Definition
A term coined by the critic Harold Rosenberg to describe a central principle of the Abstract Expressionist art movement that developed in the 1940s and '50s. The goal of action painting was to capture the act of creating the painting: the painting itself was to be seen simply as the representation of the act of producing it. Jackson Pollock's technique of dripping paint as he walked over his canvas is a prime example of action painting.
Such painting is "expressionist" in that it is an expression of the artist in action. It is "abstract" in that it represents not a picture of the world but something that comes into existence in the act of making it. The emphasis in action painting is not on the eye but on the hand. The movement of the line within the painting involves its viewers, inviting them to become part of the process of creation.The principle of action painting was incorporated into the work of the New York school of poetry. One member of the school, Frank O'Hara, a museum curator and friend of many abstract expressionist painters, described the appeal of the new art movement: "Poetry was declining/Painting advancing/We were complaining/it was '50." The influence of action painting on the New York school is evident in O'Hara's attempt to present directly the poet in the process of composing.
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