ARTH 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Abstract Expressionism, Number 11, 1952 (Painting), Willem De Kooning
Document Summary
Generally considered the first major american movement within the mainstream arts. There"s two categories of abstract expressionism - there"s action painters and color field. He had his philosophy of art as a (cid:498)canvas as arena(cid:499) - he would unroll an unprepared canvas at the floor and paint and splatter to his style. The dada law of chance is displayed in that motion he cannot control where the paint would splatter. He"s also using automatism to relax his motions and let the paint and brushes flow where they want to. The figures are distortional but still enough to be harshly representational. This shows pollock an action painter you can see the action within the painting. He doesn"t do law of chance or automatism , however. His style is more aggressive, you can still see the action of his physical stroke. He"s not as lyrical: its expressive but its abstract and representational.
