A new movement in the history of art emerged in the 1940s and 1950s, not in Europe but in America. Strokes of Genius, a six-part film series, examines the personal lives and artistic contributions of the principal leaders of the Abstract Expressionist movement.de Kooning on de Kooning
In this last appearance by the artist, Willem and Elaine de Kooning reminisce about the artist's career ? from de Kooning's arrival in New York City in the '30s and his early success as a commercial artist; the association with the Works Projects Administration; and reactions to his profound success and the interest in his work.
Arshile Gorky
In this intimate portrait, Gorky shares his innermost feelings as letters from him to his sister and wife are read over candid black and white photographs.
Franz Kline Remembered
When Franz Kline arrived in New York in 1939, he had studied painting in Boston and London, places far removed from his upbringing in the coal country of Pennsylvania. Beginning in colorful, representational work, he soon ventured into more abstraction, evoking the spirit of extreme poverty from his childhood.
Jackson Pollock
His name is synonymous with the new American art movement of the 1940s and '50s, that school of works known as Abstract Expressionism. For Pollock, the term "action painting" best described his most controversial work, produced, produced by dripping paint from cans or pouring and hurling paint onto canvases.
David Smith
David Smith showed an interest in art during high school and later learned techniques for handling and cutting metals while working at the local Studebaker automobile plant. He began is artistic career as a painter by turned increasingly to sculpture, influenced by the 1930s work of Picasso and Gonzalez; by 1935 he was working exclusively in welded steel.
Also available as a separate item, In Search of Rothko
