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Abstract Expressionism Facts & Worksheets

Abstract Expressionism is an artistic movement of the mid-20th century comprising diverse styles and techniques.

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Abstract Expressionism is an artistic movement of the mid-20th century comprising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist’s liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through non-traditional and usually nonrepresentational means.

See the fact file below for more information on the Abstract Expressionism or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Abstract Expressionism worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Abstract Expressionism began in the late 1940s and became a dominant trend in Western painting during the 1950s. The artists were mostly based in New York City.
  • The inspiration of this movement was mainly the crisis of war and its aftermath.
  • Because the United States was positioned as a global power during World War II, Americans enjoyed the benefits of economic growth derived from rapid industrialization.
  • However, by the mid-1950s, this confidence morphed into concern and paranoia. The Cold War fueled the fear of Communist infiltration.
  • Troubled by human irrationality and vulnerability, Abstract Expressionists expressed their concerns in a new art form with more meaning and substance.
  • Abstract Expressionism eventually formed, and the artists produced works that stood as reflections of their individual psyches. In doing so, they attempted to tap into universal inner sources and break away from traditional processes.

TYPES OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

  • Action painting – Painting that works in spontaneous and improvisatory manner mainly using large brushes to make sweeping gestural marks. Jackson Pollock placed his canvas on the ground and danced around it pouring paint from the can or trailing it from the brush or a stick.
  • Willem De Kooning also developed his version of gestural style, alternating between abstract work and powerful iconic figurative images.
  • To them, the authenticity or value of a work lay in its directness and immediacy of expression.
  • The term was coined by Harold Rosenberg in 1952, and was used by well-known artists, including Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning.
  • Color field painting – Characterized by using large areas of single flat colors, these designs showcased the artists’ interest in religion and myth. They created simple compositions with large areas of color intended to produce a meditational response in the viewer.
  • The impulse was cerebral with pictorial means simplified in order to create a kind of elemental impact and achieve a sublime effect.
  • The term was coined by Clement Greenberg and used by known artists, such as Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Francis, Mark Tobey, and especially Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman.

THE ARTISTS

  • Clyfford Still was known as a non-objective painter interested in juxtaposing different colors and surfaces into a variety of formations. He used hot bursts and crackly lines of vivid hues.
  • Franz Kline used inexpensive commercial paints and large house painter’s brushes to build graphic networks of rough but controlled bars of black paint on white backgrounds
  • Willem de Kooning is known for his historical context about the post-World War II history and American feminist movement. He used oil, enamel, and charcoal on the canvas of his paintings.
  • Joan Mitchell’s primary medium was oil paint on canvas. She also created drawings and prints and established a singular visual vocabulary rooted in gestural abstraction.
  • Philip Guston produced characters rendered in bold brushwork of sinister hooded figures and disembodied limbs. He also utilized mundane objects, such as bare light bulbs, shoes, cigarettes, and bricks imbued with personal meaning.
  • Through Helen Frankenthaler’s invention of the soak-stain technique, she expanded the possibilities of abstract painting.
  • In her Mountains and Sea, she poured thinned paint directly on an unprimed canvas laid on her studio floor, working from all sides to create floating fields of translucent color.
  • Barnett Newman utilized a vertical band he called a “zip” to connect the upper and lower margins of the painting. The zips streak through the color field in spare compositions.
  • Adolph Gottlieb was known to use abstraction to utilize pictographs and mythological symbols to achieve emotional intensity through both color and line.
  • Robert Motherwell’s paintings were characterized by an intuitive approach to painting. He is best known for his iconic Elegy to the Spanish Republic series, consisting of 150 variants of black forms on white backgrounds.
  • Other artists include Lee Krasner, Bradley Walker Tomlin, William Baziotes, Richard Pousette-Dart, Elaine de Kooning, and Jack Tworkov.
  • In photography, American photographer Aaron Siskind used his camera to create Abstract Expressionist imagery through effective uses of positive and negative shapes.

Abstract Expressionism Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Abstract Expressionism across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Abstract Expressionism worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Abstract Expressionism which is an artistic movement of the mid-20th century comprising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist’s liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through non-traditional and usually nonrepresentational means.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Abstract Expressionism Facts
  • Father of Abstract Expressionism
  • Abstract Expressionism Era
  • Abstract Title
  • Abstract Fashion
  • Abstract Photography
  • One Word Abstract
  • Digital Action Painting
  • Color Field Painting
  • My Abstract Art
  • Abstract Art Wordfind

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Use With Any Curriculum

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