Rite of Spring, painting by Ronnie Landfield

Lyrical abstraction is, to me almost what is sounds like it would be Don't words those two words conjure images of swirling psychedelic hues and lines of rainbow color? The look of this art was flowing abstract pieces that were emotional and intuitive rather than cold and calculated. The artists behind this movement were opposed to the rigid art that came before it. The emphasis was less on creating a piece of art for the viewer and more about the experience of creating art, it was about a personal expression.

This movement was born in Europe after World War II but an American version happened in the 1960's. This movement has been speculated as a way for France to again find it's identity in art after the war. These french artists looked to Wassilly Kandinsky as a sort of grandfather to the lyrical abstraction style.

The look was shocking and could be called simple if it weren't for all of the drama and tension in the pieces. The focus from the artists was also on the material, using found objects and industrial materials, raw materials, fabrications and more in the works themselves.

The lyrical abstraction from the U.S. In the 1960's had the same ideas behind it, and carried on with this aesthetic, but even more loose and intuitive. This movement also became very famous in it's own right. One of the major players in the movement was Ronnie Landfield whose canvases of blotted and smeared colors are reminscent of a child with watercolors, but perfected. He was seen of the first of this time to move art into the more sensous and romantic and away from hard and geometric.

While he was creating his paintings. Landfield traveled through the Southwest, camping and painting on limestone. The colors in his works often seem to reflect his surroundings at that time. If one were to take a beautiful rocky mountain sunset and cause it to melt and swirl, you'd start to have an idea of a Landfield painting.

Landfield also in the 60's and 70's began writing and giving lectures about abstract art, which until this time had often been written off and virtually ignored. He taught about the rich and neglected history of abstract art.

Let Oil Painting Express bring some of this abstract history to your living room. A lyrical abstract piece is perfect for anyone who is a modern person but doesn't like the starkness of abstract art. The pieces are all-embodying and would go great in any room of the house. With such rich emotion in each of the pieces, these would make great gifts for those people in your life to whom you want to express such deep feeling, but words somehow always fall short.