Abstract Expressionism as a Profound Style of Painting - Case Study Example

Expressionism Expressionism and the St Ives Group Expressionism, 2 Expressionismand the St Ives Group Abstract Expressionism is a profound style of painting that greatly impacted the progression of the concept of the abstract during the Modern period of art. The Modern period is generally considered to have begun around 1860 and have lasted into the 1970’s. Abstract Expressionism was a style that was considered to have been embraced to describe an American influence of work that was created in the 1940’s by artists such as Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, and Mark Tobey. However, these influenced reached across the world to the European artists and created movements within the working groups. The St. Ives School, while not the founders of Abstract Expressionism, were greatly influenced by these American works and in new and profound ways, reached back across the ocean to the American artists and greatly impacted the Abstract Expressionist movement. Pollack, No 5 1948 Rothko, #20 1957 Tobey, Canticle, 1954 Abstract Expressionism, 3 The term ‘Abstract Expressionism’ is a term that is most generally applied to a group of artists working in America in the city of New York during post World War II. This movement is considered the first American movement to have a worldwide influence. While the term was first used to describe this movement in 1946 by art critic Robert Coates, the term was first found in Germany in the magazine Der Sturm in 1919 to describe German Expressionism. Alfred Bar used the term in 1929 to describe the work of Wassily Kandinsky. "Colour is the key. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many chords.” These are the words of Wassily Kandinsky, a musically and spiritually influenced Russia-born painter and abstract art theorist, considered to be the ‘Father of Abstract Art’. (Jubbs, 2008) Jubbs goes on to describe the influence of Kandinsky: Kandinsky played a pivotal role in the development of abstract expressionism. He was one of the first artists to explore the theories of pure or non- representational abstraction. In the course of evolvement of his art, he moved from organic and fluid to geometric and ultimately to pictographic styles.(Jubbs, 2008) The movement is entitled ‘Abstract Expressionist” because of the influences of emotionally intense German Expressionists with the embrace of the abstract schools of Futurism, the Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism amongst others. The work may be described as an effort to completely make devoid the representational for the basic sense expression. The particular light of seaside Cornwall was what first attracted artists to the area of West Cornwall around the small town of St Ives. From the mid 1860’s when the availability of tube paints meant that artists were no longer confined to their studios, they Abstract Expressionism, 4 had the freedom to paint easily outside. This had led to the Impressionists in France and was part of the attraction to the small Cornish town. An artist’s colony was established there in the 19th century which continues to thrive. The group were not all Impressionists however, nor did they all create abstract art, but the group began in the 19th century, with conventional, if impressionistic, landscape artists such as Barlow. As St Ives took on a philosophy and began to form a ‘School’ of thought, from which the development of the work was met with a mixture of reactions. As well, the work became distinctive with it’s environmental influences and as the artists embraced the natural world around them. David Christopher, in his book British Culture, speaks of the mutual influence and differences that the St Ives School shared with the American artists as he reveals the influences of the work on the culture. The center for bohemian and artistic activity in post-war Britain was the small fishing village of St Ives in south-west England. Its local community of artists was as the St Ives School, whose constituents (such as Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, Roger Hilton, and William Gear) regularly contributed work to the prestigious exhibitions held at the Royal Academy. The group were influenced by the powerful cultural waves coming out of America and began representing the village and landscapes in the new Abstract Impressionist forms. But their technique was less dramatic and expressive. It consisted of a laborious application of greens, grays, and other dark hues. These were considered honest and authentic colours, necessary for making faithful representations of the natural environment. (Christopher, p. 159-160) As the concept began to reach critical acclaim and was becoming a more influential movement in Europe, the St Ives School was already participating heavily in the advancement of these ideas. There was, however a tendency to ignore the influence that the St. Ives was generating. The painter and critic Patrick Heron leapt to the defense of British art, Abstract Expressionism, 5 detecting a degree of ‘cultural imperialism’ on the part of America’s art cognoscenti. Aggrieved that the Modernist had failed to acknowledge that the ‘first invaluable bridgehead of approval’ for Abstract Expressionism had been formed in Britain, he astutely recognized that the increasing tendency in (Post-Painterly) abstraction towards flatness, symmetry, and a ’centered dominant format’ was fundamentally at odds with ’European resources of sensibility’. According to Heron, European abstraction tended towards a ‘recomplication’ of the pictorial field, favoring a resolution of ’asymmetrical, unequal, disparate formal ingredients’ in terms of an overall ’architectonic harmony’ (Hopkins, p. 32) This desire for recognition for the achievements of the St Ives School by Heron led him to suggest that the work was simultaneously created with the American work, although he acknowledged that the movement had begun in New York. In spelling out in dates and paintings how he personally had by several years got in ahead of, say, Morris Louis, with his vertical stripe paintings, Heron seemed to suggest that St Ives and New York were doing the same kind of thing. Certainly there were cross-influences between the two, and the Americans looked at the work of the St Ives group as well as vice versa, but the roots of the Americans lay in European Symbolism and Expressionism, whereas the St Ives group were closer to the English landscape tradition, or, in Herons case, to the school of Paris. (McNay, 2008) In his work to champion the accomplishments of his fellow St Ives artists, he worked to express definitive differences that would singularize the St Ives School and their work. After the World War II, a great change had begun in the art world. This new influence, starting in America and spreading over the European art world would inspire new works of art. St Ives was a part of this ‘discussion’ of western art and had a strong leadership in the advancement of the Abstract Expressionists. By the late 1950’s, St Ives painting attracted American artists and critics as visitors, while artists of Cornwall regularly exhibited in New York. Combining readily identifiable local roots with a modern, international idiom, this painting was taken as evidence that British art was sufficiently innovatory to slot into the international mainstream and sufficiently porous to enable its Abstract Expressionism, 6 relationship to French and American models to be acknowledged without reducing it to satellite status. (Garlake, p. 7) British art was at the forefront of new discovery and the St Ives School lead these awakenings. As critics like Peter Heron encouraged the innovation of the School and worked to bring attention to its unique voice. However, Peter Heron embraced the influence of the American painters to develop his own work that was in the style of tachist as he used dabs and strokes of the brush with thinned paint that would let the color drip and form of itself. One can see this in his Garden series of paintings as exampled by Azalea Garden. Heron, Azalea Garden 1956 In the introduction for the catalogue of his showing in 1953 called Space in Colour, Heron wrote: Colour is the utterly indispensable means for realizing the various species of pictorial space . . . Pictorial space, I have suggested, is an Abstract Expressionism, 7 illusion of depth behind the actual canvas. It may also be a projection - of plane or mass - apparently in front of the canvas. But the existence of pictorial space implies the partial obliteration of the canvas’s surface from our consciousness. This is the role of colour: to push back or bring forward the required section of the design. (article provided) As he stated, the use of color as the definitive expression, or voice of an artistic work dominated the Abstract Expressionistic movement. In his 1952 essay ‘Getting Inside the Canvas’ Harold Rosenburg describes how one artist after another seemed to realize that, rather than just being a space in which to reproduce an object , whether actual or imagined, a canvas could become ‘an arena in which to act ‘. This type of painting would first be known as action painting , but would later take the title of Abstract Expressionism. As RosenBurg goes on to explain, objects had to go in order to make room for real art – ‘perfect relationships between space and colour.’ André Lanskoy, a Russian artist writing in 1951 said:- Painting was always abstract, but one did not notice it. When one no longer looks for apples, trees, or young girls in a picture the word abstract will become redundant. It is not what enters the painters eye which enriches a picture, but what springs from his brush. (Lanskoy) Sue Hubbard quotes Winifred Nicholson, Ben Nicholson’s first wife as saying:- To say a thing was modern was to say it was good, sweeping away Victorian, Edwardian, Old Theology, Old Tory views. In the new world there would be no slums, no unnecessary palm trees, no false ornament – but clarity, white walls, simplicity.(Hubbard) Miss Hubbard sees Nicholson’s white reliefs, which he began to create as early as 1934, as being very English and, as in America, to do with throwing off the dark constrants of earlier art forms. She describes how, when he left his wife for abstract sculptor Barbara Hepworth, he became influenced by Cubist ideas, but goes on to say that by the 1940’s he Abstract Expressionism, 8 was again painting still lifes, not so much abstract impressionism as Nicholson’s version of cubism. Ben Nicholson became a member of the St Ives Society of Artists, the official name of the artists of the St Ives School, in 1943. His work began turning toward the abstract between 1945. The work of Nicholson tends to run a bit more toward the cubist, as seen here in his 1951 painting, March. Nicholson, March 1951 Even amongst themselves, the St Ives artists had a differing opinion of what expression their art should take. Since 1927, the St Ives Society of Artists were in Abstract Expressionism, 9 dominance in exhibitions in St Ives. However, with the arrival of Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, and Naum Gabo, a new type of modern group was surfacing. While their work was shown in the exhibitions, they found that it was not hung in prime areas of viewing. These artists, in reaction to the less notable positions, formed what became known as the Crypt Group. The members of the Crypt Group had three showings in the crypt of the church where the St Ives Society hung its exhibitions, two in 1947 and one in 1948. These artists formed the Penwith Society of Arts in 1948, abandoning the need for the Crypt Group, but establishing a separate identity for the Modern artists. “Principal members included Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Bryan Wynter.” ( Tate Online, Crypt) The members of the group broke from the more conservative artists of the Society and banded together to promote their abstract ideals and support artistic innovation. A founding member of the Penwith Society of Arts, as stated in the previous paragraph, was Peter Lanyon. His work is renowned as some of the leading work of the time. His sculptural pieces were originally intended to work as constructions from which to model his paintings, but eventually would be seen as works of art. He found his inspiration in landscape, using a glider to sore over the countryside and visualize influences for his work. Abstract Expressionism, 10 Lanyon, Porthleven Boats 1950-51 “In the post-war generation, the St Ives-born painter Peter Lanyon created a distinctive fusion of landscape and abstract elements, advocating that art could be both technically audacious and rooted in a sense of locality.”(Tate Online) The powerful strokes and impassioned colors of his work was inspirational to those who followed his vision. However, there is disagreement as to the category of style that one can assign his paintings. Lanyon, Solo Flight 1960 This disconnection from the Abstract Expressionists creates a controversy about his work. “Though Lanyon’s work has been compared to William de Kooning, - and it is indeed, sometimes loosely described as abstract expressionism - there is no sense of close Abstract Expressionism, 11 connection between their painting.” (Garlake, 2003 p7) Even with this disconnection, the work of Lanyon has been some of the most influential coming form the St Ives artists. With a strong sense of direction, the St Ives School influenced the Abstract Expressionists with their landscape inspired work. While they did not always completely abandon representation, they embraced the meaning of color and the strength of the visual impact that could be created by bold strokes and strong statements. As the development of their style was growing along side the work in New York, artists like Peter Heron fought for the place that the St Ives School would take in the history of art. Artists like Peter Lanyon would carve new visions with their nature inspired work. While it would be inaccurate to say that the Abstract Expressionism began in St Ives, it would be very accurate to describe the work that developed as some of the most influential and strong work of the time. This work exemplifies some of the best work that has come out of the Britain art world. Abstract Expressionism, 12 Works Cited Christopher, David. (1999) British Culture. Routledge, London. Garlake, Margaret and Lanyon, Peter, (2003) The Drawings of Peter Lanyon. Ashgate Publishing, Lmt, Aldershot Hants. Hopkins, David, (2000) After Modern Art: 1945-2000, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Hubbard,S., A Continuous Line: Ben Nicholson in England, Abbot Hall, Kendal, The Independent Art, 15th July 2008 available from http://www.independent.co.uk/ar ts-entertainment/art/reviews/a-continuous-line-ben-nicholson-in-england-abbot- hall-kendal-867472.html accessed 19th November 2008 Jubbs, Mark, Famous Artists Series - Wassily Kandinsky; Abstract Expressionism Artist, Website Articles.Net: Only Top Quality Content from Todays Expert Authors, 11, August 2008 available from http://www.website-articles.net/Article/Famous- Artists-Series---Wassily-Kandinsky--Abstract-Expressionism-Artist/28708 accessed 28 November 2008 Lanskoy, A., Art d’aujourdhui, Paris, October 1951, quoted by Michael Seuphor, Dictionary of Abstract Art: With a History of Abstract Art, page 205, Tudor Publishing New York, 1957 available from Questia Online Library at http://www.questia.com/read/6727100?title=Dictionary%20of%20Abstract%20Pa inting%3a%20With%20a%20History%20of%20Abstract%20Painting accessed 19th November 2008 McNay, Michael, The Colour of Genius: Patrick Heron, Guardian Unlimited 22, March 1999 available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3 841777,00.html accessed 28 November 2008 Rosenburg, H., Getting Inside the Canvas, from ‘The American Action Painters’, Art News, New York, December 1952, pages 22ff Tate Online. History of Art in St Ives: What is St Ives Art?, available from http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/art-in-stives/default.shtm accessed 28 November 2008 Tate Online. Crypt Group, available from http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossar y/definition.jsp?entryId=79 accessed 28 November 2008 Read More