Abstract Expressionism
1943–1965New York replaced Paris as the center of art. Painting as action (Pollock), as meditation (Rothko), as primal gesture (de Kooning).
Industrial paints, house paint, enamel. Enormous canvases on the floor. Color field painting — pure chromatic experience.
Pollock
1912–1956American
Drip painter. Laid canvas on floor and poured enamel paint in rhythmic gestures — painting as performance.
Industrial enamel and house paint poured/dripped. Aluminum paint for metallic luminosity. No traditional brushwork.
Further reading: Pollock (Basic Art) — Leonhard Emmerlingde Kooning
1904–1997Dutch-American
Painter of violent energy — the Women series shattered figure and ground into torrents of paint.
Mixed media — oil, enamel, charcoal. Scraped, wiped, reworked obsessively. Flesh tones mixed with house paint.
Further reading: Willem De Kooning (Basic Art Album) — Barbara HessPigments: Cadmium red · Ochre · Lead white · Cadmium yellow · Cobalt blue · Cerulean blue
Frankenthaler
1928–2011American
Inventor of the soak-stain technique — paint thinned to water-like consistency and poured onto raw canvas.
Thinned oil paint poured onto unprimed canvas — paint soaks into fabric, becoming one with the support. Color IS the painting.
Further reading: Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York — Alexander NemerovPigments: Alizarin crimson · Viridian · Cadmium yellow · Sienna · Ultramarine · Cobalt violet
Rothko
1903–1970Latvian-American
Painter of luminous color fields that evoke the sublime. His chapel in Houston is a secular sacred space.
Multiple thin glazes of oil and egg tempera on huge canvases. Edges of color rectangles are soft, breathing. Late works darken toward black.
Further reading: Rothko — Jacob Baal-TeshuvaPigments: Cadmium red · Cadmium yellow · Ultramarine · Alizarin crimson · Cobalt blue
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