Is Abstract Expressionism Real Art?

Is Abstract Expressionism Real Art?

Many people believe art needs to look like pictures that come out of a camera; that it needs to appear exactly as it does in real life. They believe the style realism is the main form of art and the most impressive. Therefore many of them believe abstract expressionism is not a real form of art, because it may seem talentless and easy to paint. Abstract Expressionism may not look anything like realism, but that does not mean it is not a form of art. Abstract expressionism focuses more on dynamics and exaggerated gestures. The art is made with spontaneity and improvisation. This is why many of the art works may seem like scribble and paint splattered onto a canvas, like Jackson Pollock's art. Clifford Still was another famous abstract expressionist that helped create this type of art in the early 1900s. It began early 1940s and evolved through the years. It is a type of art that many people believe is not art at all, but it is painted all the time even today.

The reason many people believe abstract expressionism is not art is because it does not follow the same guidelines as realism and many other popular forms of art. Abstract expressionism, also known as the New York school, action painting and field painting, is based around the idea of using gestures and dynamics to express ideas in the art. Jackson Pollock is one of the most famous painters because he literally dripped and poured paint onto canvas and called it art. Many people say "a kindergartener could paint something like this" and maybe they can, but abstract expressionism does take some forms of talent to make. There are also other theories that state that the process of action makes the drawings use three main ideas which are abstraction, chance, and Freudian theory which emphasize the unconscious, subconscious and conscious mind. In the end though, many still think art needs to be more visually appealing compared to showing the expression of the artist. All of the paintings of this style vary in detail depending on when and who made the painting.

Abstract expressionism was one of the only art styles that were mainly created in America. It began in the early 1940s in the state of New York. This is why some people call the style the New York school even though abstract expressionism was never the ideal label for the style. The style began just after World War 2 and America became the leading post-war art enthusiasts of the world. Many of the artists were beginning to arise after the Great Depression and were influenced by social realism and the Regionalist movement due to their abstraction and non-objective art styles. The biggest influence, however, was from surrealism. This type of style intrigued the artists because of the focus on the unconscious and dream-like ideas. Many artists such as Hans Hofmann were going to America to avoid political threat and upheaval back at their home continent of Europe. Then in the late 1940s, artists of abstract expressionism began to paint their way into history such as Jackson Pollock in 1947 and Willem De Kooning in 1948. The style exploded into existence and in the early 1950s the artists were finally able to be identified and organized as abstract expressionists.

It finally became big and many people promoted the idea and tried to spread it. The government embraced it and wanted to promote it overseas because it was a style that manifested in America. The style was an expression from America to be spread throughout the world. The era of abstract expressionism had influenced many other art styles, even in later years, such as the Japanese Gutai movement and Viennese Actionists. Jackson Pollock was one big influence to many artists because of the way he painted. The movement did not last too long, but the influence on artists and later styles were great and paved a way to new styles. It gave young artists supply to compare their styles to and standards to contrast their styles with.

Clyfford Still was among several other abstract expressionists during that time. He was born in 1904 in North Dakota and raised in Spokane, Washington and Canada. He attended school at Washington State University from 1935 to 1941. He painted people, buildings, and machinery while he was attending the school, but by the late 1930s he changed his style to focus more on abstraction instead. He taught at Virginia Commonwealth University for several years then transferred to another school. Then in 1941, he moved to San Francisco. It was during the 1940s when Clyfford Still began to take trips to New York and began his transition to abstraction expressionism. Still visited New York several times during the late 1940s and also visited several art galleries. He also worked with two galleries to launch the new American Style into the world called Peggy Guggenheim's The Art of This Century Gallery and the Betty Parsons gallery. Another abstract expressionist named Marth Rothko introduced Still to Peggy Guggenheim. Guggenheim then gave Clyfford Still his own exhibition