Abstract Expressionism

Elaine De Kooning - Bullfight
http://denverartmuseum.org/sites/default/files/exhibitions/Media%20browser/Elaine-de-Kooning-Bullfight.jpg

Abstract expressionism is an Art movement that was formed in the late 1930's - 1940's, New York, United States of America. The medium used was paint in most cases, and painters would perceive art in a completely different way to what was going on in this era - the whole idea would be an artwork with abstract forms that filled the canvas, done without the idea of perceiving a structured logical form as such. 

The art movement started when there was political instability in Europe during the 1930's. It brought many diverse multiple disciplinary innovative Surrealists to New York, and many of the Abstract Expressionists were profoundly influenced by Surrealism's take on imagery, as a meditative and spiritual realm of ones subconsciousness. (Rotkho, 2017)

It depicted their interest in outlandish myths and archetypal symbols - that people were not entirely familiar with in an art context - for the artists Abstract Expressionism meant, having a shaped self-understanding of painting itself, in contrast to a struggle between self-expression and the chaos of the subconscious. Its basically resembles a balance between the artists expressions of how they feel and what their state of consciousness was telling the mind to function in a different way than usual. Painters had little to no control over what they were painting. 

Abstract Expressionism is a paradox of the rooted movement of figurative painting of the 1930's. Most of the artists who were leaders of the art movement in the 1940's and 1950's were post victims of having experienced of the Great Depression in America and they came to maturity whilst painting in styles influenced by Social Realism and the Regionalism movements.

Willem De Kooning

https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTE5NTU2MzE2MTk3MzI0Mjk5/willem-de-kooning-9270057-1-402.jpg

Born in the Netherlands, in the year 1904, Willem de Kooning left his place of birth in Europe to the United States in the year 1926, and started a life away from home, in New York City. 

Getting his life together, working in the industry. Willem de Kooning started as an apprentice in the commercial space, he also was starting to gather influences and redeveloped a new artistic style, exploring both figure painting and more abstract subjects through the stages of the 1930's.

Through many trial and error Willem de Kooning’s work was featured on a large platform for modern artists -  Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)

The piece of art that was exhibited, was titled 'New Horizons in American Art'

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/05/12/44/0512442f008978d4f0f002baea547ed7--ancient-art-modern-art.jpg

An early career highlight,

Which was a statue of a female figure sitting with her hands behind her, and an infant on her lap - signifying a motherly instinct. but the following year his job with the WPA (Works Progress Administration) came to an abrupt end, when he was forced to resign because he was not an American citizen. 

Artistically, de Kooning kept on with his figure work while branching out into more abstract work as well, a notable example of which is The Wave. The abstract works began to reveal the presence of human forms within them, and his two artistic approaches merged in 1945’s Pink Angels, one of his first significant contributions to abstract expressionism. He he would quickly become a central figure in the movement. (Rotkho, 2017)

His most famous work was women 1

De Kooning took an unusually long time to create Woman I, making numerous preliminary studies and repainting the work repeatedly. The hulking, wild–eyed subject draws upon an amalgam of female archetypes, from Paleolithic fertility goddesses to contemporary pin–up girls. Her threatening stare and ferocious grin are heightened by de Kooning's aggressive brushwork and frantic paint application. Combining voluptuousness and menace, Woman I reflects the age–old cultural ambivalence between reverence for and fear of the power of the feminine. (Rotkho, 2017)

Medium : Oil on Canvas

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79810

more image

Reference

Anon. 2017. MoMA Available: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79810 [Accessed 20 Octber 2017]

Rotkoh. M, 2017. Abstact Expressionism. Available : http://www.theartstory.org/movement-abstract-expressionism.htm. [Accessed 20 October 2017]

Pop-Art

POP - ART

An art style that started in the mid 1950's with the direct intentions of dominating the fast going world of advertising -

print, cartoons and popular imagery at large.

Accounting for that, pop-art strayed away from traditional 'high-art/fine-art'.

artists began to realize that the world is all one with everything - their belief is that everything is essentially one, everything is inter-connected and therefore sought to make some sort of connections to their literal artworks. 

Pop artists were one of the first to actually recognize the fact that there are no boundaries to access anything, from the soul, the natural world, and the man-made built environment. anything was channeled into their art and made it applicable to traditional modernistic crowds.

(Tchoupakov, 2015)

https://68.media.tumblr.com/9a8d5d845aaec264203c68a1408d441c/tumblr_nit143Q05Y1u2g1vco1_1280.png

Beginning

The 1950s was an era that that birthed on of advertisings transitional style of art.

A selected few of artists from London began an independent group where they would hold regular meetings to discuss certain things about mass culture’s relevance to fine art. (Wolf, 2017)

The early 1950s was still very gloomy in Britain as people were coming out of the austerity of the post war years - British citizens were ambivalent about the West entirely, American popular culture was not entirely appealing and held a certain level of unruliness to their basic idea of beauty vs function. 

Artists and Artworks

ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)
'Whaam!', 1963 (oil and acrylic resin on canvas)

It aligned with the vast globalization of pop music and youth culture, personified by Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Pop Art was rough, youthful, extreme to a certain point fun and hostile to the artistic establishment. It included different styles of painting and sculpture from various countries, but what they all had in common was an interest in mass-media, mass-production and mass-culture. (anon, 2017)

https://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/pop_art.htm

in 1956, an artist named Richard Hamilton's artwork comprises of most elements associated with the aesthetic and traditional imagery of pop art, with a quirky title like: ‘Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?’ it suits for all pop-art mediums like comics, newspapers, advertising, cars, food, packaging, appliances, famous celebrities / icons, music, intercourse, the jet/space age, television and movies. A black and white depiction of the collage was used as the cover for the series 'This Is Tomorrow' exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1956. (anon,2017)
This show heralded a widening of our understanding of what culture is and inspired a new generation of young British artists that included Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Blake, David Hockney, Allen Jones, Joe Tilson, (anon, 2017)

The group consisted of members: Eduoardo Paolozzi, Richard Hamilton, architects Alison and Peter Smithson and among the mentioned few,  had their beliefs rooted in modernism, the idea of advancement and progression - excited about what the future held, the world of popular culture seemed to hold a lot of positive promise. (Tate, 2017)

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T01/T01462_10.jpg

The term Pop-art is said to have many different origins: among the many origins the first to incorporate the word ‘pop’ was artist Edouard Paolozzi - in one of his series of collages “I was a rich mans plaything” done in 1947, the collage shows a collection of cut out images embodied with pleasingly light text and a mans hand pointing a gun, out of which burs the word ‘POP’ at a pin-up woman as the main focal point. The image also consisted of the Coca-Cola logo, a cherry pie, a fighter plane that looked to be in World War II (Wolf,2017)

European and American Pop Art

There was a widespread interest and demand on the part of the incorporation of popular culture . After some time American artists also started playing around and eventually incorporated popular culture into their artworks as well. Though individual styles varied vastly, there was a certain commonality that revealed that the style and imagery was undoubtably evident. 

European

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Evelyn Axell - 1950's

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e2/92/54/e29254bc1368f0790f5741708675d35f--pop-art-paris.jpg
Igor Andreev - 1950's

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e2/92/54/e29254bc1368f0790f5741708675d35f--pop-art-paris.jpg
Pauline Boty c. 1963 - British

American

https://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/pop_art.htm
Andy Warhole - 1962

https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/images-new-artwork/images-medium-5/pop-art-gary-grayson.jpg
Gary Grayson

In the United States, pop style was a return to representational art and the use of hard edges and distinct forms after the painterly looseness of abstract expressionism. By using impersonal, mundane imagery, pop artists also wanted to move away from the emphasis on personal feelings and personal symbolism that characterised abstract expressionism. (Tate, 2017)

In Britain, the movement was more academic in its approach. While employing irony and parody, it focused more on what American popular imagery represented, and its power in manipulating people’s lifestyles. The 1950s art group The Independent Group (IG), is regarded as the precursor to the British Pop art movement. (Tate, 2017)

References

Anon, 2017. The Art of Popular Culture. Available: https://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/pop_art.htm [accessed 11 October 2017]

Tate. 2017. Pop art - Art Term. available: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art. accessed [12 October 2017]

Tchoupakov.A, 2015. Beauty vs. Functionality. Available: https://creators.vice.com/en_au/article/xy459d/beauty-vs-functionality-heres-how-the-brain-reacts. accessed [12 October 2017]

Wolf.J,2016. Pop Art. available: https://Thearthistory.org. accessed [12 October 2017]