Abstract Expressionism: The Gestural Canvas

In the mid-20th century, oil paint became a tool for psychological catharsis rather than representation. Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning treated the canvas as an arena in which to act. Pollock famously laid his canvas on the floor, pouring and dripping industrial oil paints and enamels using sticks and syringes. This “drip technique” emphasized the physicality of the painter—the dance of the body—leaving the paint as a fossilized record of the artist’s movement. De Kooning, on the other hand, used aggressive, violent brushstrokes, often scraping down layers and re-painting. Here, the materiality of the oil paint—its thickness, drag, and gloss—became the primary subject.