Abstract Expressionism

The question came up: what was modern art in the 1950s? Here is a site about abstract expressionism:

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/abstract-expressionism.html

Here are some paintings by Mark Rothko:

http://images.google.com/images?q=mark+rothko&hl=en&hs=Lq7&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest

Here are some paintings by Barnett Newman:

http://www.studio-international.co.uk/painting/newman.htm

Here's a site devoted to Jackson Pollack:

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/pollock_jackson.html

Please take a look. There are some wonderful paintings here.

And this is what my friend, Gaye Chan, a UH art professor, says about the abstract expressionists:

I thought rothko's work was ridiculus too when I saw it in slides and books and posters.  then one day i saw a retrospective of his work and it made me weep.  same
thing with dan flavin.  it was in washington dc two days after W's
reelection.  flavin completely blew me away.

aloha, Susan