Sandler's 2009 Book Recontextualizes Abstract Expressionism Through Postwar Trauma
In his 2009 publication, *Abstract Expressionism and the American Experience: A Revaluation*, Professor Irving Sandler posits that the aesthetic principles of the New York School emerged from the psychological scars of World War II and the Cold War. He contends that artists such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman absorbed the pervasive anxieties of their time, resulting in a visceral visual expression. Key milestones around 1947 included Pollock and Still's Field Painting and de Kooning's Gesture Painting, which turned away from modernist conventions in favor of immediacy. Although faced with initial resistance, Sandler argues that the artists’ works, shaped by the Holocaust and nuclear fears, ultimately achieved enduring relevance.
Key facts
- Irving Sandler published Abstract Expressionism and the American Experience: A Revaluation in 2009.
- The book is published by Hard Press Editions and the School of Visual Arts in association with Hudson Hills Press.
- Sandler argues Abstract Expressionism was shaped by World War II and the Cold War's traumatic mood.
- Key artists include Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman.
- A pivotal shift occurred around 1947 with the emergence of Field Painting and Gesture Painting.
- The artists cultivated a raw, unfinished look as a rejection of Parisian refinement and American consumer culture.
- Their work was initially met with hostility from the art world well into the 1950s.
- Figures like Barnett Newman and Robert Motherwell explicitly linked their art to a sense of tragedy.
Entities
Artists
- Irving Sandler
- Barnett Newman
- Frank O'Hara
- Jackson Pollock
- Willem de Kooning
- Clyfford Still
- Mark Rothko
- Hans Hofmann
- Robert Motherwell
- Adolph Gottlieb
- William Baziotes
- Franz Kline
- Lee Krasner
- Jack Tworkov
- Ad Reinhardt
- Pierre Soulages
- Thelonious Monk
- Morton Feldman
- William Byrd
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Ludwig van Beethoven
- Clement Greenberg
- Thomas Hess
- Meyer Schapiro
- Harold Rosenberg
- Oscar Wilde
- J.M.W. Turner
- G.W.F. Hegel
Institutions
- Hard Press Editions
- School of Visual Arts
- Hudson Hills Press
- Studio 35
- Life magazine
- New York Times
- artcritical.com
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Hiroshima
- Nagasaki
- Japan
- Paris
- France