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]