Kandinsky, Wassily Composition IV 1911 Oil on canvas 159. 5 x 250 Kandinsky, Wassily Composition IV 1911 Oil on canvas 159.5 x 250.5 cm (62 7/8 x 98 5/8 in) Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, Düsseldorf

Abstract Expressionism or Nonfigurative Abstract Expressionism or abstract expressionism - A painting movement in which artists typically applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions, painting gesturally, non-geometrically, sometimes applying paint with large brushes, sometimes dripping or even throwing it onto canvas. Their work is characterized by a strong dependence on what appears to be accident and chance, but which is actually highly planned. Some Abstract Expressionist artists were concerned with adopting a peaceful and mystical approach to a purely abstract image. Usually there was no effort to represent subject matter. Not all work was abstract, nor was all work expressive, but it was generally believed that the spontaneity of the artists' approach to their work would draw from and release the creativity of their unconscious minds. The expressive method of painting was often considered as important as the painting itself. Artists who painted in this style include Hans Hoffman (German-American, 1880-1966), Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974), Mark Rothko (American, 1903-1970), Willem De Kooning (Dutch-American, 1904-1997), Clyfford Still (American, 1904-1980), Barnett Newman (American, 1905-1970), Franz Kline (American, 1910-1962), William Baziotes (American, 1912-1963), Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956), Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980), Ad Reinhardt (American, 1913-1967), Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991), Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994), and Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-). Abstract Expressionism originated in the 1940s, and became popular in the 1950s.

Composition, 1955. Oil, enamel, and charcoal on canvas, 79 1/8 x 69 1/8 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 55.1419. © 2007 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Hans Hofmann, Rising Sun, 1958, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.

Hans Hofmann, Rising Sun, 1958, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.

Lee Krasner, Gothic Landscape, 1961, oil on canvas, 176. 8 x 237 Lee Krasner, Gothic Landscape, 1961, oil on canvas, 176.8 x 237.8 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

Kline, Franz New York, N. Y. 1953 Oil on canvas 79 x 51 in. (200 Kline, Franz New York, N.Y. 1953 Oil on canvas 79 x 51 in. (200.6 x 129.5 cm) Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

Jackson Pollock, Night Mist, 1945, oil on canvas, Norton Museum, West Palm Beach, FL.

Jackson Pollock, The Deep, 1953, painting on canvas, 220. 4 x 150 Jackson Pollock, The Deep, 1953, painting on canvas, 220.4 x 150.2 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

Jackson Pollock (American, 1912–1956) Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950 Enamel on canvas; H. 105, W. 207 in. (266.7 x 525.8 cm)

Frankenthaler, Helen Mountains and Sea 1952 Oil on canvas 7' 2 5/8" x 9' 9 1/4" National Gallery of Art, Washington

Morris Graves (American, 1910-2001), Wheelbarrow, 1934, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC. See New Deal art.

Piet Mondrian. Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow Piet Mondrian. Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow. Oil on canvas, 1930

Mark Rothko, N° 14 (Browns over Dark), 1963, oil and acrylic on canvas, 228.5 x 176 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

Barnett Newman Dionysius, 1949 Gift of Annalee Newman, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art 1988.57.2

Arshile Gorky, Composition, 1936-1939, oil on canvas, 30 x 37 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See New Deal art.

Willem de Kooning, Night, 1948, oil on canvas, 23 x 28 inches, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. See nocturne.

Adolph Gottlieb, Pictograph, c Adolph Gottlieb, Pictograph, c. 1941-1946, National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C. Gottlieb referred to the elements of his paintings as pictographs — meaning signs, symbols, calligraphs, or glyphs. Sometimes he set each of these within its own compartment, as he did here, and sometimes he layered one above another, as he did in many later examples of his work.