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To many, abstract expressionist art is often only recognizable as
chaotic, meaningless, swirling and dripping nonsense on a canvas
(and that’s assuming that it’s recognizable at all). It is very difficult
genre of art to define. According to particularly thorough and excellent
article by Khan academy (which you can read here, if you have an
hour or two to spare) the focus of abstract expressionism is meant to
be on “primal images from society’s collective unconscious.” During
this period in Western history, psychoanalysis with all it’s many hang
up’s about sex and toilet training (Yes, really. If you’re unfamiliar with
psychoanalysis you can brush up on its profound weirdness here)
stood at centre stage in the realm of psychology. It was accepted as
common knowledge that not only do all human beings have an
unconscious mind that subtly rules all of our behaviour, but, according
to Dr. Carl Jung, societies as a whole share a massive network of
unconscious thinking, which he dubbed the “collective unconscious.” It
was Jung’s theories, on the unconscious that played a major role in
shaping abstract expressionist art. The underlying belief of abstract
expressionists was that the forms depicted in their paintings did not
represent real objects in the physical world, but rather were raw
expressions of the feelings and unconscious drives of the artist— a
revolutionary idea, at the time.

"Mural" by Jackson Pollock. Taken from
http://www.dailyartmagazine.com/jackson-pollocks-paintings/