Living Color: Diverse Examples of Abstract Expressionism You Should Actually Know

Classic examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism

Before we jump into the newer work, it helps to anchor the eye with some of the best examples that shaped the whole conversation. These aren’t just history-book names; they’re the reason your brain now accepts that a giant field of red can make people cry.

Take Jackson Pollock’s “No. 1A, 1948”. This is the textbook example of the drip technique, but seeing it in person (at the Museum of Modern Art in New York) is like standing inside someone’s nervous system. The paint isn’t gently placed; it’s hurled, flung, dragged. The entire canvas becomes a record of movement—gravity, momentum, hesitation, risk. When people look for real examples of abstract expressionism, this painting always shows up, not because it’s polite, but because it’s chaotic in a way that still feels oddly familiar in the age of scrolling and overload.

Then there’s Mark Rothko’s “No. 61 (Rust and Blue)”. On a screen, it looks almost too simple—blocks of color floating over each other. In front of you, though, the edges vibrate, the layers breathe, and the color feels less like paint and more like weather. This is one of the best examples of how abstract expressionism can be quiet but emotionally loud. Instead of action painting, you get what critics called Color Field painting—still part of the same movement, just shifting the drama into atmosphere rather than gesture.

Another powerful example of diverse examples of abstract expressionism is Lee Krasner’s “The Seasons”. Krasner’s work is often treated like a footnote to Pollock’s, which is wildly unfair. “The Seasons” is massive, floral, almost explosive—like a garden that decided it was done being polite. The sweeping curves and tangled forms show how abstract expressionist energy could be lush and organic, not just macho and aggressive.

Global examples include more than just New York

Abstract expressionism is usually sold as a New York story, but that’s only part of the truth. If you’re hunting for diverse examples of abstract expressionism, you have to look beyond Manhattan.

In Japan, Kazuo Shiraga turned the canvas into an arena. He painted with his feet, swinging from ropes over pools of pigment. Works like “Chikisei Sesuishiki” (1959) are wild, thick, and visceral—like mud wrestling translated into paint. These paintings are real examples of abstract expressionism’s spirit: the body as brush, the canvas as battlefield.

In Europe, Lucio Fontana took the flat surface and literally cut it open. His “Concetto Spaziale, Attese” series—those iconic slashed canvases—may look minimal, but they’re deeply connected to the abstract expressionist impulse to break painting wide open. Instead of throwing paint, he slices the picture plane, turning space itself into part of the artwork.

Another strong example of diverse examples of abstract expressionism comes from Canada with Jean-Paul Riopelle. His canvases, like “Pavane” (1954), are dense mosaics of palette-knife strokes, stacked into thick, shimmering surfaces. They sit somewhere between landscape, mosaic, and storm cloud. Riopelle’s work shows how the style traveled and mutated, absorbing local color and atmosphere.

Women who rewrote the script: overlooked but vital examples

If you only look at the usual guys, you miss half the story—and a lot of the best examples. Many of the most interesting examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism were made by women who didn’t get equal wall space at the time.

Joan Mitchell is a perfect example of how fierce and lyrical the movement could be. Works like “Hemlock” (1956) or her later large-scale paintings from the 1980s explode with tangled marks and electric color. They feel like landscapes that have been emotionally overexposed. Mitchell’s paintings are real examples of abstract expressionism that bridge nature and memory; you don’t see a tree, you feel the storm that tree lived through.

Helen Frankenthaler pushed things in a different direction with her soak-stain technique. In paintings like “Mountains and Sea” (1952), she thinned her paint so it soaked directly into unprimed canvas, creating veils of translucent color. These works are sometimes cited as early Color Field examples, but they’re absolutely part of the abstract expressionist story—just more atmospheric, more watery, less brute force.

Another powerful example of diverse examples of abstract expressionism is Norman Lewis, one of the few Black artists associated with the New York School. In works like “Twilight Sounds” (1947) and “Processional” (1965), he fused gestural abstraction with hints of crowds, figures, and political tension. His paintings are a reminder that the movement wasn’t floating in a social vacuum; they’re examples of how abstract expressionism could carry the weight of race, protest, and visibility.

Contemporary artists: 2024’s living, breathing examples

Abstract expressionism isn’t stuck in the 1950s. A lot of contemporary painters are still mining that expressive territory and twisting it into something that feels very 2024. If you’re looking for modern examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism, this is where things get especially interesting.

Julie Mehretu is one of the clearest bridges between mid-century abstraction and the global, data-soaked present. Her large-scale works, like “Stadia II” or the more recent murals for the Whitney Museum, layer architectural plans, map-like lines, and explosive gestures. They’re examples of abstract expressionism updated for an era of satellite imagery and protest footage—part diagram, part storm.

Mark Bradford takes found paper—posters, ads, maps—and sands, scrapes, and paints over them until they become dense, abstract topographies. Works such as “Helter Skelter I” (2007) function as real examples of abstract expressionism, but they’re also tied to specific neighborhoods, economies, and histories. The gesture is still there, but it’s entangled with social reality.

You can also see abstract expressionist DNA in the work of Charline von Heyl, whose paintings mash together graphic patterns, gestural marks, and weird cartoon-ish shapes. They’re examples include everything from art history references to pop culture glitches. The energy, unpredictability, and improvisation feel like a contemporary riff on the same instincts that drove Pollock and Krasner.

Even artists working with AI and digital tools are channeling that spirit. Some painters now generate chaotic, gestural digital studies and then translate them back into paint, using algorithms as a kind of unpredictable collaborator. The result? New examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism where the “gesture” is shared between human and machine. The emotional punch still hits, but the process is more hybrid and experimental.

How to recognize a strong example of abstract expressionism

If you’re trying to figure out whether a painting belongs in the family of examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism, focus less on subject matter (there often isn’t one) and more on how it behaves.

You’ll often see large scale—canvases that feel bigger than your personal space. That’s intentional; many of the best examples were designed to surround your body, not just decorate a wall. Think of Rothko’s chapel paintings in Houston, where the dark, hovering fields of color create a mood more than an image.

Gesture is another giveaway. In classic examples include Pollock’s drips, de Kooning’s slashes of paint, or Shiraga’s foot-smeared surfaces. You can almost reverse-engineer the motion that made them. Even in quieter examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism, like Frankenthaler’s stains or Agnes Martin’s subtle grids, you feel the hand, the rhythm, the repetition.

Emotion is the last big clue. These paintings are less about telling a story and more about staging a feeling. The best examples can feel anxious, ecstatic, mournful, or meditative without a single recognizable object. That’s part of why they’ve stayed relevant; in an era where we’re bombarded with images, there’s something oddly refreshing about work that refuses to spell everything out.

For a deeper historical overview of the movement’s development and context, the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a solid primer on abstract expressionism and its major figures: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm

Why these examples still matter in 2024

So why keep talking about examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism in an age of NFTs, TikTok, and hyper-real CGI? Because underneath all the academic labels, this movement is about something very old and very human: the body trying to make sense of feeling through mark-making.

When you stand in front of a Pollock or a Mehretu, you’re not “solving” the painting; you’re syncing up, however briefly, with someone else’s physical and emotional rhythm. These real examples of abstract expressionism show us how painting can act like music—abstract, nonverbal, but deeply affecting.

They also opened the door for so much that followed: performance art, installation, conceptual work, and today’s hybrid practices. The fact that you can now see artists painting with drones, coding generative gestures, or staging immersive environments—all of that has roots in the boldness of these early examples.

If you want to explore more artists and works, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has an accessible overview of abstract expressionism and related movements: https://www.nga.gov/features/slideshows/abstract-expressionism.html

And for those who like to trace the social and cultural context—how World War II, migration, and Cold War politics shaped the movement—many university art history departments, like Harvard’s, offer open-access materials and course notes that place these examples inside bigger narratives: https://harvard.edu

FAQ: Real-world examples and common questions

Q: What are some famous examples of abstract expressionism I should know?
A: Classic examples include Jackson Pollock’s “No. 1A, 1948,” Mark Rothko’s “No. 61 (Rust and Blue),” Lee Krasner’s “The Seasons,” Joan Mitchell’s “Hemlock,” and Helen Frankenthaler’s “Mountains and Sea.” More recent examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism can be seen in Julie Mehretu’s large-scale works and Mark Bradford’s layered, map-like paintings.

Q: Can a painting with no drips or splatters still be an example of abstract expressionism?
A: Absolutely. While Pollock-style action painting is the most famous example of the look, many examples include softer, quieter approaches—like Rothko’s color fields or Frankenthaler’s stains. The key is expressive, non-figurative use of color, gesture, and scale, not just the presence of drips.

Q: Are there examples of abstract expressionism outside the United States?
A: Yes. Strong examples include Kazuo Shiraga’s foot-painted canvases in Japan, Lucio Fontana’s slashed works in Italy, and Jean-Paul Riopelle’s dense, knife-painted surfaces in Canada. These real examples show how the movement’s energy spread and transformed globally.

Q: What’s a good example of a contemporary abstract expressionist-style artist?
A: Julie Mehretu is often cited as a leading contemporary example of diverse examples of abstract expressionism, blending gestural marks with architectural and cartographic references. Mark Bradford, Charline von Heyl, and many younger painters working in large-scale, expressive abstraction are also strong examples.

Q: Where can I see real examples of abstract expressionism in person?
A: Major collections are held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the Tate Modern in London. Many regional museums across the U.S. also feature examples of diverse examples of abstract expressionism in their modern and contemporary galleries.