Royal Academy opens its doors to an Abstract Expressionism exhibition. It is on until 2nd of January so you have plenty of time to enjoy it. It has all big names of abstract expressionism movement from 20th century such as Pollock, Still, Rothko, Newman, De Kooning and others. Many artworks left US for the first time from museums and private collections.

When you go in you can randomly move from one room to the next, there is no certain order you should follow. Some rooms display different artist and some rooms are dedicated to one artist only.

 

Arshile Gorky 

Minimum of conciseness, it is like watching someone else’s dream and travelling through their subconscious. Abstract paintings allow viewer to develop his own version of the paintings and everyone sees different things.

 

 

 

 

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock was a key figure in American Abstract Expressionism, Pollock’s Technique was a revolution in art world. Roll the canvas on the floor, dripping pain from the height straight from the can and let the gravity do its job. He put ladder above the paining and worked from height.

My personal discovery during this visit was Male and Female artwork, one of the early Pollocks works. Amazing colours and shapes interacting on the canvas.

I love how sculptures and paintings interact, the resemblance of shapes, how splashes on oil paintings repeat sculptures’ lines.

However, when you have so many similar artworks it is a bit unimaginative and repetitive. So from curatorial point of view it might be better to display less works but a greater variety.

 

Clyfford Still 

Still was working mainly with pallet knife. When you walk into the room you are stomped by the size of the canvases. Monumental works. It’s about nothing and everything at the same time.