Fernanda Munguía

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM...

I think I’m like abstract expressionism because I like to express freely my feelings and I don’t like to be conventional. Another thing is that I don’t like the geometrical things, I prefer something different, something with a little of movement, something which appears to be accident, but which is actually highly planned.

Abstract Expressionism -  Is a painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions, painting gesturally, non-geometrically, sometimes applying paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto canvas. Their work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to be accident and chance, but which is actually highly planned.

Some Abstract Expressionist artists were concerned with adopting a peaceful and mystical approach to a purely abstract image. Usually there was no effort to represent subject matter. Not all work was abstract, nor was all work expressive, but it was generally believed that the spontaneity of the artists' approach to their work would draw from and release the creativity of their unconscious minds.

The expressive method of painting was often considered as important as the painting itself.

My favourite painter that represents that movement is Jackson Pollock. And I want to share something he said:

“On the floor I am more at ease, I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around in it, work from the four sides and be literally `in' the painting.” 
-- Jackson Pollock, 1947.

Jackson Pollock (1912 - 56)
Arte Spain.com

Now, i will show you a little bit from his biography:

Pollock, Jackson (1912-56). American painter, the commanding figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

He began to study painting in 1929 at the Art Students' League, New York, under the Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton. During the 1930s he worked in the manner of the Regionalists, being influenced also by the Mexican muralist painters (Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros) and by certain aspects of Surrealism. From 1938 to 1942 he worked for the Federal Art Project. By the mid 1940s he was painting in a completely abstract manner, and the `drip and splash' style for which he is best known emerged with some abruptness in 1947. Instead of using the traditional easel he affixed his canvas to the floor or the wall and poured and dripped his paint from a can; instead of using brushes he manipulated it with `sticks, trowels or knives' (to use his own words), sometimes obtaining a heavy impasto by an admixture of `sand, broken glass or other foreign matter'. This manner of Action painting had in common with Surrealist theories of automatism that it was supposed by artists and critics alike to result in a direct expression or revelation of the unconscious moods of the artist.

Pollock's name is also associated with the introduction of the All-over style of painting which avoids any points of emphasis or identifiable parts within the whole canvas and therefore abandons the traditional idea of composition in terms of relations among parts. The design of his painting had no relation to the shape or size of the canvas -- indeed in the finished work the canvas was sometimes docked or trimmed to suit the image. All these characteristics were important for the new American painting which matured in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Shimmering Substance (Sounds in the Grass Series), 1946, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 24 1/4 inches (76.3 x 61.6 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.

The painting that I like the most is entitled, One: Nuber 31, 1950 by Jackson Pollock.

I like this painting pretty much bcause I found in it the perfect example of his drip and pour technique, which he popularized during the Abstract Expressionist era.

The painting is 8' 10" x 17' 5 5/8" (269.5 x 530.8 cm) and is one of many Pollocks exhibited in the permanent collection at the MoMA.

CITATIONS:

ArLex on Abstract Expressionism. web. Sat Oct 23. http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/abstractexpr.html

Hayleygilchrist. web. Sat Oct 23. http://hayleygilchrist.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/contextual-studies/

New York city daily photo. web. Sat Oct 23. http://nyc2dailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/05/moma-monet-pollack.html