| Action Painting - The Concept and History | | | | quite experimental and revolutionary, ranging from |
| Action Painting is a form of Abstract Art from | | | | kitchen knives to bicycles! |
| the United States that came into existence | | | | The Details |
| around the 1940s. Also referred to as 'Gestural | | | | Pollock is said to have employed a highly |
| Abstraction,' the style relies heavily on the | | | | unorthodox method of using his 'painting' tools on |
| unencumbered movement of a wide range of | | | | a canvas cloth mounted on the floor. He used his |
| colors, on the base. There are various ways to | | | | hands and wrists, sometimes even his whole body |
| achieve it - by dripping, by staining, by overlaying, | | | | to apply the paint, rejecting all the conventions of |
| or by splashing colors on the canvas to produce | | | | using the traditional brush and easel. However, the |
| an effect of 'spontaneity.' art critic Harold | | | | function of brush was not totally done away with, |
| Rosenberg coined the term 'Action Painting' to | | | | by all the painters of this genre. Brushwork in |
| describe the newly developed style of the leading | | | | Action Paintings, set in oil paint medium, was |
| Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock (American | | | | usually bold and vigorous. The artists did not wipe |
| - 1912-56) and Willem De Kooning (Dutch - | | | | the excess paint on the bristles before applying |
| 1904-97). The two went on to become the | | | | the brush on the base surface, which gave the |
| torchbearers of Action Painting. | | | | finished works, a smeared and raw look. This |
| The Correlations | | | | natural appeal became the most distinguishing trait |
| It is believed that the Action Painters drew their | | | | of Action Painting. |
| inspiration from an unconventional approach of the | | | | The Artists and the Artworks |
| Surrealists of 1920s and 1930s, known as | | | | During its two decade-long tenure, among the |
| 'Automatism.' It involved the free expression of | | | | most significant names that associated with |
| artistic brainwaves through the involuntary hand | | | | Action Painting, were Franz Kline (1910-62), Robert |
| movements of the painter, over the canvas. The | | | | Motherwell (1915-91), Philip Guston (1913-80), Sam |
| underlying philosophy of 'Automatism' was an | | | | Francis (1923-94), and Helen Frankenthaler (born |
| attempt to establish a psychic connection with the | | | | 1928). Jackson Pollock's 'Painting (Silver over Black, |
| viewer. On the similar lines, the proponents of | | | | White, Yellow, and Red)' & 'The Deep,' Franz |
| action works meant to represent their innermost | | | | Kline's 'Merce C' & 'C & O,' and Sam |
| thoughts, in a way that awakened the | | | | Francis' 'In Lovely Blueness,' are some of the |
| subconscious patterns of the viewer's fancies. | | | | signature works of this dynamic style of painting. |
| The tools for the execution of these works were | | | | |