© The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York/ ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025. Image credit: Tate
Gestural is used to describe paintings that feature an expressive use of brushwork. Although gestural marks can be seen in Renaissance and Impressionist works, the word is especially associated with Abstract Expressionist painters such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. For these gestural absract painters – also known as action painters – the process is as important as the outcome, with paint applied intuitively.
The term has its roots in Expressionism more broadly, with many contemporary painters, such as Cecily Brown and Amy Sillman, continuing to emphasise their materials and processes.
