Contemporary Abstract Expressionism Painters

A literary, intellectual, and imaginative action that started in Paris in 1924 and was active through World War II. Impacted by Sigmund Freud’s writings on therapy, Surrealists, led by André Breton, were thinking about the way the irrational, involuntary brain could go beyond the constraints regarding the logical world. Surrealism expanded away from dissatisfaction with old-fashioned personal values and artistic practices after World War I.

In preferred currently talking about therapy, the unit associated with the mind containing the sum of the all ideas, memories, impulses, desires, thoughts, etc., that aren't subject to a person’s perception or control but that often affect mindful ideas and behavior (noun). The Surrealists derived much inspiration from psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s theories on hopes and dreams as well as the workings associated with subconscious brain.

Abstract Expressionism and Psychoanalysis
Like the Surrealists before them, many Abstract Expressionist painters had been enthusiastic about psychoanalysis plus the theories of Carl Jung, whom identified specific urban myths and archetypes indicative of exactly what he called a collective unconscious. Within the 1940s, musicians like Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock believed that they could make use of universal symbols to evoke particular thoughts in the viewer.

Concerns & tasks

1. Barnett Newman stated, “After the monstrosity of war, just what do we do? What's there to color? We have to start all over again.”

   Can artists ever completely shed tradition to generate a brand new type of art? Or tend to be musicians and artists constantly bound into the art that arrived before all of them?

   Show. Share your ideas in a one-page essay. Point to specific artistic details into the works of Newman as well as other Abstract Expressionist to support your argument.

2. In the 1960s, Barnett Newman created cracked Obelisk as a memorial to his times. What would a monument representing early 2000s appear to be? What type of materials would you use to make it? Just what would it celebrate or critique in regards to the current moment?

   Draw or write a description for this modern-day monument.