Abstract art paintingAfter the war....
That the second world war would become a breaking in point in abstract painting is no surprise. While the Ecole de Paris consisted in no small part of Jewish immigrants and other free thinkers, the entrance of Hitler in Paris meant the end of an era in art. Picasso managed to coexist with the German forces in Paris, but Mondrian (and many others) left the scene before the German army arrived.
After the war it was another world, not just economical and political, also spiritual and artistic. The old masters of abstract painting "kept at it", but with less vigor and confidence, perhaps because a new generation of artists questioned the "old" values of abstract painting. The aesthetics of Picasso and the "cold formality" of the geometric abstractionists (Mondrian et al) were suspect in an era of poverty and despair, during the late 1940s and 1950s.
The late 1940 are characterized by the work of the artists of art informel, who were European painters that sought to paint "without conscious control", as a way to express their feelings in a totally instinctive manner. This concept wasn't entirely new but the emphasis they put this approach did lead to a new style in abstract painting. The pioneer of art informel was Paris based German artist Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, better known as Wols.
While art informel developped in Europe, Paris mainly, young American artists such as Jackson Pollock paid careful attention, at first following the style and methods of their European collegues in Paris. Back in America they went on to develop their version of art informel and their endeavours would soon eclipse the work of art informel and even shift the artworld's center of gravity from Paris to New York. An -ism was soon found and the American abstract art movement would be called abstract expressionism. It's not a matter of course that abstract expressionism will prove to be of greater significance to the development of abstract art than art informel, but in terms of pictorial vitality the American abstract painters made art informel look pale, whiny and perhaps even boring. Nevertheless the American abstract artists shared art informel's gloomy social views, with the avant garde artist playing his role as the isolated revolutionary and bringer of social change and cultural refinement.
That, of course, provoked a reaction. During the 1960s Europe's economy boomed, creating entirely different cultural circumstances than during the 1950s, the days of art informel. New art movements, such as the Germany based Zero and Zen movements, rejected art informels emphasis on emotionality and dynamism, arguing that in the "consumer society" of the 1960s, people were overloaded with information and impressions. They, therefore, sought to achieve purity, order and serenity. The artists of Zero were inspired by the vitality of abstract expressionism and, riding on the waves of optimism of the 1960s, their art would consist of vibrating visions of light as expressed by (often) monochrome paintings with subtle nuances in tone.
"Red painting", 1961, 190 by 145 cm, by Rupprecht Geiger from the Munich Zen movement.
 Although Mark Rothko was a member of the abstract expressionism group, his paintings were an inspiration for abstract artists during the 1960s, with their emphasis on light, clarity and purity.
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