by Alex Storey

Created on: September 21, 2011

Visual language of line, colour and form independent of worldly things is what we call abstract art.  

From the Renaissance onwards art followed the logic of perspective to imitate reality in Europe, however by the twentieth-century alternative visual experiences were required reflecting changes in other academic disciplines.  

Abstraction is a departure with imagery from the real world and this can be anything from slightly to completely and bears no trace of anything recognizable. Partial abstraction might include Picasso’s Cubism which alters real life forms to more geometric shapes.  

Early art such as cave paintings which had a decorative purpose in the cultures they came from would have abstract meaning these days and fall into this area of visual communication.  

Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism in the nineteenth-century represented advanced independence because patronage from the church diminished, thus artists could work more privately and creatively providing often a better livelihood and with this so more abstract paintings appeared with exaggeration, intense colour and greater emotion.  

Many rich cultural influences were brought to America by European artists exhiled during the Nazi rise to power. The climate of freedom encouraged many to defy categorization and the best known group became the Abstract Expressionists as New York was now the focal point of art education, thus people began to gravitate towards it.  

Abstract Expressionism was the first specifically American movement in art to become officially recognized and moved the epicentre of the Academy from Paris to New York.  

Paul Jackson Pollock was a major figure in abstract expressionism and heavily influenced one of arts most famous females, Helen Frankenthaler benchmarking not only a new movement in art but progress in eroding prejudice toward women. Their work together known as stain-and-soak is one of the most innovative contributions made in the 20th century.  

Pollock’s work has been the focus of many important debates and was hailed by Clement Greenberg for his progressive purification in form, eliminating historical content and freshening up the discipline of art history.  

No. 5, 1948 is one of Jackson Pollock’s most famous pieces. With brown and yellow paint drizzled over a fibreboard it forms a nest-like appearance and the picture was sold for a reported $140 million in 2006 to a private collector, thus it stands as one of the worlds most valuable paintings.  

Thanks to its success in New York, the abstract expressionist school spread quickly through the US with another major center being the San Francisco Bay area of California.

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