Editing Abstract expressionism (section)

==== Action painting ====

Action painting was a style widespread from the 1940s until the early 1960s, and is closely associated with abstract expressionism (some critics have used the terms [[action painting]] and abstract expressionism interchangeably). A comparison is often drawn between the American action painting and the French [[tachisme]].

The term was coined by the American critic [[Harold Rosenberg]] in 1952<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=9798
| title = ''The American Action Painters''
| access-date=August 20, 2006
| last = Rosenberg
| first = Harold
| publisher = poetrymagazines.org.uk
}}</ref> and signaled a major shift in the aesthetic perspective of [[New York School (art)|New York School]] painters and critics. According to Rosenberg the canvas was "an arena in which to act". While abstract expressionists such as [[Jackson Pollock]], [[Franz Kline]] and [[Willem de Kooning]] had long been outspoken in their view of a painting as an arena within which to come to terms with the act of creation, earlier critics sympathetic to their cause, like [[Clement Greenberg]], focused on their works' "objectness". To Greenberg, it was the physicality of the paintings' clotted and oil-caked surfaces that was the key to understanding them as documents of the artists' [[Existentialism|existential]] struggle.

[[File:'Boon' oil on canvas painting by James Brooks, 1957, Tate Gallery.jpg|thumb|''Boon'' by [[James Brooks (painter)|James Brooks]], 1957, [[Tate Gallery]]]]
Rosenberg's critique shifted the emphasis from the object to the struggle itself, with the finished painting being only the physical manifestation, a kind of residue, of the actual work of art, which was in the act or process of the painting's creation. This spontaneous activity was the "action" of the painter, through arm and wrist movement, [[painterly]] gestures, brushstrokes, thrown paint, splashed, stained, scumbled and dripped. The painter would sometimes let the paint drip onto the canvas, while rhythmically dancing, or even standing in the canvas, sometimes letting the paint fall according to the subconscious mind, thus letting the [[Unconscious mind|unconscious]] part of the [[Psyche (psychology)|psyche]] assert and express itself. All this, however, is difficult to explain or interpret because it is a supposed unconscious manifestation of the act of pure creation.<ref>based (very) loosely on a lecture by Fred Orton at the Uni of Leeds and H. Geldzahler, ''New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970, NY 1969''</ref>

In practice, the term abstract expressionism is applied to any number of artists working (mostly) in New York who had quite different styles, and even applied to work which is not especially abstract nor expressionist. Pollock's energetic [[action painting]]s, with their "busy" feel, are different both technically and aesthetically, to De Kooning's violent and grotesque ''Women'' series. ''Woman V'' is one of a series of six paintings made by de Kooning between 1950 and 1953 that depict a three-quarter-length female figure. He began the first of these paintings, ''Woman I'', in June 1950, repeatedly changing and painting out the image until January or February 1952, when the painting was abandoned unfinished. The art historian [[Meyer Schapiro]] saw the painting in de Kooning's studio soon afterwards and encouraged the artist to persist. De Kooning's response was to begin three other paintings on the same theme; ''Woman II'', ''[[Woman III]]'' and ''Woman IV''. During the summer of 1952, spent at [[East Hampton (town), New York|East Hampton]], de Kooning further explored the theme through drawings and pastels. He may have finished work on ''Woman I'' by the end of June, or possibly as late as November 1952, and probably the other three women pictures were concluded at much the same time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nga.gov.au/International/Catalogue/Detail.cfm?IRN=47761&BioArtistIRN=25281&MnuID=2&GalID=1|title=International Paintings and Sculpture – Woman V|work=nga.gov.au|access-date=2016-03-20}}</ref> The ''Woman series'' are decidedly [[Figurative art|figurative paintings]].

Another important artist is [[Franz Kline]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/1/81|title=Painting Number 2 at MoMA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hyperallergic.com/66831/painting-at-the-speed-of-sight-franz-klines-rapid-transit/|title=Painting at the Speed of Sight: Franz Kline's Rapid Transit|first=Tim|last=Keane|date=March 16, 2013|website=Hyperallergic}}</ref> As with Jackson Pollock and other abstract expressionists, Kline was labelled an "[[Action Painting|action painter]]" because of his seemingly spontaneous and intense style, focusing less, or not at all, on figures or imagery, but on the actual brushstrokes and use of canvas; as demonstrated by his painting ''Number 2'' (1954).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/art-history-definition-action-painting-183188|title=Art History Definition: Action Painting|work=ThoughtCo|access-date=2018-05-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/1/81|title=Franz Kline, ''Number 2'' (1954), Museum of Modern Art, New York}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0520050150 Rudolf Arnheim, ''The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts''], University of California Press, 1983, pp. 71–72, {{ISBN|0520050150}}</ref>

Automatic writing was an important vehicle for action painters such as Kline (in his black and white paintings), Pollock, Mark Tobey and [[Cy Twombly]], who used gesture, surface, and line to create calligraphic, linear symbols and skeins that resemble language, and resonate as powerful manifestations from the [[Collective unconscious]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arthistoryunstuffed.com/abstract-expressionism-redefining-art-part-one/|title=Abstract Expressionism: Redefining Art, Part One &#124; Art History Unstuffed|first=Jeanne|last=Willette}}</ref><ref>[https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Abstract Expressionism]</ref> [[Robert Motherwell]] in his ''Elegy to the Spanish Republic'' series painted powerful black and white paintings using gesture, surface and symbol evoking powerful emotional charges.<ref>[https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489403 Metropolitan Museum of Art]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79007|title=Robert Motherwell. Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 108. 1965-67 &#124; MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art}}</ref>

Meanwhile, other action painters, notably de Kooning, Gorky, [[Norman Bluhm]], [[Joan Mitchell]], and [[James Brooks (painter)|James Brooks]], used imagery via either abstract landscape or as expressionistic visions of the figure to articulate their highly personal and powerful evocations. James Brooks' paintings were particularly poetic and highly prescient in relationship to [[Lyrical Abstraction]] that became prominent in the late 1960s and the 1970s.<ref>The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, ''Lyrical Abstraction'', exhibition: April 5 through June 7, 1970, ''Statement of the exhibition''</ref>