Abstract Expressionist Artists at the AGO.

 Jackson Pollock

 Mark Rothko

Last week I went to the members preview of "Abstract Expressionist New York, Masterpieces from the Museum of Modern Art" at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Out of all the artists included in this group, and there are many, my two favorites have always been Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

Abstract Expressionism was an American painting movement that flourished in the 1940's and 50's. This generation of artists experienced the Great Depression, the Holocoust, and the dropping of the Atom Bomb. This quote from Jackson Pollock explains the movement very well. "It seems to me that the modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture. Each age finds it's own techniques."

This show continues until September 4, 2011 at the AGO.



This was a generation of artists who had just come through the Great Depression of the 1930s, and who had witnessed the Holocaust and the dropping of the atomic bomb. Instead of falling into despair, they sought to invent a new language of art, which by extension would imply a new culture, a new civilization and a new beginning for humankind in general.This was a generation of artists who had just come through the Great Depression of the 1930s, and who had witnessed the Holocaust and the dropping of the atomic bomb. Instead of falling into despair, they sought to invent a new language of art, which by extension would imply a new culture, a new civilization and a new beginning