Abstract Expressionism

"If there is such a thing as influence, I've been terribly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists. [...] I consider myself one of them. They had a whole philosophy. They gave up positive and negative and, as a result, they got tremendous scale in their work, and they didn't do it gradually. They moved in one step to complete nonobjectivity. They dealt directly with those subtle emotions of happiness that I'm talking about."

—Agnes Martin, interviewed by Benita Eisler

"I consider myself one of them. They had a whole philosophy. They gave up positive and negative and, as a result, they got tremendous scale in their work, and they didn't do it gradually. They moved in one step to complete nonobjectivity. They dealt directly with those subtle emotions of happiness that I'm talking about."

-- Agnes Martin interviewed by Benita Eisler

Abstract Expressionism, also called the New York School, was an art movement that developed in the 1940s. Famous abstract expressionists include Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler and Barnett Newman.