ART 236 : Modern Art History

More than sixty years have passed since the term 'Abstract Expressionism' was used to describe the richly coloured canvases of Hans Hofmann. With an essay by Ann Temkin, Abstract Expressionism at The Museum of Modern Art celebrates the Museum's holdings from this epochal moment in the history of art and the institution like no other book.

This book recreates the social and cultural milieu of New York in the 1940s and 1950s. With extensive knowledge of Pollock's habits, reading, conversation, and the exhibitions he visited, the author retraces many of the far-flung sources of Pollock's work.

Often referred to as the last Surrealist and first Abstract Expressionist, Arshile Gorky (c. 1900-1948) appears as an interstice within art history's linear progression. Gorky embraced dream imagery in the tradition of the Surrealists, used all-over patterning before Jackson Pollock, promoted disembodied color before Mark Rothko, exploited the physicality of paint before Willem de Kooning, and anticipated stain painting.