Mark Rothko was an American Jewish painter and one of the founders of the New York School of Art. He was an abstract expressionist whose work concentrated primarily on basic human emotions. When he painted, he was not into using a lot of vivid or bright colors. In his paintings, he would use only a few colors that were intense. For most of his life, he was depressed and actually ended up committing suicide as a result of his depression. His paintings reflected his depressed emotions.

             Jason Pollock was another American painter who had emotional problems. Jason Pollock's depression led him into severe alcoholism. Because of his depressed state, his paintings also reflected a lot of emotion. His paintings were abstract expressions of unconscious imagery. Jason Pollock was famous for his drip painting where he would lay the canvas on the floor and then would pour or drip the paint onto the canvas. After dripping, he would use a knife, a stick or towels to manipulate the painting.

             Norman Rockwell was another American artist whose art reflected abstract expressionism. He did a lot of illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post Magazine and for popular novels such as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, but his illustrations were always very detailed with a lot of emphasis on expression. He also painted many portraits with expressions of emotion of several US Presidents such as Kennedy, Nixon and Eisenhower.

             These artists and their paintings are significant to my art because of the expressions of emotions that are portrayed in their masterpieces.

             Chapter 2.

             Chapter 2 featured several artists that were second generation Abstract Expressionist. Three of the most important artist of this movement are Morris Louis, Robert Ryman and Jasper Johns.

             During this era, the use of one solid color or monochrome painting was popular. Morris Louis was an American Abstract Expressionist who was also known as a field color painter.