<P> The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s and 1960s in New York City . They often drew inspiration from surrealism and the contemporary avant - garde art movements, in particular action painting, abstract expressionism, jazz, improvisational theater, experimental music, and the interaction of friends in the New York City art world's vanguard circle . </P> <P> Concerning the New York School poets, critics argued that their work was a reaction to the Confessionalist movement in Contemporary Poetry . Their poetic subject matter was often light, violent, or observational, while their writing style was often described as cosmopolitan and world - traveled . </P> <P> The poets often wrote in an immediate and spontaneous manner reminiscent of stream of consciousness writing, often using vivid imagery . They drew on inspiration from Surrealism and the contemporary avant - garde art movements, in particular the action painting of their friends in the New York City art world circle such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning . </P> <P> Poets often associated with the New York School include John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler, Barbara Guest, Ted Berrigan, Bernadette Mayer, Alice Notley, Kenward Elmslie, Frank Lima, Ron Padgett, Lewis Warsh, Tom Savage and Joseph Ceravolo . </P>

The term new york school refers to a postwar art movement that