Modern Art 1945-2000 (oxford History Of Art) - After

Artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning sought a new, raw language of "action painting" that reflected the existential anxiety of the era.

The narrative of art after 1945 is not just about new styles; it’s about a profound crisis of meaning. Hopkins argues that the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust shattered the "grand narratives" of high modernism—the belief that art could reach universal truths through pure form and abstraction. After Modern Art 1945-2000 (Oxford History of Art)

While many histories focus solely on the rise of American dominance, Hopkins highlights a constant dialogue—and often a resistance—between European and American centers. Artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning