Action Painting
Action painting is regarded as a highly-charged and impulsive style of abstract art in the way that the artwork is strongly splashed, split, or dribbled onto the canvas usually facing up to the ceiling. This art technique greatly contributes to the movements of Surrealism, but also is associated with the New York School of American Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s-1950s. Artists like Jackson Pollock who created "Jack the Dripper" was seen as one of the most revolutionary artists in American art.
The term "action-painting" resides with the American critic Harold Rosenburg (1906-78) in a review of avant garde art called "The American Action Painters". According to Rosenburg's statements, action-painting gave complete freedom to the painter's impulse in creativity and made the act of painting more important the piece of art on its own. Many abstract expressionists often engaged in the notion that painting is an arena where the artist must combat their spontaneous creative struggles. In essence, painting was a drama of self-revelation.
The influence of Surrealism and its use of automatism in art says that in order to have an artist freely express themselves from their subconscious mind, they must be ably to clearly analyze their work. Many artists who thought this way were convinced that users of this rule or theory had some sort of impact in later abstract expressionists.
Jack the Dripper
By: Jack Pollock
After taking a closer look at this art form, it can be concluded that artwork does not have to appear in a certain standard. Something as simple as a few brushstrokes in comparison to an intricate and carefully detailed artwork maintain meaning and a truth behind it. The true beauty of art comes from the fact that it is used as a tool of expression, without the use of words. Though action-painting may seem like a splash of colors, it holds within a variety of emotions and qualities which only the artist can tell of.
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