Characteristics:

a. Irregular-shaped forms and calligraphic interlacings bearing, if any, a relation to organic or anatomical forms; composed usually in dynamic, symbolic or emotively suggestive relationships; often showing evidence of automatist or “doodling” origin.

b. Space treated three-dimensionally; in its variegated depths, shallows and movement related to concepts of space found in landscape; reflects the mysterious instability and vibrating life of the forms within.

Origins: Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism.

Rothko: No. 14. 1949. Oil, 66 x 41 1/4”. Betty Parsons Gallery.

This was from the book Abstract Painting, Sculpture, America - The Museum of Modern Art, 1951.