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John Meredith, Untitled

By Lyndsay St-Come

All photographs and videos are provided by the NAC Archives, Carleton Immersive Media Studio, and BMPD Students Joe Creech and Eddie Benhin, unless otherwise noted. 

Learn about John Meredith and his triptych displayed at the National Arts Centre.

Abstract Expressionism

Blueberry Eyes, 1960 – Franz Kline

The movement of Abstract Expressionism was popularized in New York City in the 1940s and 1950s. The western art movement is a combination of abstract art and expressionism. It is a diverse movement as it is comprised of various painting techniques and different degrees of expression and abstraction.

Its characteristics generally consist of

    • gestural brushwork
    • colour fields
    • mark-making
    • spontaneous brush strokes

Multiform, 1956 – Mark Rothko

Action Painting

Action painting is a dynamic and gestural kind of art style that involves spontaneous brushstrokes as well as dripping, pouring, and splashing paint onto the canvas. The term was termed by Harold Rosenberg, in 1952.

In 1947, Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), one of the art movement’s most prominent artists, developed a unique technique of painting. This technique involved pouring and spilling paint on a flat canvas.

Notable action painters include Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline (1910-1962), Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), and Willem de Kooning (1904-1997).

Colour Field Painting

This art style consists of canvases painted with large, flat, and amorphous areas of a single colour. The term was coined in the mid-1950s by art critic Clement Greenberg. This less emotionally expressive painting style has few details and focuses on colour rather than recognizable forms.

Notable field painters include Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Barnett Newman (1905-1970), Clyfford Still (1904-1980) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011).

Mural, 1943

Jackson Pollock https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/arts/design/-pollock-mural-guggenheim-drip.html

The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb, 1944

Arshile Gorky https://www.sartle.com/artwork/the-liver-is-the-cocks-comb-arshile-gorky

The Bay, 1963

Helen Frankenthaler https://arthistoryproject.com/artists/helen-frankenthaler/the-bay/

PH-568, 1965

Clyfford Still http://www.artnet.com/artists/clyfford-still/ph-568-rTkfmO6Mry_px-4lFdAZVg2

Black Reflections, 1959

Franz Kline https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489325

Interchange, 1955

Willem de Kooning https://www.artbnk.com/blog/2020/9/30/willem-de-kooning-market-performance-report

White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950

Mark Rothko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Center_(Yellow,_Pink_and_Lavender_on_Rose)

Porte-fenêtre à Collioure, 1914

Henri Matisse https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/5dq7dfI

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2015, October 15). Action painting. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Action-painting

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2020, May 28). Abstract Expressionism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Abstract-Expressionism

Paul, S. (2004, October). Abstract Expressionism. Retrieved April 25, 2021, from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm

Wainwright, L. S. (2011, April 15). Colour-field painting. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/colour-field-painting