What were the two branches of New York School painting?

New York School is a terminology that is used to signify the innovation taking place in the post war New York (Frank, 2013, p.434). The two branches of New York School painting are Abstract Expression and Color Filed Painting.

Abstract Expression

            Realist style dominated the 1930s. But after the world wars, artists felt the need to represent their feelings and also represent the horrors of the war through a representative language of their mind not through real life images of humans and objects. For this reason, abstract expression was used which provide the freedom to be innovative with the art work, especially representing human feelings.

Color Field Painting

These types of painting consist of large areas of colors. To the viewer, these paintings may seem like off balance and with no central focus. These paintings may represent rituals and myths as the paintings of Mark Rothko were. The images usually represented in the color paintings are dominated by huge color images.  Colors are used as the representatives of different moods. These colors represent joy, sadness and other moods.

References

Frank, P. (2013). Prebles’ Artforms (11th ed.). Prentice Hall.