"The 1940s marked a turning point in the development of modern painting. World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust had led to a crisis of meaning that gave rise to new artistic currents. With Abstract Expressionism in the United States and Art Informel in Western Europe, a young generation of artists rejected figurative representation and geometric abstraction in favor of an impulsive, expressive approach to form, color, and material. The spontaneous artistic gesture came to symbolize an avowal of individual freedom, while the large-scale canvasses of Color Field Painting sought to create a meditative space, prompting viewers to explore fundamental questions of human existence. As the cultureal flagship of the democratic West, free abstraction also took on a political dimension in the context of the Cold War. The exhibition The Shape of Freedom foregrounds works of Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel as reflections of an existential search for meaning. With over ninety paintings by artists including Helen Frankenthaler, K.O. Götz, Lee Krasner, Georges Mathieu, Jackson Pollock, Judit Reigl, and Mark Rothko, it offers new perspectives on the transatlantic dialogue of postwar abstraction."--