During the course of this class we have learned about several different types of art, through different periods of time in history. The one that stands out to me the most is Abstract Expressionism. Abstract Expressionism is an artistic movement of the mid-20th century compromising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist’s liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually nonrepresentational means. The artist that I believe have a very large influence in this time period is Jackson Pollock, Norman Lewis, and Heather Frankenthaler. I believe they helped in making large contributions to this movement in art at the time.
First I would like to start off with Norman Lewis and his piece “Twilight Sounds (1957)”. Norman was an African American painter who was very well associated with abstract expressionism. In this piece it has many colors and lines to give the viewer eyes into the city. He depicts it as being very busy and diverse. At the time of this painting there were large amounts of poverty and issues with social class. It was created around the time of World War II era. He saw all of these things occurring in the urban areas due to social classes being defined a lot more. This piece fits into to the time period due to the message the artist is trying to convey to the audience, and the colors draw you into the organized chaos. As well as there are no specific pictures or symbols to make you understand what is exactly in the picture but once you learn about the times you clearly understand what he is trying to get across to the viewer. After the war there was a large amount of chaos in communities and neighborhoods not knowing what life were going to be like after the great war. So there was much chaos and know clear understanding of the future. He does an excellent job of showing how it related to their where he was living. Next I would like to talk about Heather Frankenthaler whose work debuted during the high point of the Abstract Expressionism. The piece of work that I chose was “Mountains and Seas (1952)”. She was considered a large contributor for the postwar American painting and she was also heavily influenced by Jackson
Pollock . In this painting she uses lines, shapes and light colors to give such large visual for the viewer. This marked the beginning for her to issue paintings with a softer look and openness of emotions. They stated in the text that she painted this painting a day after coming from a visit to Nova Scotia. This painting helped launch her career in abstract expressionism. In this painting she is depicting the visualization of the beauty of the sea and landscape and the light colors give you an idea of certain calmness on the sea. A beautiful piece of artwork and you as the viewer should feel the need to be swept away in the scenery of the painting. The last influential artist of the time is Jackson Pollock. He was influential to the times and very influential on the artist I discussed. The painting I chose from
Jackson Pollock is “Autumn Rhythm(1950)”. This is form called drip painting, which many consider a radical approach to handling paint. The lines and splats of paint that are used resemble the feeling of an autumn day with leaves and trees blowing. In creating this painting he used sticks, towels, knives, pretty much anything that was considered nontraditional at the time. At this time he was battling with the diseases of alcoholism. Even though it does somewhat show with the wildness of paint design. The painting is described as being dynamic in visualization with pooling lines in colors. He used a large part of spontaneity in his work but he still admitted to having control over the paint flow to produce his artwork. Between the three of them they give a true detail of what abstract expressionism is and what three different landscape views could mean to different people. They all use lines and shape in order to express their feelings and to draw the viewer into understand there concept on what they are trying to express. To me they bring to life what they wanted to express in perfect form. I am captivated by the city of Harlem through Normn Lewis’s eyes. Then taken on a seaside escape with the Helen Frankenthaler with her visions of Nova Scotia. Then taken to an autumn day with Jackson Pollock as he deals with personal issues through abstract expressionism. Images:

References:
Metropolitan Museum: Autumn Rhythm(number 30) http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/57.92 National Gallery of Art; Washington, D.C. “Mountains and Sea” http://www.artchive.com/artchive/F/frankenthaler/frankenthaler_mtns.jpg.html Norman Lewis http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/arts/nlewis.html http://www.artnet.com/artists/norman-lewis/
Prebles’ Artforms; Tenth edition by Patrick Frank, published by Pearson