Abstract expressionism was stared as an American art movement during World War II. In

abstract expressionism, the painter typically applies paint rapidly, and with force to show

feelings and emotions, some times even throwing paint on to the canvas. The expressive method

of painting was often considered as important as the painting it self. Mostly done by Paris,

abstract expressionism was the first American movement to achieve worldwide influence and

made New York City the center of the art world. The term "Abstract expressionism" was first

used to describe a painting in a German magazine Der Sturm, they referred it to German

Expressionism. In 1929, Alfred Barr related the works of Wass and abstract Expressionism, and

was the first to use it.By the 1951, the term abstract expressionism was used for all non-

geometric abstraction art.

With in the abstract movement, there were two distinct groups: " colour field artists that

included Rothko, Newman, and Still who worked with simple unified blocks of colour; and

gestural painters like Pollock, De Kooning ans Hofman.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/abex.html
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/abstractexpr.html