The Crisis of Artistic Forms after 1945; Abstractionism and the Theatre of the Absurd versus Abstract Theatre Dilemma

Abstract The present study aims to revive the discussion on Martin Esslin’s 1961 labeling of the post-war theater as “absurd” and proposes the consideration of a new paradigm: “abstract theater”. In the great existential and artistic crisis triggered by the end of the Second World War, post-war art oriented itself towards an abstract expression that would dominate the 5 th and 6 th decades of the 20 th century. A panoramic study of the second wave of the avant-garde represented by abstract art could also include these dramatic texts in the great abstract movement of the period. This approach could reopen, in the spirit of the analysis of that Zeitgeist , a fruitful discussion, integrating the art of theater in the great post-war abstractionist spirit.