American art came of age with the first important modern movement by a group of New York painters who became known as abstract expressionists. In the 1940s and 50s their aggressive action painting challenged the School of Paris. Tenaciously American (though several were born abroad), these painters were not content to imitate European masters and styles. They were struggling to express their own transcendental values that emphasized freedom, impulse,...

Rauschenberg's active involvement with life carries over into his painting. The combine-painting of the 1950s integrated two- and three-dimensional elements and inhabited both wall and floor space. These assemblages included discarded thrift shop-type objects such as automobile tires, stuffed birds, doors, and electric light fixtures, as well as the two-dimensional painterly surfaces reminiscent of abstract expressionism. This intense injection of...

Late in life, the artist looks back over a career that originated in social realism during the '30s, moved to the center of abstract expressionism, and culminated in a return to figuration. Filmed at his retrospective in San Francisco in 1980 and at his Woodstock studio, where Guston is seen painting, the artist speaks candidly about his philosophy of painting and the psychological motivation for his work.

This publication contains a survey of female abstract expressionist artists, revealing the richness and lasting influence of their work and the movement as a whole as well as highlighting the lack of critical attention they have received to date.

Emile de Antonio was a close friend to many New York painters who later went on to become famous. He filmed and interviewed them informally in their studios. Artists included are Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jules Olitski, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, Phillip Pavia, and Hans Hoffman.

This monograph accompanies the first European retrospective of the work of Lee Krasner (1908-1984). One of the original abstract expressionists, Krasner's importance has for too long been eclipsed by her marriage to Jackson Pollock. In fact, his death in 1956 marked her renaissance as an artist. 0Over the course of more than five decades, Krasner continually scrutinized and reinvented her practice, giving her work formidable energy and impact. Her...