Painters who participated in the development of contemporary art, particularly Abstract Expressionism , in or around New York City in the 1940s and '50s.
During and after World War II, leadership in avant-garde art shifted from war-torn Europe to New York, and the New York school maintained a dominant position in world art into the 1980s. Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism , Pop art , and the new realist styles of the late 1960s, among others, all had their beginnings in New York. See also action painting .