Top 50 Abstract Expressionist Painters: Pollock, Rothko, Krasner and De Kooning

Before the grid

Why Abstract Expressionism Remains a Visual Shock

Movement brings together two great impulses: on the one hand gesture, accident, speed and matter; on the other the colored field, meditation, silence and immersion. Pollock, De Kooning or Kline make painting an action, while Rothko, Newman or Still transform color into an almost metaphysical space.

This Top 50 is not limited to the male heroic narrative. It integrates Krasner, Frankenthaler, Mitchell, Hartigan, Sobel, Sterne, Fine, Godwin, Gechtoff or DeFeo, as well as Canadian, French, Japanese and Chinese extensions linked to gestural or lyrical abstraction. Robert Motherwell, Michael Goldberg, Jules Olitski and other important figures remain benchmarks of the context, even when they are not on the map due to lack of a stable usable visual.

Method

How the 50 artists were selected

The selection starts from the historical core of the New York School, then expands towards the women of the movement, the second generation, Color Field, sculpture linked to abstract expressionism and international extensions of gestural abstraction.

The link rule remains the same: artists who died in 1956 or before refer to an internal collection; artists who died after 1956, or who are still alive, refer to Wikipedia.

Choose an entry

Where to start?

For action painting, start with Pollock, De Kooning, Krasner, Kline, Guston and Mitchell. For Color Field, look at Rothko, Newman, Still, Frankenthaler, Louis and Noland. For less expected trajectories, explore Sobel, Lewis, Delaney, Sterne, Fine, Gechtoff or DeFeo.

If you like international bridges, Riopelle, Borduas, Soulages, Mathieu, De Staël, Sugaï and Zao Wou-Ki show how the abstract gesture circulates beyond New York.

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