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COPYRIGHT 2005 Caddo Gap Press
Abstract Expressionism of the 1940s and 50s created a revolution in the visual art world through an exploration of the subconscious, new creative approaches to painting, and a reliance on spontaneity-the very things that can breathe life into contemporary education. Abstract Expressionism is defined as a twentieth-century painting style in which artists applied paint freely to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions (Mittler, G. 1994, p. 586). However, there is much more to Abstract Expressionism and its effect on art than this pithy description can possibly address. Specifically, drawing from the subconscious, the process the emotional and physical act of painting for the first time in the history of western art became the subject of art. This emphasis on the course was characterized through a reliance on spontaneity, the happy accident, or chance, a release of creativity, and a capturing of the unconscious in order to produce for the first time a purely abstract or nonobjective image. These are the elements and principles I will argue that teachers are in desperate short supply of as they must reawaken to the act of pedagogy an art form that has been lost in the latest educational trends. We work from within (Pinar, W. 1994, p. 10). This statement in William Pinar's 1972 article entitled "Working from Within" and published in Educational Leadership gets to the heart of Abstract Expressionism and what education today is lacking. It also serves as my inspiration to explore this topic further and in greater detail.
It is not possible to spend any prolonged period visiting public school classrooms without being appalled by the mutilation visible everywhere-mutilation of spontaneity, of the joy of learning, of pleasure in creating, of sense of self. (Silberman 1970, as cited in Pinar, W. 2004, p. 186)
William Pinar speaks directly to the problems of the educational environment dominated by accountability, standards, and high stakes testing all determined to destroy any sense of humanity left within education. I say, what is called for in light of the present state of public education is a change in course, and I will argue Abstract Expressionism provides a template for the promise of education as yet unrealized. As Dennis Sumara suggests that it is the rupture-the break-that provides the interruption in our usual patterns of living forcing us to learn to live and perceive differently (Sumara, D. 1996, p. 156).
Abstract Expressionism, like so many avant-garde movements, grew out of conflict, specifically the refugees escaping the growing menace of Nazi Germany. Conflict is essential for thought to occur. Deborah Brizman points out that "thinking is aroused from conflict and so carries traces of its own difficult emergency" (Britzman D. 2003, p. 27). This trying process can be seen in the origins of the inspirational leaders that would teach the soon to be Abstract Expressionists. Condemned as degenerate in nature, abstraction and the abstractionists were systematically purged from Nazi Germany. Many of these influential refugee artists found a new home in the United States. Through teaching positions they laid the groundwork for the coming visual revolution by mustering, supporting, and promoting the American abstract movement. In America realism expressly Regionalism ruled the art scene. But through ever increasing museum collections, private procurements, and media reports, the American art scene was ready for a new direction.
Centered in New York City, it became the dominant movement in art in the years following World War II and was instrumental in moving the center of the art world to America. This movement's foundations were a combination of spontaneity, creativity, and the exploration of the subconscious. This was revolutionary and like the Cubists and Impressionists generations before it sparked a transformation in the art world and invoked a range of reactions from confusion to outright anger. In 1943 the group attempted to clarify their goals in a letter to the New York Times where they expressed a desire to create a new kind of art in which complex thought was presented in a simplified expression (Katz, Lankford, and Plank. 1995, p. 31). The border between the complexity of the conscious and subconscious mind and the ability to visually communicate simple expressions of this intricacy calls for the artists to play the role of Hermes the Greek messenger god.
Hermes is identified with borders, with boundaries and with keeping open the gates between one realm and another: "to hear the message in whatever is said. This is the hermeneutic ear that listens-through, a consciousness of the borders, as Hermes was worshipped at borders. Every wall and every weave presents its opening. Everything is porous." (Hillman as cited in Jardine, 1998, p. 51)
The objective in other words was to bridge the gap. Their goal was to take the complex and strip it down to its elements, to look inward and analyze the complexity of the subconscious and through individual creativity generate spontaneous expressions of this inner world. As Hermes has the ability to travel back and forth across borders so to must the artist as courier attempt to retrieve the messages of the unconscious and convey these communications in their art-their openings.
Two categories have emerged among the wide ranging stylistic, technical and media approaches of the movement's artists and the overall nonrepresentational genre of the Abstract Expressionists. The first of which is Action Painting synonymous with Jackson Pollack's work. It is characterized by an exploration of the subconscious through an active surface to the point, at times, of hyperactivity, a strong sense of movement and a powder keg of emotion exploding with energy.
The second group of Abstract Expressionists is known as Color Field painting. The group is most closely associated with Mark Rothko's work which is characterized by its highly creative solutions to visual problems that emerge from attempting to convey the complexity of the inner world contained within us all. His work is described as expressing basic human emotions, as spiritual in nature, displayed on a grand scale, and the use of geometric planes.
Both groups, as well as other Abstract Expressionists who defy labels share in a common characteristic of spontaneity. Through a variety of techniques such as Jackson Pollack's "happy accident" and drip techniques, to various approaches in process such as Mark Rothko's intuition and evolution of the image, through a gradual unfolding or revealing of the painting, all Abstract Expressionism is based on a certain level of impromptu that preserves the freshness of these images some fifty years later. Spontaneity, the third and final characteristic of Abstract Expressionism originates from the mind a combination of the conscious and unconscious and the ultimate and final frontier of the artist.
Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else (Orwell, G. 1949, p. 205). The foundation of the Abstract Expressionist movement begins with the exploration of the mind-the unconscious and the artist's conscious exploration of it. The look inward was the next logical step for the visual art world of the 1940s and 50s considering the turmoil of the era. The exploration of the subconscious in quest of subject matter became the essential element of the Abstract Expressionists. These artists regardless of labels, technique, and process looked inward to express the times in which they lived. An era that is framed by the brutal slaughter, intense rage, and the dehumanizing environment of Second World War and the years surrounding it. This avant-garde style captured in a highly personal way the mechanization and depersonalization of their world. Their original approach to conveying the human condition would change the face of the art world forever. Traditional approaches to visual representation were cast aside in favor of enormous canvases that could adequately convey their inner perceptions of the proportions, frenzy, and moods of the time. Many artists chose to express their fears, anxieties, despairs, insecurities their personal reaction to a dehumanized world with dramatic visual concepts and bold slashing brushstrokes (Myron & Sundell, 1971, p. 143).
Jackson Pollack, the leader of the Action Painters, explored the subconscious in search of catharsis and subject matter for his paintings and in so doing changed the direction of the art world forever. Inspired by psychoanalysis more specifically his experiences with Jungian analysis, Pollack tapped into the unconscious in search of the ultimate self-portrait. This fascination with the subconscious originated out of his own analysis for treatment of alcoholism. Pollack's early abstract paintings revealed a Jungian influence in his use of archetypes, mythology, and dream imagery in the search for symbolic meaning. Carl Jung's eclectic use of diverse subjects ranging from mythology to eastern religions provided a wealth of subject matter for Pollack to explore, and his early work in abstraction is a testament to this experimentation.
Through his representation of the inner world, Pollack looked to convey his emotions no longer through traditional subjects such as landscape, still life, and portraiture but through complex compositions that conveyed the inner landscape of the mind. William Pinar spoke of the importance of inner reflection in the following:
Autobiography is architecture of self, a self we create and embody as we read, write, speak and listen. The self becomes flesh, in the world. Even when authentic and learned, it is a self we cannot be confident we know, because it is always in motion and in time, defined in part by were it is not, when it is not, what it is not. The self who welcomes the dawn is a self constantly expanding to incorporate what it fears and resists as well as what it desires. (Pinar, W. 1994, p. 220)
The self and its construction require the excavation of the site, the digging through the layers of subconscious to form a foundation and reveal the structure of what we interpret as ourselves-through our actions, our words, and our passions. But, it is fleeting, constantly moving; therefore, the...
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