The New York School of Art by Heather Smith

September 18, 2008 · Posted in Artistic Styles 

No. 5 by Jackson Pollock

As Europe slowly recovered from the devastation of World War II, a unique phenomenon occurred in the art world. The focus of the artistic community, normally centered in Europe, suddenly turned to New York, giving the artists there a unique chance to have their voices heard.

The New York School of art grew out of the 1950s beat generation and includes the ensuing art movements in the 1950s and 1960s. Essentially, this art movement grew out of the camaraderie of a wide artistic circle living and working in New York City.

Early on, this movement focused on abstract expressionism, which utilized abstract images and visuals to create a strong emotional intensity within the work. This was a careful blending of the power of the Expressionists and the bold visuals of Futurism and Cubism. The New York School of abstract expressionism was actually represented in very different ways by artists such as Pollock and de Kooning.

As the 1950s progressed, artists began to react to the popular culture that was becoming pervasive as America moved into the 1960s. Born out of this popular culture saturation, Pop art aimed to utilize common images in the culture and wittily create a statement that denied the personal expression of the artist. Andy Warhol, undoubtedly one of the most well-known Pop artists, was especially fond of reproducing such banal objects as soup cans and Brillo boxes to poke fun at the elitist art movements. Other New York Pop artists included Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns.

Campbell’s Soup No. 1 by Andy Warhol

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_School

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/p/popart.html

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