抽象表現主義 考察

Abstract

Abstract Expressionism, sometimes called action painting or New York School, is the first American-born art movement to affect profoundly every part of the world where modern concepts of art exist, from Paris to Tokyo. It has altered even more profoundly the geography of American art during the last twenty years, both□ by the number of followers it has attracted and by the strong reactions against it which it has inevitably generated. It has also created a new kind of figurative painting which incorporates some of its methods and attitudes. Few of our living artists have been unaffected by it in one way or another. Although abstract expressionism allows the artist complete freedom in the choice of his formal methods, in practice it has established three main devices which the majority of its practitioners have used either singly or, more often, in various combination. One of these is a personal calligraphy, like that of Tobey and Pollock. A second is the expressive brush stroke, such as Hofmann's or De Kooning's. A third is the use of amorphous shapes and stains of color, sometimes accidental, sometimes controlled, which was an important element in Gorky's work. It is apparent that abstract expressionism is a deeply introspective movement, for it is not concerned (at least in theory) with an interpretation of the outer world, but only with the artist's own inner life-although this is affected by his external experiences. The discovery that line, brush motion, abstract shape, and color can embody impulses which are not primarily aesthetic is the sigular achievement of abstract expressionism. In its purest form it has demanded of the artist a nearly superhuman degree of introspection and concentration in order to achieve the most direct expression or the deepest part of self. There is no law, however, which requires the abstract artist to paint pictures that are subjectless except for the rapport between self and canvas. Today many painters who remain completely abstract in their approach deal, nevertheless, with specific themes and subjects outside the personal realm. This is more significant than a simple enlargement of subject matter, for it has ruptured the shell of extreme introspection which was both the strength and the limitation of the movement . By turning his eyes outward th men, and to the material aspects of the universe, the artist has opened avenues to larger areas of experience (and perhaps of spiritual truth) than are comprised within the bounds of self. That this can be come by the abstract and intuitive methods inherent in the movement has already been demonstrated but the new avenues still remain largely unexplored. Time alone will tell whether they lead to a dead end or a fresh adventure.