Abstract Expressionism

Although the term Abstract Expressionism was first used in 1919 in relation to the work of Kandinsky, today we associate it with post war American painting, the art critic R. Coates coined the phrase in 1946, when referring to the work of Gorky, Pollock and DeKooning, by the 1950s the term was in general use to describe all types of contemporary abstract painting.


Not all the artists associated with the term produced work that was either purely abstract or purely expressionist. What connected them was an artistic philosophy, based on existentialist ideas, which emphasized the importance of the act of creating (painting) and not necessarily the finished work and a shared interest in Jung’s ideas of myth, ritual and memory. They conceived a romantic view of the artist and saw them selves as disillusioned commentators of contemporary American life after the Depression and the Second World War

There were two distinct groups within the movement; one has become known as Action Painting, largely because of the gestural techniques of the painters which includes the Surrealist theory of Automatism (subconscious mark making) as well as bold brush strokes, dribbles and splashes. The second group became known as the Colour Field painters whose work was generally large in size and consisted of more simplified and unified blocks of colour, both groups shared the same ideas, as mentioned above, and sought to express their subconscious through their art.

Abstract Expressionism evolved in the 1940s, peaked in the 50s but had declined by the end of that decade.