Abstract Expressionism vs Action Painting
抽象表現主義 / アクション・ペインティング
Both sit in Postwar American Art, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Abstract Expressionism
%20-%20Franz%20Kline%20(1910-1962)%20(31087622617).jpg)
On huge canvases, with bodily strokes, drips, stains and broad fields of color, what stays on the surface is the act of painting and strong inner feeling rather than a depicted subject.
Action Painting
An abstract-painting style that treats the surface as a record of the body's passage rather than a container for a predetermined image. Drips, throws, scrapes, broad strokes, and repainting preserve speed, weight, pause, and sequence.
| Abstract Expressionism | Action Painting | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1940s–1950s | late 1940s–1960s |
| Family | Postwar American Art | Postwar American Art |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Vast canvases / Bodily brushwork / All-over composition / Drips and stains | Drips, splashes, and runs retaining gravity / Long strokes that reveal the reach of an arm or body / Layers, scraping, and repainting left visible / Density and open intervals distributed without a central figure |
| Best used for | Key visuals for concerts and theatre where emotional intensity has to arrive first · Book covers where one huge abstract ground carries the title alone | Making bodily speed and hesitation visible as traces rather than finished geometry · Building an abstract stage, motion, or campaign field around one physical gesture |
| Type | Keep words to a few and place them clear of the paint | Add small type after painting; do not substitute a brush-script font for physical motion. |
| Composition | Refuse a center and carry stroke density to every edge | Work on a floor or large wall without fixing the center first, alternating the body's reach with intervals of rest. |
| Material | Thick paint and poured washes on a large support, drips left visible | Use paints of different viscosities, broad brushes, sticks, and pouring tools; include drying time and gravity in the process. |
| Caution | Scattering energetic strokes as decoration skips each artist's method, the postwar politics and the tie between scale and body, and with neither density nor a record of decisions it reads as a dirty backdrop. | A uniform splatter brush produces background texture without bodily sequence or weight. Protect the room and people, and verify ventilation and material safety. |