action painting

American  

Or Action Painting

noun

1. Also called tachism.  a style of American abstract expressionist painting typified especially in the works of Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s, in which the furiously energetic and free application of the paint is seen as being expressive of the psychological and emotional state of the artist at the moment of creation.

2. abstract expressionism.

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action painting British  

noun

1. Also called: tachisme.  a development of abstract expressionism evolved in the 1940s, characterized by broad vigorous brush strokes and accidental effects of thrown, smeared, dripped, or spattered paint See also abstract expressionism

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Other Word Forms

• action painter noun

Etymology

Origin of action painting

An Americanism dating back to 1950–55

Example Sentences

He keeps his studio door open to Marvin, who studied art history at Yale and comes alive when talking about such things as the bold gestures of action painting.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2024

Dubbed "action painting," Pollock drew in the space above the canvas -- creating shapes in the air which would fall to the canvas below.

From Science Daily • Oct. 31, 2023

Mr. Metzger discovered his ideal medium for auto-destructive art with a form of action painting.

From Washington Post • Mar. 2, 2017

A 1956 action painting by Franz Kline, “Shenandoah,” had belonged to the New York collectors Robert C. Scull, the taxicab tycoon who died in 1986, and his wife, Ethel, who died in 2001.

From New York Times • Sep. 6, 2012

The ants were, together with the New Yorkers, an abstraction, a live mobile, an action painting, a piece of found art, a happening, a parody, depending on the light.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas