什麼是抽象表現主義

1940年代末在美國畫壇掀起的運動。兩位著名的先驅者是高爾基（Arshile Gorky）和霍夫曼（Hans Hofmann）。時因1930年代末至1940年代初有一大批歐洲的前衛派藝術家來到美國，對紐約畫家影響極大，其中最傑出的是波洛克（Jackson Pollock）、德庫寧（willem de Kooning）、克蘭（Franz Klein）和羅思科（Mark Rothko）。抽象表現主義風格雖然五花八門，但主要有幾個特徵。它們基本上是抽象的，也就是說，他們描繪的各種形狀不是取自自然界。它們強調自由的情緒表達，運用技巧和手法自由揮灑，以一種統一、沒有明顯差別的底色、網路或在非結構空間存在的其他意象來顯示。這些油畫都畫在巨大的畫布上，既加強了視覺效果，也凸顯其巨集偉的氣魄。1950年代期間此運動對美國和歐洲的藝術界產生巨大的衝擊，也象徵了現代繪畫的創作中心從巴黎移轉到紐約。亦請參閱abstract art和action painting。

Abstract Expressionism

Movement in U.S. painting that began in the late 1940s. It had two notable forerunners, Arshile Gorky and Hans Hofmann. The arrival in the late 1930s and early 1940s of many European avant-garde artists greatly influenced the New York painters, most prominent among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko. The movement comprised many styles but shared several characteristics. The works were usually abstract (i.e., they depicted forms not found in the natural world); they emphasized freedom of emotional expression, technique, and execution; they displayed a single unified, undifferentiated field, network, or other image in unstructured space; and the canvases were large, to enhance the visual effect and project monumentality and power. The movement had a great impact on U.S. and European art in the 1950s; it marked the shift of the creative center of modern painting from Paris to New York. See also abstract art, action painting.