Action painters

Action painters were artists who worked from the 1940s to the early 1960s and whose approach to painting emphasised the act of creation itself as an integral part of the finished work. Instead of carefully planning the composition, they applied paint in drips, splashes, spatters and energetic gestural strokes, often laying the canvas on the floor and moving around it. The trace of each bodily movement was recorded on the surface, turning the painting into a record of the artist's physical action and mental state. The term action painting was coined by the critic Harold Rosenberg in an essay of 1952, contrasting this approach with the traditional idea of a painting as an image. The best-known representative is Jackson Pollock with his pouring and dripping techniques; the circle of action painters also includes Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and other masters within the broader Abstract Expressionist movement. The idea that the canvas is an arena for action rather than a space for representation deeply influenced the later development of performance, the happening and process art.