Deck 29: Mid-Century American Abstraction

Question 1

A characteristic of Stella's early work was the use of

A) indistinct and wiggling lines to delineate amorphous shapes.
B) everyday objects to apply paint instead of brushes.
C) merging and overlaid colors.
D) canvases of different shapes.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Most of Diebenkorn's later works contain what characteristic?

A) vibrant return to figurative imagery
B) a dominant horizontal
C) smoothly applied colors that show no sign of paint texture
D) a whirling array of merging biomorphic forms

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Who of the following made "assemblages" such as Black Wall (1959)?

A) David Smith
B) Isamu Noguchi
C) Franz Kline
D) Louise Nevelson

Answer 3

Louise Nevelson

Question 4

Who painted Tahkt-i-Sulayman I (1967) as part of the "Protractor Series"?

A) Stella
B) Kelly
C) Pollock
D) de Kooning

Question 5

Stella and Kelly were two prominent practitioners of what technique?

A) assemblages of found objects
B) drip technique
C) Hard-Edge painting
D) gesture painting

Question 6

Which element of the works of Gorky and Miró did Noguchi evoke in his Kouros?

A) figurative imagery
B) rectangles and squares
C) flat colors
D) biomorphic shapes

Question 7

A significant difference between the works of Kelly and Mondrian is Kelly's

A) greater emphasis on white backgrounds.
B) abandonment of the black frames in which Mondrian encased colors.
C) embrace of figurative expression.
D) use of isolated blocks of colors rather than juxtaposed ones.

Question 8

Which artist used the staining process in works such as The Bay (1963) after a visit to Pollock's studio in 1952?

A) Frankenthaler
B) Rothko
C) Stella
D) Kelly

Question 9

The staining process used by many Color Field artists involved

A) pouring paint directly onto a canvas.
B) allowing dust to settle on wet paint to give it a textured quality.
C) dripping or splattering dots and streaks over a representational image.
D) using only non-synthetic paints in order to retain natural impurities.

Question 10

Which would be most likely to have been found in a Nevelson piece?

A) biomorphic forms
B) steel cylinders, cubes, and rectangles
C) carpentry tools
D) solid blocks of color

Question 11

Which artist's canvases of rectangles hovering in fields of color, such as Number 15 (1957) represent a transition of sorts to Color Field painting?

A) de Kooning
B) Rothko
C) Kline
D) Albers

Question 12

What process did Pollock use from 1947 onward to produce his most celebrated pictures?

A) sand painting
B) bold, slashing brushstrokes
C) drip technique
D) color-field painting

Question 13

An important distinction between the works of Pollock and Rothko is that Rothko's work

A) consisted primarily of nonfigurative imagery.
B) consisted primarily of figurative imagery.
C) eliminated references to the creative process.
D) allowed light to move exuberantly across the picture plane.

Question 14

Which artist used a wide housepainter's brush to create dynamic imagery in works such as Mahoning?

A) Pollock
B) Frankenthaler
C) de Kooning
D) Kline

Question 15

Who painted Ocean Park No. 129 and other nonfigurative paintings evocative of landscapes?

A) Diebenkorn
B) Kelly
C) Pollock
D) Rothko

Question 16

Which of the following artists is associated with West Coast abstraction?

A) Gorky
B) Frankenthaler
C) Albers
D) Diebenkorn

Question 17

Mondrian's works, such as Trafalgar Square, show how he served as a bridge between Color Field painting and what earlier school?

A) Surrealism
B) Impressionism
C) Fauvism
D) Cubism

Question 18

How did the early works of de Kooning most differ from those of Pollock and Kline?

A) the inclusion of some recognizable subject matter
B) the creation of a textured quality to the painting's surface
C) the use of thick, bold strokes
D) the adoption of a drip technique to create the paintings

Question 19

Gorky's most characteristic shapes are

A) squares and triangles.
B) regular geometric shapes.
C) biomorphs.
D) perfect circles.

Question 20

Who created large metal sculptures based on geometric forms in his Cubi series?

A) Nevelson
B) Smith
C) Noguchi
D) Diebenkorn

Question 21

Pollock insisted that he retained complete conscious control over the process of painting his works, and that the paintings "had no lives of their own."

Question 22

Gorky's The Artist and His Mother exhibits all the following characteristics EXCEPT

A) a use of geometric shapes inspired by Cubism.
B) an absence of representational forms, suggesting late-period Expressionism.
C) visible brushstrokes reminiscent of Fauvism.
D) flattened planes of color reminiscent of Fauvism.

Question 23

Who was the most famous gesture painter of the New York school?

A) de Kooning
B) Pollock
C) Rothko
D) Kelly

Question 24

Whose abstracted representations in works such as Garden in Sochi represented an important step toward Abstract Expressionism?

A) Rothko
B) Frankenthaler
C) Gorky
D) Kline

Question 25

Which art critic penned the term "action painting" to describe works where "the canvas was not a picture but an event"?

A) Greenberg
B) Barr, Jr.
C) Namuth
D) Rosenberg

Question 26

Before moving toward nonrepresentational figuration, Diebenkorn's work consisted primarily of landscapes and depictions of isolated, anonymous figures.

Question 27

Hofmann and Albers were two influential art teachers who originally hailed from

A) Germany.
B) the Netherlands.
C) France.
D) Denmark.

Question 28

Almost all Abstract Expressionists had passed through a phase of what style, which inculcated in them an interest in myths and dreams?

A) Surrealism
B) Cubism
C) Impressionism
D) Mannerism

Question 29

The use of synthetic media such acrylic is limited by the susceptibility of such paints to blend when layered, whether the paint is wet or dry.

Question 30

What city had become the center of the art world by 1940?

A) Berlin
B) London
C) Rome
D) New York

Question 31

Albers made a series of paintings in homage to which shape, which he regarded as being farthest removed from nature?

A) circle
B) triangle
C) square
D) pentagon

Question 32

The works of Matisse had a more recognizable influence on Color Field painters than the works of artists such as Picasso.

Question 33

By definition, a work of Abstract Expressionism must include no recognizable subject matter.

Question 34

Gorky refused to study nature closely because he was only interested in abstractions, not concrete forms.

Question 35

Which art critic traced the way in which, over time, artists' view of pictorial space had "lost its 'inside' and become all 'outside'"?

A) Greenberg
B) Rosenberg
C) Barr, Jr.
D) Namuth

Question 36

The "New York school" of Abstract Expressionism included artists from all over the U.S. and Europe, not just artists from New York.

Question 37

In addition to sculpting, Noguchi has produced furniture, playgrounds, and numerous other things.

Question 38

Which Armenian artist played the most influential role in transforming European Abstract Surrealism into American Abstract Expressionism?

A) Albers
B) Frankenthaler
C) Gorky
D) Stella

Question 39

Chromatic Abstraction is another term used to identify the Color Field painting style.

Question 40

Hans Hofmann rejected the Impressionist view that the color in a picture created light, insisting instead that light makes color visible.

Question 41

How did Navajo sand painters influence Pollock's art? How did their works differ from his?

Question 42

How "American" was American Abstract Expressionism, and how much was it the product of foreign influences?

Question 43

Discuss the development of Abstract Expressionism from Surrealism and Cubism. What features of the two styles did it retain, and what new elements did it add?

Question 44

Describe the respective techniques of three action painters. What qualities did their works and techniques share, and how did they differ?

Question 45

Hans Hofmann described a work as finished when "all parts involved communicate themselves, so that they don't need me." What did he mean by this? Can this statement be used to better understand abstract painting as a whole?

Question 46

Describe the nature of acrylic. What are its advantages and disadvantages?

Question 47

What are the main characteristics of Color Field painting? How did Rothko's work anticipate the style?