's (he was
continually accused of copying Picasso - who as
with all things had come to dominate the landscape;
one can't do relativty or Guernica and not go 
un-noticed). To which Gorky replied sheepishly,
"Yes, i'm thinkng about Picasso lately." The idea
of course, was that something that he either seen
in Picasso's works or the biomorphic form intrigued
him. Thus, we get things like "Garden in Sochi".

This shouldn't surprise us since things like the
African (Dogan) Masks and Japonese Prints were 
exhibited in Paris, and all of a sudden these begin 
to make there way directly into art of the time.
Notably is the use of this motif by (again) Picasso
in "Les Madesemels d'Avinoun" ??sp??.

Thus, these "trends" of the time are essentially 
EVENTS in the life of the artist.

Thus, i would (hesitantly, lest it be yet another
tiresome acronym) introduce:

   Context = S.E.D.
      Style
      Events 
      Directness

Naturally, i reall mean that the s,e,d's are elements
OF context and not all that it is.











The Usual Suspects

Robert Delaunay
Sonia Terk-Delaunay (and simultaneous painting)


Modernist interpretations
The Irracibles (That GANG of thugs)
Ed Harris (actor/director/artist)

PROTO AB-ex'er's

Robert Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay

FULL AB-EX, AHEAD!

Lee Krasner () (who the hell she IS "l.k."!)
Barnett Newman () (Bon Vivant! And WHAT is with the zipper?)
Jackson Pollock () (Jack the Dripper)
Ad Reinhardt () (Simply elegant; simple, is)
Harold Rosenberg () (art critic)
Mark Rothko () (The field of our dreams)