After the deprivations of the Great Depression and World War II, a spirit of experimentation and self-exploration gave rise to the first homegrown American modernist style: Abstract Expressionism. Born in New York City in the 1940s, Abstract Expressionism drew on earlier modernist movements including cubism, expressionism, and surrealism as well as psychoanalysis and spirituality. While there is not a single Abstract Expressionist style; the artists associated with the group worked in their own visual languages, favored creative process over representation, and created large, dynamic paintings that attempted to capture inner states of being or universal experiences, usually in highly abstracted modes.
Artists like Emil Bisttram took inspiration from a variety of sources, including philosophy, spirituality, and Indigenous art. Helen Frankenthaler, on the other hand, drew from psychology and her own experiences, and developed a method of staining unprepared canvas that resulted in rich harmonies of pure color. Their experiences in the West gave them depths of inspiration for new expressions.
