Abstract Expressionism Ian Nunneley

Following World War II the landscape of the world was changing. The connection between the United States in Europe had grown stronger. Technology was moving rapidly and advances in air travel made the connections between the two continents even greater. Even with these technological advances and greater international relationships, there still remained a void left by the war. Abstract Expressionism emerged as an art form to fill that void. The movement's name is derived from the combination the German Expressionists with looks of the European abstract schools such as futurism and Cubism. At also brings on the image of being rebellious, anarchic, and nihilist (Shapiro 189). Work described as Abstract Expressionism first emerged in a small group of artists in New York City. These artists were first written about by Robert Coates, a writer in the New Yorker magazine in 1946 (Morris 424). Jackson Pollock was another major contributor to the movement (Marika 12). The main group of these artists, known as the New York School, met at a place called the Club, which was located at 35 East 8th Street in downtown Manhattan (Morris 424). Some of the major names included in this group were Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Willem De Koonig (Morris 424). The group also included other people such as art students, poets, jazz musicians, psychiatrists, architects, critics and other intellectuals (Morris 424). A member of the club, Dore Ashton, and the author of a book about the New York School described the meetings at the club: From its commencement the Club functioned, as all its members agreed, as a surrogate Parisian cafe .At the same time, in an undefined way, the Club represented a definite attempt to bind together a community, thereby assuring the position of the American painter in his bewildering post-war society. (Morris 425) Paris, before the war was seen as the center for artistic movements. During the war, however,

many of the artists and individuals involved in innovating art itself fled from the country. Following the war France was left poverty stricken, and the center of the art movement shifted across the Atlantic ocean to New York City (Morris 425). Since the 1840s New York was the major terminal for arriving immigrants. Every artists coming from Europe when through New York. The city is also the location of the Museum of Modern Art which was constructed in 1929. Most of the artists of this movement were first or second generation Europeans, and the art reflected the mixture of both cultures (Morris 425). Many of the artists were attracted to the vitality of the city, the chaos and the activity that took place there (Morris 425). A man named Clement Greenberg emerged as the foremost commentator of American art in the 1950s and 1960s. He described the movement as: It is practiced by a group of painters who came to notice in New York about a dozen years ago, and have since become known as the Abstract Expressionists . . . In London, the kind of art in question is called American-type painting . . . it is also the first on its scale to win the serious attention, then the respect, and finally the emulation of a considerable section of the Paris avant-garde. What he described was the emergence of New York as the center for art and culture, surpassing Paris (Morris 426). The American government took not of this artistic movement as well. Because of its association with European art it was often looked at as negative or a possibly dangerous art form (Morris 426). Michigan congressman George Dondero equated modern art with communism. President Truman wrote in his diary on April 4th, 1948 about American Expressionism movement:

Took a walk at 10 a.m. Went to the Mellon Galleryand succeeded in getting the watchman on duty to let me in. Looked at the old masters found in salt mine in Germany. Some very well known paintings by Holbein, Franz Hals, Rubens, Rembrandt and others. It is a pleasure to look at perfection and then think of the lazy, nutty moderns. It is like comparing Christ with Lenin. May there be another awakening. We need an Isaiah, John the Baptist, Martin Luthermay he come soon. (Morris 427) The following president, Dwight Eisenhower, completely changed the governments view on this Abstract Expressionism. He used art to set up Americans cultural identity and attempted to export it to Europe. The administration wanted to use this art movement to fight communism in Europe. The CIA was even involved on covert levels in France and Italy were communism and extreme leftism posed the biggest threat (Morris 427). A significant amount of money was donated by the administration to the Museum of Modern art to create an international program (Morris 427). The art of the Abstract Expressionism movement was a merger between American and European qualities, but the movement itself was uniquely American. It represented the United States as a haven for free thinking, free thoughts and free markets. These ideals were exported around the world and helped shaped our country. The country was looking for something to fill the void after World War II, and these artists and their club filled it.

Works Cited Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press) pp12-13 Morris, Andy. "The Cultural Geographies Of Abstract Expressionism: Painters, Critics, Dealers

nd The Production Of An Atlantic Art." Social & Cultural Geography 6.3 (2005): 42137. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. Shapiro, David/Cecile (2000): Abstract Expressionism. The politics of apolitical painting. p. 18990 In: Frascina, Francis (2000): Pollock and After. The critical debate. 2nd ed. London: outledge