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In October 1950, Kline was catapulted to what Frank O'Hara called "a stellar position" within Abstract Expressionism when his black-and-white canvases were in a one-man show at the Charles Egan Gallery (New York). Kline's paintings were often oversized, but his works on paper were generally small, with some no bigger than postcards. Their reduced size, however, did not diminish their impact, which was bold and monumental; hence, they often became the templates for his large paintings. Here, in an exploratory moment, Kline seems to have cut apart a larger picture, rotated the piece on top, and reattached it to the lower half, thus creating an entirely new composition.
Although Krasner's career was often overshadowed by her more famous husband Jackson Pollock (to whom she was married between 1945 and 1956), she was an accomplished Abstract Expressionist in the 1940s. Her late work continued to effect the movement's large-scale, allover compositions and forceful brushwork. Her imagery too—here suggestive of eyes, heads, figures, and thick foliage—harks back to primeval motifs in the work of Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Richard Pousette-Dart in the 1940s.See Modern Art to learn more about Night Creatures.
Frank O'Hara's account of Pollock's technique aptly describes the intricate skeins of dripped paint and ink in this drawing: "There has never been enough said about Pollock's draftsmanship, that amazing ability to quicken a line by thinning it, to slow it by flooding, to elaborate that simplest of elements, the line—to change, to reinvigorate, to extend, to build up an embarrassment of riches in the mass by drawing alone." Asserting remarkable control over the fluid medium, Pollock creates lines that suggest both harnessed energy and rapid motion. See the Timeline of Art History to learn more about this artwork.
Between 1950 and 1953, de Kooning made the large-scale Women paintings for which he is best known. At the same time, he explored this theme in smaller works on paper. Here, as in Woman I (1950–52, oil on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York), he collaged in a bright red mouth from a magazine cigarette ad. Its presence provided a reference back to reality when the rest of the figure disintegrated into slashing brushstrokes.
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During the formative years of Abstract Expressionism, Pousette-Dart lived in New York City and was involved in the groupís discussions, exhibitions, and social gatherings. His intensely private, introspective personality, however, always kept him somewhat apart. Credited with painting one of the first Abstract Expressionist mural-sized pictures around 1941–42, his art expressed spiritual content through abstract means (line, color, and symbols). In this drawing, the biomorphic imagery suggests a crucifix without literally depicting one. It is one of several works dealing with suffering and redemption that Pousette-Dart, who was a pacifist, made during World War II.