U.S. and Canada, mid-1950s

The term Post-painterly abstraction was coined by critic Clement Greenberg in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1964, featuring contemporary American and Canadian artists. In his essay for the catalogue Greenberg distinguished between Painterly abstraction—his preferred designation for what others have called Abstract Expressionism [more] [more]—and the artistic work that it precipitated by such artists as Gene Davis, Paul Feeley, John Ferren, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Alfred Jensen, Morris Louis, Jules Olitski, Frank Stella, and others. Some of these artists continued the painterly, loose facture of color and contour pursued by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, while others moved toward a more hard-edged style. What they shared, according to Greenberg, was the kind of linear clarity and physical openness of design that had begun with Painterly abstraction and continued in its wake, as well as a new tendency to stress contrasts of pure hues, and a rejection of the tactile application of paint in favor of staining the canvas with diluted paint. Often they also sought a flat, anonymous style of execution.

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