OR NEITHER?

In fact, as this exhibition reveals, Abstract Expressionism was about much more than just color-field or action painting. The show demonstrates the versatility of many of the artists involved: from small-scale poured paintings by Pollock to surprisingly celebratory works by Rothko in bright oranges and yellow. While the show focuses on the core New York figures (Pollock and Rothko, de Kooning, Kline, and Robert Motherwell, among others), it also includes artists based in and around San Francisco (like Clyfford Still and Sam Francis), and some of the many women artists at the forefront of the movement: Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell. As the first multi-artist exhibition of US Abstract Expressionism to take place in the Europe since 1959, one of the key points is the movement’s oft-overlooked diversity.