franz kline drew inspiration from cubism.illem de kooning did portraits that became highly charged responses to the women who were his models. the abstract expressionists wanted to paint on the same level of quality as the old masters or as, let's say, the best of the school of paris-- picasso, matisse, mondrian. they were striving for excellence. they found they did better work when they went abstract. mark rothko chose a path to pure expression by using only gradations of color on his canvases. pollock's vision and greenberg's theory were explored by a second generation. many acknowledged that helen frankenthaler adapted pollock's technique in a way that made him more accessible to other artists. she stained her canvas with highly diluted paint to achieve these haunting effects in mountains and sea. the abstract expressionist movement dominated the world of western art for over a decade. by the mid fifties, they were established, only to be superseded by a new avant-garde. the postwar world is characterized by an accelerati