Abstract Expressionism and Modern Art

             In the artistic realm, the artist's thought process is morphologically transformed through the art materials and forms into signs, symbols, and imagery. Signs and symbols play a dominant role in 20th Century art; the artist used this medium as a language to portray intentions of varying differences. Signs and symbols can function on many different levels of fluctuating depth; they may operate via objects or images and may have their origins in visual reality and non-reality visuals.
             Abstraction may present itself in many different forms. It may be approached in the form of philosophical abstraction which uses the ideas and knowledge drawn by a philosopher or philosophers as well as the artist's own understanding of a subject, and re-contextualizes these ideas into signs and symbols of different meanings designed physically as a means of communicating to an audience.
             Abstract expressionism, known affectionately as the high point in modern art, can be one example of philosophical abstraction. American artists at the time of its birth were becoming interested in Jungian and Freudian theories. The psychoanalytical theory was crucial to the development of abstract expressionism, it emphasized mythic archetypes, the unconscious, and non-Western imagery. This genus that began in the 1940s presented the act of painting as an expression of internal, creative, and philosophical energies. Expressionistic abstraction could use large fields of color as the vehicle of expression or dripped and visible brush strokes creating intricate laces of color and texture. Subtle variations in saturation and intensity were agents of mood and aesthetic effect, often creating evocative, gestural, transient, and free imagery. The materiality of the sign became prominent in the consciousness of abstract expressionists. Works mostly made no reference to cultural events and were often of a very large scale and were seen as monumental and important. Artists li...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Abstract Expressionism and Modern Art. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 19:45, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/21108.html