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abstract expressionism

noun

  1. a movement in experimental, nonrepresentational painting originating in the U.S. in the 1940s, with sources in earlier movements, and embracing many individual styles marked in common by freedom of technique, a preference for dramatically large canvases, and a desire to give spontaneous expression to the unconscious.


abstract expressionism

noun

  1. a school of painting in New York in the 1940s that combined the spontaneity of expressionism with abstract forms in unpremeditated, apparently random, compositions See also action painting tachisme
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


abstract expressionism

  1. A school of art that flourished primarily from the 1940s to the 1960s, noted for its large-scale, nonrepresentational works by artists such as Willem de Kooning , Jackson Pollock , and Mark Rothko .


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Other Words From

  • abstract expressionist noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of abstract expressionism1

An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
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Example Sentences

Thomas’s work has long been associated with the Washington Color School and, more generally, abstract expressionism, embracing the color psychology of the former and the action-packed canvases of the latter.

Their size, their subtlety, their lack of any representational material and their use of monochromatic wax and encaustic all seem to suggest an effort to domesticate the male-dominated world of abstract expressionism.

Di Bello described the color-splashed works as “abstract expressionism” with “surrealist” methods.

At the most fundamental level, Abstract Expressionism evokes existential angst for instance, and Pop Art satirizes consumerism.

Abstract Expressionism defined the artistic climate in which the photographs for The Americans were produced.

“Jasper and I used to start each day by having to move out from Abstract Expressionism,” Rauschenberg once said.

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