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Abstract Expressionism is an umbrella term that refers to the direction in abstract art of the 1940s and 1950s of which the essence was the spontaneous artistic assertion of the artist in a non-objective visual expression. As a style it is diverse, but two main tendencies developed distinct traditions: action painting and abstract image painting. The movement is significant because it shifted the focus of the art world from Europe to the United States, specifically New York, hence the name New York School. Jackson Pollock is perhaps the best known of the Abstract Expressionist painters. He is famous for his action painting, which is a dynamic, spontaneous method of applying paint by dripping, splattering and splashing large canvases on the floor without preconceived notions of what the painting will look like (Lucifer). In the late 1950 and early 1960s Mark Rothko's Orange, Brown, Ad Reinhardt, and Clifford Still developed abstract image painting by simplifying form to non-gestural flat areas of color. The presence of the painting is paramount and all extraneous elements, light, motion, figuration, etc. is eliminated so the total visual experience is left to the beholder leaving the artist essentially isolated from the experience. These experiments in “pure” abstraction freed future generations of artist to explore the possibilities of their media without constraint and their work is featured in the category: Darian Chase's Theory in Color, Pietro Adamo's Triad II.
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