Grace Hartigan's Billboard Grace Hartigan American, born 1922 Billboard,1957 Introduction About the Art Abstract Expressionism Style and Technique The Artist Look ~ Discuss ~ Explore Activities Glossary Text Only Teacher's Guide Abstract Expressionism After World War II, America emerged as a great world leader and New York replaced Paris as the art center of the Western world. A group of New York artists called Abstract Expressionists captured the speed, energy, and power of American life with a new way of painting. Their spontaneous, gestural style, known as action painting, often revealed the raw physical vigor of the creative process. The application of the paint became their subject, as they slashed, spattered, spilled, and splashed it onto their canvases. Soon younger artists flocked to New York to become part of the New York School. They adopted the energetic, gestural style of the older Abstract Expressionists but turned from purely abstract art to recognizable subjects-landscapes, still lifes, and figures. Grace Hartigan belongs to this "second generation" of Abstract Expressionists.