Western painting critic Robert Coates. Abstract expressionism, Action painting, and Color Field painting are synonymous with the New York School. Technically Surrealism was an important predecessor for Abstract expressionism with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation. Jackson Pollock's dripping paint onto a canvas laid on the floor is a technique that has its roots in the work of André Masson. Another important ear<nowiki>ly m</nowiki>anifestation of what came to be abstract expressionism is the work of American Northwest artist Mark Tobey, especially his "white writing" canvases, which, though generally not large in scale, anticipate the "all over" look of Pollock's drip
Tet (Morris Louis painting) and to artists in New York such as Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and Helen Frankenthaler. It was Frankenthaler who created the technique of staining: a process using thinned paint and gravity on an unstretched and untreated canvas. Greenberg admired Frankenthaler’s technique because of his theories on “purism” within the arts. Greenberg believed that painting’s one characteristic which distinguished it from other art forms was its “flatness.” This quality was enhanced by the staining process. The paint actually soaked into the surface of the canvas, showing no three-dimensional qualities. Frankenthaler’s painting "Mountains and Sea" would stand as Louis’s primary influence in