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Claudia ValentineProfessor Powell

11/5/2010

Abstract Expressionist New York Questions

1. These works differ in the way they use line and color and in the way they express afeeling. Some of the artists take a minimalist approach while others are more overtly

emotive. Each artist has an individual point of view and expresses that in their own way.

2. I find many of the pieces very interesting. I want to know more because the meaning ofthe work isnt obvious. The pieces challenge the viewer to look deeper into their mind for

rhyme or reason, if there is any, and I like that.

3. They are all hard to understand, but the ones that totally escape me are Barnett Newmanspaintings, specifically his Vir Heroicus Sublimis. Not only is the title in Latin, which I

can only recognize, not read, but also, I just cant tell what feeling he was trying to

convey. The piece is gigantic in scale, but small in detail, which is very incongruent in

my mind. There isnt much to the work visually, but he devoted such a large amount of

space to it, so it must mean something great to him. And it is beautiful in many ways, but

I cant grasp the why of the painting.

4. The abstract art movement seems to be a rejection of the status quo and social constructsoften associated with good art. Abstract expressionists seem to revert to a freer, more

childlike type of expression, which allows them to better express themselves as

individuals in a world where many things are fundamentally the same.

5. Many of my favorite pieces were black and white. I really appreciate how the artists takethese two colors, which weve been working with so far, and convey an emotion and time

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and even space to the viewer, just using value and line. I think I like the black and whites

because I can more easily appreciate how much work went into them.

6. The more painterly pieces are more interesting to me because they seem more emotive.The minimalist pieces, for me, are harder to comprehend because many of them are just

straight-ish lines, and I find myself wondering, What does this line mean??????

7. Reinhardt and Rothko use color in similar ways, only Reinhardt has a darker and subtlerapproach. Reinhardt uses different saturations and values of the same hue to create a

pattern or effect and Rothko uses different hues to create a pattern.

8.

The scale of the painting determines how the piece takes over the viewer space. Larger

pieces create an environment in which the viewer experiences the art. They are

surrounded by the piece, whereas smaller works invade or insert themselves into the

viewers world.

9. Abstraction is still relevant today because it is a way for artists to express themselves asindividuals and people will always have the need to differentiate themselves from others.

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10. Franz Klines painting, Chief, was one of my favorites of the exhibitions. Initially, it

struck me as very aggressive, his use of black creating a nightmarish monster on the canvas. He

used very thick black lines against a contrasting white background, creating shapes with the

black as well as the white space. He uses two colors, a very dark, but shiny black and a dirty

white. It seems as if he was very assertive, almost violent in handling the paint and the brush,

which contributes to the aggressive aesthetics of the piece. Kline seems to have been trying to

portray a violent and/or loud action or event