Abstract techniques have been used by artists to explore ideas beyond the canvas and our physical reality. Abstraction is often seen to carry a moral dimension — a notion that was particularly prevalent in the late 19 th and 20 th centuries, where ideas of spiritualism, purity, and order informed many artists and their work. Pulling away from literal and representational art, abstract art is an escape from reality and is vastly open to interpretation.
A main and fundamental aspect of abstract art is that imagery is non-representational. Abstraction has been explored and expressed by artists in a plethora of ways, the large number of abstract movements that have developed over the last century just showcases how vast and open-ended the genre is. Hence, we can only understand the specific characteristics of abstract art when looking at specific movements and styles.
This will be further elaborated upon in the next section. Abstract art has existed even as early as the Tang dynasty - However, the rise of abstract art movements only really came in the late 19th century when artists began to deviate from classical and traditional modes of painting as a result of growing feelings of cynicism and disillusionment that followed WWI.
Arguably, such tendencies towards abstraction began with the Impressionist movement, which reinforced the notion that art could be non-representational and less objective. The movement subsequently saw the development towards more abstract depictions, which was evident in Cubism and Fauvism. By the turn of the 20th century, instead of replicating objects from the real world, artists began to paint abstract ideas derived from their own minds and imagination.
Many placed precedence on the formal qualities of their work over the actual subject matter and visual accuracy of the painting itself. German Expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky has been regarded as the pioneer of abstract art and one of the first to truly embrace completely abstract compositions. His bright, dynamic, and colorful pieces have been described to represent the world through emotion and expression.
Expressionism was one of the first abstract art movements to come into prominence in the 20 th century. Marc Chagall , Paul Klee , and Wassily Kandinsky were notable expressionist artists who used gestural markings, an intense color palette, and non-naturalistic brushwork to create bold and sometimes mystical abstract landscape pieces.
Cubism and Fauvism were two 20 th century art movements that had a strong influence on another. These different artistic styles showcased the world in a distorted or fragmented way, which was during that time, was a revolutionary approach in representing reality. Cubism sought to represent the world through geometric and fragmented shapes rendered across a two-dimensional picture plane.
Key cubist artists include Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Fauvist art on the other hand was characterized by strong brushwork, separate applications of non-naturalistic colors , with forms delineated in a simplified and abstract manner. Fauvists were largely associated with the scientific color theories that were developed in the 19 th century, which explains why many works were executed with bright and bold complementary colors.
It is a style of abstract painting pioneered by Mondrian that sought to reproduce reality in its purest form. It was a style that proposed that abstraction could explicitly illustrate the human mind through purely geometric forms and primary colors.
Works of this style are often characterized by strong , thick, and gestural brushstrokes and active mark-making. Abstract expressionists tend to fall under two groupings, the first is action painters , and the second is referred to as color field painters.
Often, the canvas would be taken off the easel, laid on the floor and large quantities of paint would be splattered onto the canvas using powerful and emotive brushwork. Other abstract expressionists took a different approach.
Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still , known as color field painters, created simple compositions by filling an entire canvas with blocks of singular colors. Artists like Rothko believed that his canvases attained spiritual and divine qualities, and were able to produce emotional responses from viewers. Color field painters focused on the aesthetic, textural, and abstract elements of the painting.
Abstract art, design, and architecture can be found everywhere — it is all around us, and because of the unlimited ways it can be explored, it is understandable why this popular genre has formed a major part of a lot of artistic practices today. The employment of abstract techniques has enabled artists to explore and represent their personal thoughts and feelings without the need for direct representation.
Abstraction paved the way for artistic freedom, where anything from spirituality, materiality, to psychological and mental states, could be explored through the imaginative application of color, line, and form.
The popularity and attraction of abstract art is largely due to the fact that it is an incredibly versatile genre that continues to evolve till this day. With the rise of technology, social media, digital applications, and tools, we are already seeing abstract art developing and taking new shape.
Abstract art makes wonderful additions to any collection for their timelessness and infinite appeal. Abstract works are great alternatives to figurative and more representational pieces that may directly allude to a specific narrative. More Definitions for abstract. Nglish: Translation of abstract for Spanish Speakers. Britannica English: Translation of abstract for Arabic Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up.
Save Word. Essential Meaning of abstract. The word "poem" is concrete, the word "poetry" is abstract. Full Definition of abstract Entry 1 of 3. Definition of abstract Entry 2 of 3. Definition of abstract Entry 3 of 3. Examples of abstract in a Sentence Adjective It is true that the atrocities that were known remained abstract and remote, rarely acquiring the status of knee-buckling knowledge among ordinary Americans.
Please consider a Part II featuring some of the incredible WOMEN abstract expressionist artists, past and present, who are just now beginning to receive the recognition they deserve. I am a photographer who specializes in abstract photography. How could I submit my photographs to your art gallery for an expedition? We accept all artist submissions through clientservices parkwestgallery.
Thank you. What Is Abstract Art? Jeanne Beck June 16, Brett Carlson June 16, Excellent review! Dvorak Lisa June 19, A great learning review! Ed Hendricks December 11, Park West Gallery December 11, Hi Ed, We accept all artist submissions through clientservices parkwestgallery. James Brockway March 3, It is also applied to art that uses forms, such as geometric shapes or gestural marks, which have no source at all in an external visual reality. Abstract art is often seen as carrying a moral dimension, in that it can be seen to stand for virtues such as order, purity, simplicity and spirituality.
Since the early s, abstract art has formed a central stream of modern art. Kandinsky saw his abstract paintings as an alternative pathway to spiritual reality.
Cubism directly influenced other forms of abstraction including constructivism, neo-plasticism and orphism. Orphism —13 : Coined by the French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire. The name comes from the musician Orpheus in ancient Greek myths, as Apollinaire thought that painting should be like music.
Main artists Robert Delaunay and Sonia Delaunay also used the term simultanism to describe their work of this period. Suprematism : Malevich created a new form of abstraction in order to free art from the real world. Constructivism c. The constructivists made their own constructions made from industrial materials to reflect the dynamism of the modern world.
Only primary colours and non-colours were used in the form of squares, rectangles, straight, horizontal or vertical lines in order to stick to the core elements of painting: colour, line and form. Automatism c. This free way of creating art led to simplified organic shapes, which Miro developed into his own personal sign language.
Action painting —s : The action painter abstract expressionists were directly influenced by automatism. Colour field painting —s : Another form of abstract expressionism, the colour field painters produced simple compositions made out of large soft-edged areas of colour with no obvious focus of attention, with the aim of producing a meditational response in the viewer. Post-painterly abstraction s : This form of abstraction focused more than ever before on the basic elements of painting: form, colour, texture, scale, composition and were ruthless in their rejection of mysticism and of any reference to the external world.
Hard edge painting s : Seen as a subdivision of post-painterly abstraction this style of hard-edged geometric abstraction reacted to the more gestural forms of abstract expressionism by only using monochromatic fields of clean-edged colour which reinforced the flatness of the picture surface. Op art s : Seen as a subdivision of post-painterly abstraction this style of hard-edged geometric abstraction reacted to the more gestural forms of abstract expressionism by only using monochromatic fields of clean-edged colour which reinforced the flatness of the picture surface.
Cubist and fauvist artists depended on the visual world for their subject matter but opened the door for more extreme approaches to abstraction. A pioneer of abstract sculpture, which took reference from the modern world was the Russian constructivist Naum Gabo.
Susan Holtham and Fiontan Moran. Julia Voss. Wassily Kandinsky is generally regarded as the pioneer of abstract art. However, a Swedish woman called Hilma af Klint — …. There are many theoretical ideas behind abstract art. The idea, derived from the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, that the highest form of beauty lies not in the forms of the real world but in geometry, is also used in discussion of abstract art, as is the idea that abstract art, since it does not represent the material world, can be seen to represent the spiritual.
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