While 'Sixties Abstraction' was a distillate of all the ideas and experimentations, carried out during the era of 'Pop Art,' 'Abstract Art' was instrumental in the evolution of 'Conceptual' and 'Performance Art.
' Abstractionists of the caliber of Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jasper Johns, John Cage, Frank Stella, Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, and Newman, helped revolutionize the contemporary creative degrees.
In the sixties, the New York City witnessed a surge in the artistic interests with the frontrunners, such as artists, collectors, and dealers, converging at Max's Kansas City.
Ideas were juxtaposed, confluences happened, and new trends were set, due to the intermixing of artists, especially 'Formalists,' 'Minimalists,' 'Conceptualists,' and 'intellectuals.
' The resulting 'Sixties Abstraction' was revolutionary, spontaneous, and non-conforming to traditional norms.
Art was now a competent medium for questioning the social values, moral, and political ethics, and even introspecting the seriousness of art itself.
The 'Abstract Art' of the sixties had the typical traits of 'Minimalism,' in which the portrayed subjects used to be reduced to their basic structure, usually a Geometrical form.
'Colorfield Painting,' an offshoot of 'Sixties Abstraction,' involved downsizing painting to flat, non-illusionary, and self-referential canvasses.
'Colorfield Abstractionists,' Morris Louis and Kennet Noland would combine the pools of vibrant colors, or just formed hue rainbows.
Larry Aldrich called the peak of 'Sixties Abstraction,' as 'Lyrical Abstraction,' a more painterly, spiritual, and human-centric art form.
In effect, 'Lyrical Abstraction' was more expressive and landscape oriented than the 'Minimal Art' was.
Creative changes to 'Sixties Abstraction' were visible in the styles, techniques, and the subjects of the art works.
Andy Warhol painted with the help of machines instead of brushes, and even used soup cans as themes.
Similarly, Roy Lichtenstein painted phony brushstrokes.
'Abstractionist' Ralph Humphrey's rich & sensual paintings had simple formats, interspersed with colors, while Frank Stella's power and energy packed works, and Brice Marden's diverse emotional aestheticism, would elevate 'Abstraction' to an altogether different level.
In the 'Fiberglass Paintings' of Ronald Davis, the colored planes of resins were painted under the surfaces of pictures.
Larry Poons' 'Colorfield' driven 'Optical Dot Paintings,' Peter Young's clustered primary colored dots on white fields, and Dan Christensen's unique spray gun painting, are some of the landmarks of 'Sixties Abstraction.
' With everything falling to perfection, the cons associated with the 'Sixties Abstraction' included the mushrooming of galleries to cater to the demands of an ever-increasing clientele.
As a result, though the 'Abstractionists' benefitted financially, creativity suffered, as materialism overshadowed aesthetic reasoning.
By late sixties, 'Lyrical Abstraction' paved way for 'Anti-Formalism,' with 'Abstractionism' beginning to grow increasingly obscure.