Abstract art and Abstract Expressionism

Can a painting with no recognisable objects still move you? Abstract artists believe colour, line and gesture can speak for themselves.

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What is abstract art?

Abstract art does not try to show recognisable things. It uses colour, shape, line and texture for their own sake.
Some art is semi-abstract: based on something real but simplified or changed.
Wassily Kandinsky (Russian, 1866 to 1944) was one of the first painters to make fully abstract paintings, in the early 1910s. He compared colours and shapes to music.

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Expressionism developed in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. It was the first American art movement to have a major influence around the world.
There were two main approaches:
Action painting: energetic, gestural painting, where the act of painting matters. The critic Harold Rosenberg named it in 1952.
Colour field painting: large areas of colour meant to create a calm or powerful mood.
The paintings were often huge, so they surround the viewer.

Key artists

Jackson Pollock (American, 1912 to 1956): laid canvas on the floor and dripped, poured and flicked paint on to it from all sides.
Lee Krasner (American, 1908 to 1984): bold, rhythmic abstract paintings.
Willem de Kooning (Dutch-American, 1904 to 1997): energetic, slashing brushstrokes.
Mark Rothko (American, born in the Russian Empire, 1903 to 1970): large, soft-edged rectangles of colour that seem to glow. Tate Modern in London has a room of his Seagram murals.
Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928 to 2011): poured thinned paint on to raw canvas so it soaked in (soak-staining).
Worked example

Compare the approaches of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

  1. Pollock was an action painter: he dripped and poured paint with energetic movement, creating busy, tangled lines.
  2. Rothko was a colour field painter: he used large, calm, soft-edged blocks of colour.
  3. Both were Abstract Expressionists who worked on a large scale and used no recognisable objects.

Answer: Pollock used energetic drips and pours (action painting); Rothko used calm, glowing blocks of colour (colour field). Both made large abstract works.

Key idea

Abstract art does not show recognisable things. Kandinsky was an early abstract painter. Abstract Expressionism developed in New York in the 1940s and 1950s: action painting (Pollock, de Kooning, Krasner) and colour field painting (Rothko, Frankenthaler).

Key words
Abstract
Art that does not try to show recognisable things, using colour, shape, line and texture for their own sake.
Shape
A flat, two-dimensional area with height and width.
Texture
How something feels, or looks as if it would feel.

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Extra practice

2 more questions

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  1. Which artwork is abstract?

    1. A portrait of a queen
    2. A landscape of hills
    3. A canvas of coloured stripes that does not show any object
    4. A still life of fruit
    Show the answer

    Answer: A canvas of coloured stripes that does not show any object

    Abstract art does not show recognisable things.

  2. In which decades did Abstract Expressionism develop?

    1. The 1870s and 1880s
    2. The 1500s
    3. The 1990s
    4. The 1940s and 1950s
    Show the answer

    Answer: The 1940s and 1950s

    It grew after the Second World War.

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Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.

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