Art Movements of the 1950s
Abstract Expressionism was the first American art movement to acheive worldwide influence and one that put New York City at the centre of the art world. A role normally filled by Paris.
After WWII, with images of the Holocaust everywhere, it seemed redundant for socially aware artists to paint these same images. A photograph at that time was much more powerful. Artists began to explore colour, shape and to paint entire canvasses one colour.
It combined the emotional intensity of German expressionism and the anti-figurative aesthetic of european abstract schools such as Futurism, the Bauhaus and cubism.
Action painting Jackson Pollack, Franz Kline and Willem De Kooning
Jackson Pollack
Franz Kline
Willem De Kooning
Colour Field and Hard Edge painting Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Helen Frankenhaler
Mark Rothko
Barnett Newman
Helen Frankenthaler
Op Art Bridget Riley, Victor Vaserely, Richard Allen
Victor Vaserely
Bridget Riley
Pop Art Emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and the late 50s in US. Pop art started as a rebellion against Abstract Expressionism, which was considered to be pretentious and over intense
British Pop Artists The Independent Group
Richard Hamilton, John McHale Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Richard Hamilton
American Pop Artists
Roy Lichenstein, Jaspar Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg
Roy Lichtenstein
Jasper Johns
Robert Rauschenburg
Andy Warhol
Claes Oldenburg