The abstract expressionist movement revolutionized art and moved the U.S. to the center of the international art scene during the 1940s and 1950s.

Based primarily in New York city, this group of artists with radically different styles created a new visual language based on color, motion, and the expression of universal truths. In the process, they transformed the act of painting into a means of self-discovery, which was both uniquely American and utterly new.