Marcel Duchamp
Abstract Expressionism was a movement that follow Cubism and started in the 1940’s. Artists of the movement usually filled their paintings with a lot of color and new abstract forms. Most were shaped by Surrealism and the style produced moods of anxiety and trauma, particularly because of WW2.
Marchel Duchamp was an artist that used techniques of an Abstract Expressionist artist. Some of Duchamp’s paintings used violent brush strokes and deep color schemes to convey feelings related to Abstract Expressionist artists. In his work ‘Nude Descending Staircase”, a personal favorite of mine, Duchamp uses a mixture of strokes and shapes to somehow convey a nude woman descending down stairs.
You may not even see the shape of the woman as the mixture of shapes and color pull you deep into the image. This work uses browns, yellows and oranges to convey the mood of the lady. These colors also produce a sense of motion and volume.
