Noelle Milad
Rachel Trulock
Claire Cousino
“A painting is not about experience, it is an experience.”

Summary
 Main Influences:
 Surrealism, cubism, impressionism
 Historical Context:
 WWII, Great Depression
 Main Artists
 Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, Rothko
 Public reaction

Quick review:
 Cubism- Geometric shapes, sharp
lines, didn‟t paint with natural lines
 Picasso
 Impressionism- Ordinary scenes, played
with the lighting of the scene
 Manet
 Surrealism
 Dali, Ernst

Great Depression
 Works Progress Administration (WPA)
 Tried (somewhat successfully) to get U.S.
out of Great Depression
 Optimistic
 Federal Art Project
 Government hired artists to paint murals
(just and example) and bring hope to the
people

World War II
 Genocide of Jewish culture
 Affected Rothko specifically
 Expressed opinion against totalitarian
government control in Europe
 Showed their pessimism and negative
feelings
 Showed violence to mirror wartime.
 “Their brutality of their art was screaming out
of rage at what their world had become.”

Naked Man with
Knife, 1938-1940, Pollock

Action painting
Artists:
 Jackson Pollock
 Willem de Kooning
 Franz Kline: Lead into color field
 Techniques
 Used various tools, unconventional tools
 Drip painting (Pollock), swiping brushes across
canvas

Action Painting
•Motive- wanted to
evoke strong emotion
•Wanted to be a part
of the painting
•Used large canvases
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=bSjY4e7Nq
To (2:13)
Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock (1912-
1956)
 Troubled childhood
 Lived in New York City
 Worked on the Federal Art Project
(Great Depression).
 Dealt with severe alcoholism; died in a
drinking and driving accident

Jackson Pollock
 Drip painting: 1947-1950
 Used wall paints (fluid paint, muted
colors, unconventional applicators, unprimed
and un-stretched, large canvas)
 Defined “drip painting” as a type of
action painting.
 Wanted to be “in” the paintings.

No.5 1948, Pollock, 1948

Blue Poles, Pollock, 1952

Convergence, Pollock
(1952)
“I can control the flow of the paint, there is no accident.”

Willem de Kooning (1904-1997)
 Sculptures and paintings
 Started as a commercial artist
 Federal Art Project (1935-1939)
 Murals

Willem de Kooning
 Subjects of paintings are easily
recognizable, unlike other abstract
expressionists.
 Women series is his most famous works
 Applied paint in aggressive manners

Woman, de Kooning
(1950)

Excavation, de Kooning (1950)

Women and Bicycle, de Kooning
(1953)

Franz Kline (1910-1962)
 Childhood upbringing influenced his
aggressive painting style
 Influenced by wife‟s illness
 Didn‟t have a meaning behind what was
painted on the canvas
 Black and white paintings
 Avoided bright colors

Chief, Kline (1950)

Painting No. 2, Kline (1954)

Mahoning, Kline (1956)

Color field
Artists:
 Franz Kline
 Mark Rothko
 Techniques
 Blocks of bright colors
 Huge canvases
 Motive- Evoke intense emotional
reaction
 Emotion- The color in the painting

Paintings were
typically very large
and painted on big
canvases
Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
 Born in Latvia, moved to the U.S.
 Attended Yale
 Dropped out because of the elitist feelings
there.
 Worked with Jackson Pollock.

Mark Rothko
 He looked at art as something that is
inspired from one‟s feelings within.
 Wanted to expose and bring out reality
to the viewer.
 Painted to represent a single idea that
summarized all the ideas of human
feelings such as human values.

White Center, Rothko
(1950)

No. 10, Rothko (1950)

No. 2, Rothko
(1951)

Public Reaction
 Generally accepted by the public
 Appreciated the reality of the society coming
out through the art.
 Liked by the art community
 Boosted the public„s morale

After Abstract
Expressionism
 Pop art
 Andy Warhol
 Minimalism
 Was the transition between modernism
and postmoderism