Abstract Expressionism is a form of art in which the artist expresses himself purely through the use of form and color. It is form of non-representational, or non-objective, art, which means that there are no concrete objects represented.

This movement of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the mid-1940s and attained singular prominence in American art in the following decade; also called action painting and the New York school. It was the first important school in American painting to declare its independence from European styles and to influence the development of art abroad. “Arshile Gorky first gave impetus to the movement. His paintings, derived at first from the

Abstract expressionism presented a broad range of stylish diversity within its large, though not exclusively, nonrepresentational framework. “For example, the expressive violence and activity in paintings by de Kooning or Pollock marked the opposite end of the pole from the simple, quiescent images of Mark Rothko. Basic to most abstract expressionist painting were the attention paid to surface qualities, i.e., qualities of brushstroke and texture, the use of huge canvases, the adoption of an approach to space in which all parts of the canvas played an equally vital role in the total work, the harnessing of accidents that occurred during the process of painting; the glorification of the act of painting itself as a means of visual communication, and the attempt to transfer pure emotion directly onto the canvas.” The movement had a great influence on the many varieties of work that followed it, especially in the way its proponents used color and materials. “Its essential energy transmitted an enduring excitement to the American art scene.” says I. Sandler.

Not all the artists associated with the term produced either purely abstract, or purely Expressionist work: Harold Rosenburg preferred the phrase Action Pa

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