32 EXPRESSION IN THE ABSTRACT
TRANSMITTING FEELING THROUGH NON-OBJECTIVE IMAGERY
Art can elicit a powerful emotional response from the viewer by using abstract rather than figurative means. Abstract Expressionism, a 1950s American-based art movement, was the first to explore the possibilities of this approach. Its principal exponents were Willem De Kooning (1904–97), Jackson Pollock (1912–56), and Robert Motherwell (1915–91). These painters stripped down and fragmented figurative elements, remaking them as dynamic visual features composed of paint marks, drips, splashes, and heavily built surfaces. This new vocabulary was deployed in large-scale canvases creating a flattened pictorial space and bringing about a whole new form of painting.
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