Main content
Course: The Museum of Modern Art > Unit 1
Lesson 4: Abstract Expressionism- AB EX NY: MoMA and Abstract Expressionism
- Jackson Pollock
- The Painting Techniques of Jackson Pollock
- Mark Rothko
- The Painting Techniques of Mark Rothko
- Franz Kline
- The Painting Techniques of Franz Kline
- Barnett Newman
- The Painting Techniques of Barnett Newman
- Ad Reinhardt
- The Painting Techniques of Ad Reinhardt
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
AB EX NY: MoMA and Abstract Expressionism
Take the online course Modern and Contemporary Art: 1945-1989 to find out what happens next or experiment with Abstract Expressionist painting techniques in the online course, Materials and Techniques of Postwar painting. Created by The Museum of Modern Art.
Want to join the conversation?
- What is the purpose of this genre? All I see when I look at this stuff are attempts to be as far removed as possible from the beautiful pieces of past masters.(6 votes)
- I Believe that the purpose of this genre is to give the viewer a place to contemplate something beyond the ordinary form, line, and composition of other works of art. It places the viewer within the work and allows them to form an opinion from within, forming question in one's mind as to where the work came from or where it may go. Giving those that take the time to enter the depth of the painting to come out the other side with a new perspective as to how they view the world around them.(2 votes)
- I'm really adoring this series. I was wondering if anyone knew of any good books that I could read on abstract impressionism, or biographies of the artists, Pollock, Rothko, Kline, Newman etc?(3 votes)
- I also want to know detailed information for some of the works showend this video so that I can follow and dig more into them. (sorry this is not the answer for you I mean I have same question and feelings with you)(3 votes)
- Why is my video not working?(1 vote)
Video transcript
This exhibition assembles more than a hundred
works of art made by Abstract Expressionist artists in
the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. What's amazing to me is they all come from the collection of this
museum. For me, it was very important to do this exhibition
-- for two reasons. One is the sheer pleasure and the sheer, I
felt, importance of, fifty or sixty years later, looking again at Abstract Expressionism. It's become something so identified with New
York and with MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art), and something that we take for granted -- almost
as much as we take something like French Impressionism
for granted. Like, "Oh yes, those beautiful landscapes
by Monet." And I thought, over the last year or two, that this is painting and sculpture that we need to look at again, and -- now that it's the 21st century -- see what of it really carries forward its message into this next century. It's been a long time now since that work got a serious reconsideration. I think it's going to be exhilarating, frankly, to see the power of these objects in the galleries
-- the ambition, the sheer majesty and grandeur
of this art -- because that's very much what its creators
wanted it to be, is something that is knocking my socks off, anyway, all over again. But the other reason that I wanted to do this
exhibition is to point out to our visitors that what
you normally see at The Museum of Modern Art, you're seeing the tip of an iceberg. The real Museum of Modern Art is not what you see on the walls and the galleries when you're walking through as a visitor. The real Museum of Modern Art is in our drawing
center, in our print center, in our photography study
center, where there are just hundreds and thousands
of works of art that we've collected over the decades, but that obviously there isn't a space to
show on a regular basis. So for me, this is actually quite a thrilling
opportunity to have our visitors get the chance to walk through what is actually, in total, 25,000 square feet worth of gallery space
-- all devoted to one subject -- that people can immerse themselves in, can
really dig into. Instead of just seeing the normal two or three
paintings by Mark Rothkoe, see ten paintings by Mark
Rothkoe. Instead of just seeing the big names like
Mark Rothkoe or Jackson Pollock, see works by artists such
as Jack Tworkov, William Baziotes, Grace Hartigan,
Lee Krasner -- people who were incredibly important at that
time, and who had major, major impact on their peers. And yet, over time, their names have not been remembered as well. The Museum of Modern Art is often very closely identified with Abstract Expressionism. We were on hand for Abstract Expressionism's
birth. In small part, at least, one can say, because MoMA did exist, and because MoMA was
here to show that art from the first half of the
century by European greats, such as Matisse and Picasso
-- to young artists at work in New York. Although we are so closely identified with Abtract Expressionism today -- (And, indeed, our collection is the richest
in the world.) -- in the beginning, this museum was slow to come to Abstract Expressionism. It was not obvious at the end of the 40s that this was a movement that had some kind of
coherence, and was going to be as great, if not greater, than these earlier European avant gardes. We did buy a painting by a Pollock -- a painting by Pollock -- from his first show at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in 1943. And we made other historic purchases like
that. In fact, our first Rothkoe painting, which was offered as a gift from a trustee, (Philip Johnson, the architect, in fact, in
1952) caused another trustee to resign in disgust. The early trustees and the early audience was not necessarily ready for Abstract Expressionism. And so I think the curators were conscious
of that, and wanted to take it slow. In 1958, we organized an exhibition called 'The New American Painting.' It toured to eight countries in Europe. The influence of that exhibition was enormous
on painters in France, Switzerland, England, Spain, Italy,
etc. And when that exhibition was done with its
tour, it came back and was here at MoMA in 1959
-- 'The New American Painting.' And that kind of sealed the movement as a
great, important art historical phenomenon of the
20th century.