Action Painters

“I like to use fluid paint. I also use sand, glass, pebbles, string, nails or other matter… I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them.”

—Jackson Pollock

The term "action painters" refers to artists active between the 1940s and early 1960s who focused on the physical process of painting itself, treating the act of creation as a vital element of the final artwork.

Jackson Pollock
Yellow Islands (1952)

© ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025

Their technique involved dynamic methods like splashing, gestural brushwork, and dripping paint onto the canvas, rather than applying it with precision. The phrase "action painting" was introduced by Harold Rosenberg in his influential essay The American Action Painters, published in the December 1952 issue of ARTnews.

Rosenberg was referring to artists such as Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock.

Rosenberg was highlighting artists like Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky ,Jackson Pollock  and Franz Kline, in his discussion.

The present work pictured in Florence Knoll’s apartment, as published in the July 1, 1954, issue of Vogue. Photograph by: John Rawlings. Image: John Rawlings/Condé Nast via Getty Images

Jackson Pollock painting, 1950. Photograph by: Rudolph Burckhardt. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY / © Rudolph Burckhardt / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York