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Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York City in the 1940s in a world transformed by the Second World War. A successor to Surrealism, the movement is best known for its large-scale paintings and its artists’ interests in abstraction, the subconscious mind and the spontaneity of jazz music. Its arrival was a watershed moment in 20th-century art: New York usurped Paris as the capital of the contemporary art world, and exceptional female artists began to carve out names for themselves in a cultural landscape fraught with gender barriers. In this instalment of his YouTube series Great Art Explained, the UK curator, gallerist and video essayist James Payne explores Abstract Expressionism through the work of three New York-born female artists Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning and Helen Frankenthaler. Examining their lives, times and works in the context of art history, Payne highlights their significant contributions to the movement, and how, despite refusing to be defined by their gender, they opened doors for a new generation of female artists.
Video by Great Art Explained
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Nature and landscape
Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece
6 minutes
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Design and fashion
The mundane becomes mesmerising in this deep dive into segmented displays
14 minutes
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Physics
A song of ice, fire and jelly – exploring the physics and history of the trumpet
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Architecture
Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China
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Spirituality
Trek alongside spiritual pilgrims on a treacherous journey across Pakistan
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Thinkers and theories
Photographs offer a colonialist window to the past – one that must be challenged
14 minutes
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Animals and humans
An artist and ants collaborate on an exhibit of ‘tiny Abstract Expressionist paintings’
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Mathematics
How a curious question about colouring maps changed mathematics forever
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Cities
The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith
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