CHAMPAIGN, IL.- In the late 1940s and early 1950s, artists living in New York produced a truly American mode of artistic expression amidst the influence of European modernist expatriates. Although they would be referred to as the New York School, the artists would not consider themselves a cohesive group. Working in diverse styles, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and others responded to the social tension brought on by the Great Depression and the end of World War II by turning inward. The physical immediacy of their medium became increasingly important, as did the overall process of making art, particularly the expression of the artist’s ideas in the throes of creation. Instead of depicting representational forms or constructing blatantly political images, they utilized highly abstracted forms and expanses of color to create a visceral experience for the viewer.

Abstract Expressionism, as it came to be called, absorbed European modernist trends to varying degrees. Pollock experimented with Surrealist spontaneity and automatic drawing, and de Kooning’s violent, gestural brushstrokes evoke the dynamic line and deeply felt emotion of Expressionism. Two categories, “action painting” and “color field painting,” emerged from the disparate styles of the New York School, with the former exemplified by heavily worked canvases of loosely applied layers of paint and the latter characterized by areas of thinly applied solid color. Although the majority of artists during this period primarily worked in paint, there were sculptors and photographers who explored similar concepts and methods. This installation presents a collection of works selected from the holdings of Krannert Art Museum that are representative of and influenced by Abstract Expressionist artists.