A Short, Honest History of Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism is a movement built on a simple premise: that emotion and idea could be conveyed through color, gesture and scale alone, without any recognizable subject standing in the way. It emerged in New York in the 1940s and remains one of the most influential developments in twentieth-century painting. Understanding where abstract expressionist paintings came from helps explain why the movement still shapes so much contemporary color-driven work today. Recognizing that lineage changes how a viewer approaches an abstract painting, less as a puzzle to dec