The Crucible of New York: Shaping Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s The decade of the 1950s witnessed a seismic shift in the landscape of American art, largely spearheaded by a group of painters residing and working in the vibrant, often chaotic environment of post-war New York. These artists, collectively known as the Abstract Expressionists, rejected the established traditions of representational painting and sought to express profound emotions and ideas through non-objective forms. Francis Bacon’s journey during this period—a time of intense personal transformation and artistic explorat…