A deliberately chosen compound word to suggest the merging of two elements. One is the non-representational abstract art. The other is liberal use of the emotional input from expressionism.
Abstract expressionism developed in new York city during the 1940s and reached maturity in the 1950s. The art was also loosely referred to as the New York School. Beyond that, the movement and its members embraced a large variety of styles. Typically the result was a bold, forceful statement and large in scale. Accidental effects are welcome guests in the overall results. One important figure of the movement, Jackson Pollock, gave rise to the term ‘action painting’ and ‘drip’ or pouring paintings. The group of abstract expressionists included Barnett Newman, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottliep, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Philip Guston and Robert Motherwell.
You can read more about abstract expressionism here, and about art movements here.
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