Movement to Abstract Expressionism
An exhibition by Ellie Silk ’22 and Satchel McLaughlin ’22
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“Movement to Abstract Expressionism” focuses on American Modernist painters who gave American art a new identity through Abstraction. The American Modernist Movement set out to challenge American conventions of art. Within this group, artists began pushing their works towards abstraction and faced rejection from critics and society. Compositions became less traditional, perspective shifted, and color started to be used not just as a representation, but to activate the viewers senses, evoking a mood. Forms and colors became the subjects themselves. The result was bold, radical works for their time. The American artists represented on the first wall and the back wall- Post Impressionist, Cubist, Precisionist, Synchromist and Abstract painters – were at the forefront of changing the identity of American art. In the Aftermath of World War II a group of Artists emerged in New York City. Known as the New York School, or Abstract Expressionists, these artists sought to make “art that while abstract was also expressive or emotional in its effect” (TATE). This movement brought America to the center of the art world. Artists on the final wall–Rothko, Pollock, Baziotes, and de Kooning–were big figures in the New York School. This show brings together American artists who fought against the conventions of art in America, starting with artists who were heavily influenced by European artists Cezanne and Matisse, and ending with successful Abstract Expressionists, to reflect on the development of American Abstract Art.
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