Based largely around 3 artists- Wassily
Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Piet
Mondrian
Time period is approximately from late
1800’s into the early 1900’s , intertwined
with many other time periods.
Influences: chemistry, physics, psychology,
philosophy, poetry, and music
Abstractionism is a departure from
reality
Relationships of forms and colors
Forms: institutional, emotional, organic,
curvilinear, decorative, romantic, or
focuses on the mystical
Artists draw their inner world
Pure abstraction is non objective and non
representational
Figurative abstractions represent non visual
things-sound emotion, spiritual
Figurative abstractions
simplifications of reality, where
detail is eliminated from
recognizable objects leaving only
some degree of recognizable form.
To keep things simple, we can divide abstract
art into six basic types:
• Curvilinear
• Colour-Related or Light-Related
• Geometric
• Emotional or Intuitional
• Gestural
• Minimalist
This type of curvilinear abstraction is strongly
associated with Celtic Art, which employed a
range of abstract motifs including knots (eight
basic types), interlace patterns, and spirals
(including the triskele, or the triskelion).
These motifs were not original to the Celts - many
other early cultures had been utilizing these Celtic
designs for centuries: see for instance the spiral
engravings at the Neolithic Passage Tomb at
Newgrange in Co Meath, created some 2000 years
before the appearance of the Celts.
However, it is fair to say
that Celtic designers
breathed new life into
these patterns, making
them much more intricate
and sophisticated in the
process.
These patterns later re-
emerged as decorative
elements in early illuminated
manuscripts (c.600-1000 CE).
Later they returned during the 19th century Celtic
Revival Movement, and the influential 20th
century Art Nouveau movement: notably in book-
covers, textile, wallpaper and chintz designs by
the likes of William Morris (1834-96) and Arthur
Mackmurdo (1851-1942). Curvilinear abstraction is
also exemplified by the "infinite pattern", a
widespread feature of Islamic Art.
Colour-Related or Light-Related Abstract Art
This type is exemplified in works by Turner and Monet, that
use colour (or light) in such a way as to detach the work of
art from reality, as the object dissolves in a swirl of
pigment.
Two instances of Turner's style of expressive abstraction
have already been mentioned, to which we can add
his Interior at Petworth (1837, Tate Collection).
Colour-related abstraction re-emerged in the late 1940s and
50s in the form of Colour Field Painting, developed by Mark
Rothko (1903-70) and Barnett Newman (1905-70). In 1950s
France, a parallel type of colour-related abstract painting
sprang up, known as Lyrical Abstraction.
Talisman (1888, Musee d'Orsay, Paris) by Paul Serusier (1864-1927)
leader of Les Nabis, and
several Fauvist works of Henri Matisse (1869-1954).
This type of intellectual abstract art emerged
from about 1908 onwards. An early rudimentary
form was Cubism, specifically analytical Cubism -
which rejected linear perspective and the illusion
of spatial depth in a painting, in order to focus on
its 2-D aspects. Geometric Abstraction is also
known as Concrete Art and Non-Objective Art. As
you might expect, it is characterized by non-
naturalistic imagery, typically geometrical shapes
such as circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and
so forth.
This type of intellectual abstract art emerged
from about 1908 onwards. An early rudimentary
form was Cubism, specifically analytical Cubism -
which rejected linear perspective and the illusion
of spatial depth in a painting, in order to focus on
its 2-D aspects. Geometric Abstraction is also
known as Concrete Art and Non-Objective Art. As
you might expect, it is characterized by non-
naturalistic imagery, typically geometrical shapes
such as circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and
so forth.
Geometrical abstraction is exemplified by Black Circle (1913, State Russian
Museum, St Petersburg) painted by Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) (founder of
Suprematism);
Broadway Boogie-Woogie (1942, MoMA, New York) by Piet Mondrian (1872-
1944) (founder of Neo-Plasticism); and
Composition VIII (The Cow) (1918, MoMA, New York) by Theo Van Doesburg
(1883-1931) (founder of De Stijl and Elementarism).
This type of intuitional art embraces a mix of
styles, whose common theme is a naturalistic
tendency. This naturalism is visible in the type
of shapes and colours employed. Unlike
Geometric Abstraction, which is almost anti-
nature, intuitional abstraction often evokes
nature, but in less representational ways. Two
important sources for this type of abstract art
are: Organic Abstraction (also called
Biomorphic abstraction) and Surrealism.
Arguably, the most celebrated painter specializing in this type of art was the
Russian-born Mark Rothko's Paintings (1938-70)
the typical Teller, Gabel und Nabel (1923, Private Collection) by Jean Arp
(1887-1966),
Woman (1934, Private Collection) by Joan Miro (1893-1983),
This is a form of abstract expressionism, where
the process of making the painting becomes
more important than usual. Paint may be
applied in unusual ways, brushwork is often
very loose, and rapid. Famous American
exponents of gestural painting include Jackson
Pollock (1912-56), the inventor of Action-
Painting, and his wife Lee Krasner (1908-84)
who inspired him with her own form of drip-
painting.
Willem de Kooning
(1904-97),
famous for
his Womanseries of
works; and
This type of abstraction was a back-to-
basics sort of avant-garde art, stripped of
all external references and associations. It
is what you see - nothing else. It often
takes a geometrical form, and is
dominated by sculptors, although it also
includes some great painters.
