In the aftermath of the Second World War, artists in Europe and America developed radically new forms of painting and sculpture.
War and occupation in Europe created a mood of dislocation and existential unease. Artists explored ways of depicting the human body as vulnerable, wounded and isolated, while new forms of expressive abstraction also began to emerge. In the work of artists such as Alberto Giacometti and Jean Dubuffet, violence and restlessness in the handling of materials contributed to a sense of uncertainty. Some artists looked beyond the traditions of Western art for alternative sources of inspiration. The CoBrA group found vital role models in non-Western artefacts, children’s art and graffiti.
In New York, a number of younger painters, coming to maturity under the influence of newly arrived émigré artists from Europe, progressively abandoned representation. Interested in process and in following intuition, their paintings became a record of physical gestures and psychological presence. Their work ranged from Jackson Pollock’s lyrical surfaces in which paint is poured or dripped onto the canvas, to Mark Rothko’s moody evocation of atmosphere through expansive colour. However, all shared a desire to break away from tradition and make paintings which revealed the artist’s inner world and explored universal truths about existence.
At the end of the 1950s younger artists began to move away from the intense psychological preoccupations of the post-war generation. Some artists expanded the idea of the gesture, employing actions such as shooting, slashing and tearing to redirect attention towards the material properties of the work itself and reconnect art and contemporary life.
Text by Frances Morris
