Art History: Modernist Movement

Modernism spans over a large time and has many different art movements within it. One of the movements that is within modernism is abstract expressionism. Artisit during abstract expressionism include Hans Hoffman, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. All of these artists took an "abstract" approach to creating art. They used different materials and methods for producing a creative peice of art. They created a new sense of appreciation for this type of art and modernized the way art was created.




Hans Hoffman:
Hoffman's most noticed peices mostly have squares and bright colors. The square's sharp, prestine lines contrast with the random splash of color in the background. The sharp hues of the colors combined together are really beautiful to me and I also really love the contrast of the simple squares with the random strokes that surround them.





Franz Kline:
Some of Kline's most recognized peices are ones that are black paint on white canvas. The simple black brush strokes on the bright white background create a strong contrast. The simplicty of the large brushstrokes are very modern and nothing like that had been done before. Also, in some of his peices the black strokes look almost like chinese letters. The lines make no exact symbol, but there is a movement that is created that draws you in.




Jackson Pollock:
Pollock is one of a kind. He took very large canvas' and started off by layering different colored "splatter". He would drip, throw, and splatter pant one layer after another. There is no face or scene of nature, but thats why it was so innovative. The combination of colors and all of the different lines that are splattered together are so striking and beautiful. By the end of the process there was a thick layer of textured colorful drips and splats on enormous backdrops. His work had a simple approach, but by the end it was very abstract.



Mark Rothko:
Rothko's work is very simple, but makes a strong statement. He also took vert large canvas' and simple took a few strong bright colors and essentially painted a combination of squares. It seems too plain to be considered art, but if you look closely you will notice that the're a barely any brushstrokes and there is skill with the blending of colors from where the lines sit beside eachother. The colors he places together compliment eachother and so do the proportions of the squares. His work is very modern and some consider it not art, but he was pushing the limit and creating something no one had done before so therefore I considere that art.