Abstract
In the 1950s, abstract expressionism was the most influential in the world of art. But that movement which considered United States as the leading artistic place wasn't a bolt from the blue.
In fact in the 1940s, some artists asked themselves about the idea of pure American art, and most of them considered the idea of isolated American painting as totally absurd.
This generation of painters during the 1930s -1940s lived through a tragic history: The great depression, the World War II and the Cold War.
The aftermath of this turbulent era of history was added to the individual crisis of these painters, like alcoholism for Jackson Pollock, or nervous breakdowns for Mark Rothko and David Smith. This combination of personal crisis and outside events gave way to abstract expressionism.
