Born in 1939, André Sorel grew up during the 1950s and was inspired by the artistic culture of the time. In the Post-War period the lens of modernism was focused, in terms of internationally, on developments in New York City. The Second World War had brought many important artists to the city in exile from Europe, leading to a substantial pooling of talent and ideas. Influential Europeans that came to New York and provided inspiration for American artists included Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers and Hans Hoffmann, who between them set the basis of much of the United States’ significant cultural growth in the decades thereafter. The 1950s can be said to have been dominated by Abstract Expressionism, a form of painting that prioritised dramatic brushstrokes and expressed ideas about organic nature, spirituality and the sublime. Much of the focus was on the formal properties of painting, and ideas of action painting were unified with the political freedom of the United States society as opposed to the strictures nature of the Soviet bloc. Important artists of the Abstract Expressionist Generation included Jackson Pollock (who innovated his famed drip, splatter and pour painting techniques), Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Frank Kline, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still and Adolph Gottlieb. It was a male dominated environment, though necessary reassessment of this period has highlighted the contributions of female artists such as Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, and Louise Bourgeois, amongst others.