Abstract expressionism

Abstract expressionism is a collective term used to refer to a group of artists who were active in America during the 1940s and 1950s and some of the innovative developments they brought to art. Also in the 1920s, the works of Vasily Kandinsky and the group Der Blaue Reiter were described as abstract expressionist. Like the expressionists, they believed that the true subject of art was the inner emotions of man. They tried to express this through color, gesture, shape and texture. Abstract expressionism uses the method of automatism, which was borrowed from surrealism. The artists of Abstract Expressionism believed that it was their duty to create art that could cope with an irrational, absurd world. Within abstract expressionism there was a diversity of styles. A dichotomy can therefore be seen. On the one hand, action painting, a painting method that puts the action above the result. On the other hand was the post-painterly abstraction, which emphasized color and not the action of painting. However, all the artists had grown up during the Depression and World War II. This also influenced their work.