Abstract Expressionism Quotes

• I was a student at Harvard, and that's where I learned about so-called avant-garde music. Jackson Pollock, abstract expressionism and painting were well known at this time.

  Henry Flynt

  Artist, Avant Garde, Students

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• I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

  Don DeLillo

  Thinking, Jazz, Influence

  Don DeLillo, Thomas DePietro (2005). “Conversations with Don DeLillo”, p.79, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you.

  Jackson Pollock

  Abstract Painting, Compliment, Expressionism

  Quoted in FrancisVO'Connor Jackson Pollock (1967).

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• Abstract Expressionism - the first American movement to have a worldwide influence - was remarkably short-lived: It heated up after World War II and was all but done for by 1960 (although visit any art school today and you'll find a would-be Willem de Kooning).

  Jerry Saltz

  Art, War, School

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• The big shock of my life was Abstract Expressionism - Pollock, de Kooning, those guys. It changed my work. I was an academically trained student, and suddenly you could pour paint, smear it on, broom it on!

  LeRoy Neiman

  Guy, Students, Paint

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• Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.

  Jackson Pollock

  Mean, Artist, Abstract Painting

  Interview, New Yorker, 5 Aug. 1950

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• Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

  Jackson Pollock

  Art, Discovery, Self

  Elizabeth Frank, Jackson Pollock (1983). “Jackson Pollock”, Abbeville Pr

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• The modern artist... is working and expressing an inner world - in other words - expressing the energy, the motion, and other inner forces.

  Jackson Pollock

  Artist, Serenity, Energy

  Jackson Pollock, Gagosian Gallery (1990). “Jackson Pollock: black enamel paintings, April-May 1990”

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• Abstract expressionism was the first American art that was filled with anger as well as beauty.

  Robert Motherwell

  Art, Firsts, Abstract

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• The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.

  Jackson Pollock

  Art, Space, Feelings

  Elizabeth Frank, Jackson Pollock (1983). “Jackson Pollock”, Abbeville Pr

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• When I'm painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It's only after a get acquainted period that I see what I've been about. I've no fears about making changes for the painting has a life of its own.

  Jackson Pollock

  Painting, No Fear, Making Changes

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.

  Jackson Pollock

  Artist, Etc, Painting

  Jackson Pollock, Gagosian Gallery (1990). “Jackson Pollock: black enamel paintings, April-May 1990”

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• Abstract Expressionism was invented by New York drunks.

  Joni Mitchell

  New York, Artistic, Abstract

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• When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing.

  Jackson Pollock

  Artist, Painting, Expressionism

  Jackson Pollock (2003). “Jackson Pollock. Englische Ausgabe.”, Kehrer Verlag

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• The painting has a life of its own

  Jackson Pollock

  Inspirational, Art, Intuition

  Jackson Pollock, Gagosian Gallery (1990). “Jackson Pollock: black enamel paintings, April-May 1990”

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• The abstract has no emotional content... the abstract is more powerful the more abstract it is.

  Cecil Balmond

  Powerful, Emotional, Abstract

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• There was something about the self-confession and self-confusion of Abstract expressionism - as though the man and the work were the same - that personally always put me off because at that time my focus was in the opposite direction.

  Robert Rauschenberg

  Men, Self, Opposites

  "Robert Rauschenberg, Works, Writings and Interviews". Book by Sam Hunter (p. 37), 2006.

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• With experience it seems to be possible to control the flow of paint, to a great extent, and I don't use - I don't use the accident - 'cause I deny the accident... it's quite different from working, say, from a still life where you set up objects and work directly from them. I do have a general notion of what I'm about and what the results will be. I approach painting in the same sense as one approaches drawing, that is, it's direct.

  Jackson Pollock

  Drawing, Different, Use

  Interview by William Wright; as quoted in "Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics", ed. Clifford Ross, 1990, p. 144, Summer 1950.

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• It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

  Jackson Pollock

  Giving, Painting, Harmony

  Jackson Pollock, Gagosian Gallery (1990). “Jackson Pollock: black enamel paintings, April-May 1990”

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• I'm very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you're painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.

  Jackson Pollock

  Artist, Littles, Painting

  Elizabeth Frank, Jackson Pollock (1983). “Jackson Pollock”, Abbeville Pr

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• I don't use the accident - 'cause I deny the accident

  Jackson Pollock

  Use, Deny, Expressionism

  Jackson Pollock, Gagosian Gallery (1990). “Jackson Pollock: black enamel paintings, April-May 1990”

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• I wanted to be a painter, somewhere between Abstract Expressionism and Pop.

  Aaron Huey

  Abstract, Pops, Expressionism

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• When I am in a painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc, because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

  Jackson Pollock

  Giving, Trying, Etc

  Jackson Pollock, Gagosian Gallery (1990). “Jackson Pollock: black enamel paintings, April-May 1990”

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• But no one, when you stop to think, has ever equated abstract expressionism as a movement with jazz music. It's based on improvisation. The rhythms, the personal involvement, all of this is part of the jazz experience.

  Romare Bearden

  Thinking, Movement, Jazz

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• We live in an age when the traditional great subjects - the human form, the landscape, even newer traditions such as abstract expressionism - are daily devalued by commercial art.

  Andy Warhol

  Art, Age, Landscape

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