Later Abstraction

Color Field Painting

      Color field painting is a tendency within Abstract Expressionism, distinct from gestural abstraction, or action painting. It was pioneered in the late 1940s by Mark Rothko,Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still, who were all independently searching for a style of abstraction that might provide a modern, mythic art and express a yearning for transcendence and the infinite. To achieve this they abandoned all suggestions of figuration and instead exploited the expressive power of color by deploying it in large fields that might envelope the viewer when seen at close quarters. Their work inspired much Post-painterly abstraction, particularly that of Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis,Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski, though for later color field painters, matters of form tended to be more important that mythic content.

Kenneth Noland – Bridge

Morris Louis – Moving In

Jules Olitski – Tin Lizzie Green

Walter Darby Bannard – Magnetic Lands

I really like the paintings of this tendency because of the different colors that are used; the paintings are no longer boring. I think they bring energy to the room they're in. My favorite one is Magnetic Lands because the colors, especially the yellow, look a bit neon, which I love. I could definitely put one of these paintings somewhere in my house.

Sources:

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-color-field-painting.htm