Blog Entry: Abstract Expressionism

I worked on something recently that consists of many pieces of paper with black stripes. When I laid them out on the floor and lined them up, it looked something like the DNA gel electrophoresis.

Thanks to my sister who talked about northern blots and southern and western blots that whole day. But she also said my work reminded her of abstract expressionist paintings, which then reminded me of how Mrs. Jones told me to look at Mark Rothko. So I checked out some rad expressionist art and impossible hard-edge paintings, and their history. I know we will get to this part in our art history class, but I just love to study these things on my own. 
As a result I learned that expressionism started in Germany in the 1920s with films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

The abstract expressionism movement later however was American. The term was first used in the U.S. to describe the works of Wassily Kandinsky (whom I really like). 

1925, Yellow-Red-Blue

It's interesting that the predecessor of abstract expressionism was surrealism, because of its emphasis on the spontaneous and automatic creation process. There came the action paintings; most famously Jackson Pollock. 

1949, Number 8

Then there was Willem de Kooning and Hans Hofmann. And after them we get color field paintings which include Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, etc. 

Barnett Newman, Onement 1, 1948

Mark Rothko, No. 61 (Rust and Blue), 1953

I really wish I could write more but apparently I've spent too much time on this, neglecting my other homework.There is a whole lot more about expressionism. Reading about art history is so much more exciting than solving math, just saying.