抽象表现主义(Abstract Expressionism)
1940年代末在美国画坛掀起的运动。两位着名的先驱者是高尔基（Arshile Gorky）和霍夫曼（Hans Hofmann）。时因1930年代末至1940年代初有一大批欧洲的前卫派艺术家来到美国，对纽约画家影响极大，其中最杰出的是波洛克（Jackson Pollock）、德库宁（willem de Kooning）、克兰（Franz Klein）和罗思科（Mark Rothko）。抽象表现主义风格虽然五花八门，但主要有几个特徵。它们基本上是抽象的，也就是说，他们描绘的各种形状不是取自自然界。它们强调自由的情绪表达，运用技巧和手法自由挥洒，以一种统一、没有明显差别的底色、网络或在非结构空间存在的其他意象来显示。这些油画都画在巨大的画布上，既加强了视觉效果，也凸显其宏伟的气魄。1950年代期间此运动对美国和欧洲的艺术界产生巨大的冲击，也象徵了现代绘画的创作中心从巴黎移转到纽约。亦请参阅abstract art和action painting。
English version：
Abstract Expressionism
Movement in U.S. painting that began in the late 1940s. It had two notable forerunners, Arshile Gorky and Hans Hofmann. The arrival in the late 1930s and early 1940s of many European avant-garde artists greatly influenced the New York painters, most prominent among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko. The movement comprised many styles but shared several characteristics. The works were usually abstract (i.e., they depicted forms not found in the natural world); they emphasized freedom of emotional expression, technique, and execution; they displayed a single unified, undifferentiated field, network, or other image in unstructured space; and the canvases were large, to enhance the visual effect and project monumentality and power. The movement had a great impact on U.S. and European art in the 1950s; it marked the shift of the creative center of modern painting from Paris to New York. See also abstract art, action painting.