Using the elements of art (color and value, line and texture, space and form), this paper assesses several paintings from three artists who were prominent figures to grow out of the Abstract Expressionist movement: Cy Twombly, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. Twombly created a series of paintings in 2008 that employ color as a means of storytelling and change. Pollock, on his rise to fame, became known for his paint pouring method that splatters paint across canvases to produce erratic textures. The last artist in discussion, de Kooning, worked with vague and organic forms to allude to the idea of the female figure. The great masters of this movement often refused to tie a specific meaning to their work, leaving many viewers confused about the abundance of basic elements within each piece. The elements of art are the fundamental building blocks for each and every single art reproduction. Since these elements exist in nearly every work, we can use them as visual language tools to help us understand the complex imagery we are seeing. Based on the identifiable elements, we are able to draw conclusions about the sense or tone given to us by the art. This paper is designed to encourage the teaching of the elements of art and to prove why they are important in breaking down the visual language barrier.
