Forming currents of abstract art and its most important artists

In our last article "Abstract Art - everything about the non -opposite art movement" we examined abstract art as a concept, influential art direction and dealing with it. We have learned that "non -opposite art" or "non -object art" is a collective drawing for artificial movements of the 20th century that appeared after 1900.

The most important common denominator in abstract works is the departure of nature and real objects as a motive template and the break with the academically soaked traditional principles of classical realism.

Summarized in a short sentence, the principles of abstract artists are based on the rejection of any representation. Their awareness and creative drive should be driven purely by aesthetics for their own sake.

The roots of the abstraction in the case of pictorial design even go back to ancient Greece, where Plato already expressed the urge to non-objective design using geometric shapes and patterns.

Of course, this type of creative arts have not remained unchangeable in its original form, but went through a natural evolution and development. This can be illuminated like the ramifications on an old tree with a proud trunk and deeply reaching root work.

Numerous sub -forms, modifications, parallel movements and counter -trends have been created over the decades and centuries, all of which are related to each other and have often fertilized each other.

Therefore, we would like to make a little journey through time with you through the most important and most formative phases of abstract, concrete and modern art . Wherever possible, we strive to highlight significant nodes, links and causal relationships so that you can develop a coherent picture.

If you were missing one or the other piece of the puzzle on our last post on this topic, you may find it here.
Let's start at the very beginning ...

Abstract painting in the Stone Age

There is a consensus among art historians that abstract art was used about 70,000 years ago in the form of prehistoric engravings.

This is demonstrated, for example, two boulders engraved with abstract geometric patterns, which were found in the Blombos cave in South Africa. Then there were tens of thousands of years later the abstract reddish dots and hand templates, which in the paintings of the El Castillo cave from 39,000 BC. 34,000 BC Were discovered.

Abstract symbols were also the prevailing form of paleolithic cave art and were found about twice as often during excavations as a figurative paintings.

Classical realism until the late 19th century

Almost up to the foothills of the 19th century, the principles and approach of artists in painting and sculpture were strongly shaped by academic standards and teachings.

A departure from the traditional guiding model of classical realism was frowned upon and was sanctioned with non -observance. The large art academies of Europe were committed to the sovereignty of interpretation and chanted that it was the top duty of art to provide a recognizable scene or a recognizable object.

Significant representatives of romance with influence on abstract art:

• Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851): English painter, watercolorist and draftsman. Probably the most important of England in the era of romance. His avant -garde Expressionism developed to abstraction.

Trend towards abstraction in impressionism

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the wind gradually turned and the conservative corset showed cracks. impressionistic art showed that the strict academic style of naturalistic painting is no longer the only authentic way of creating significant art.

The technology palette of the Impressionists was usually not very naturalistic, although art of impressionism was generally firmly and clearly derived from the real world. The inner impressionistic currents of neo-impressionist pointillism and post-impressionism impressively draw attention to the power of color.

If you look at the use of bright yellow in works by Vincent van Gogh , it almost seems as if the artist captivates the light himself.

If you look Claude Monet's last work of his water lilies, it can be clearly seen that even within the impressionist era there was an increasing trend towards abstract.

Later, in the first decades of the 20th century, other techniques - such as the stylistic use of color, should fuel the task of a three -dimensional representation and the use of simple geometric forms - the pursuit of abstraction and their artists give new tools.

Significant representatives of (post-) impressionism with influence on abstract art:

• James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)-was a painter and print graphic artist from the United States. He was particularly known for his half-abstract color painting.
• Claude Monet - significant French painter, moved between naturalism and abstraction in his pictures after 1890
• Vincent van Gogh - Dutch painter and draftsman; He is considered one of the founders of modern painting .
• Paul Gauguin - influential French painter. His post -impressionist work strongly influenced the Nabis and symbolism; He was a co -founder of synthism and became a pioneer of Expressionism.
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec -French painter and graphic artist of post-impressionism
• Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)-French painter, whose work is assigned to different styles. He always strived for a renewal of traditional design methods based on impressionistic principles. His still lifes and landscapes are considered important starting points for abstraction.
• Paul Serusier (1864-1927)-French painter of post-impressionism. Founder of the symbolic group of artists Nabis and strongly influenced by Gauguin.

Art Nouveau movement / Art Nouveau

The emergence of abstract art was also influenced by the Art Nouveau movement (around 1890-1914). Flow to n parting to the Art Nouveau are the reform style (after the reform movement) and the second style (after the Viennese section).

The Art Nouveau expression was attributed by an illustrated cultural magazine founded by Georg Hirth at the end of 1895 in Munich, which was called "Jugend". This art movement is to be understood as a counter -reaction in particular young artists and artisans to the backward -looking historicism. The industrialization of the early 20th century, which is understood as soulless, should also be criticized.

However, it was the French expression Art Nouveau that prevailed internationally. This went back to the La Maison de L'Art Nouveau gallery, which the Hamburg art dealer Siegfried Bing opened in Paris at the end of the 19th century.

Typical features of Art Nouveau are long, curved lines that take the organic forms of plants as a model, but also flat-linear geometric ornaments with a tendency towards asymmetrical.

The most important representative of the Art Nouveau movement is the Viennese gold boy Gustav Klimt .

About German Expressionism to the cornerstone of painting

The use of color and shape was of great importance for the development of abstract art. Impressionism paved the way for stronger use of color as a stylistic device, but only German Expressionism made it a cornerstone that could no longer be removed.

Wassily Kandinsky's book "About the Spiritual in Art" (1911) became the basic work of abstract painting. Kandinsky "suffered" synesthesia, which explains its unusual sensitivity to colors. He not only saw the colors, but also heard them (perception with two senses). He lived, so to speak, a combination of visual art and music.

No wonder that the emotional effect of shape, line and, above all, color in painting was so overly fascinated and should shape his entire oeuvre.

Like many other abstract artists, Kandinsky believed that music embodied abstract art in the purest sense, with their ability to be expressive without portraying the real world. Kandinsky would describe his works as "compositions".

At the same time, however, he repeatedly warned that the desire to abstraction should not be carried out for mere decoration - without endangering the seriousness of art.

German Expressionism is characterized by its saturated color palette and the coloring of the color to human emotions. In general, experimenting with colors and causing emotions was a main interest of abstract artists.

Most German Expressionists, such as Ernst Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Ernst, Alexei Jawlensky, Oskar Kokoschka, Franz Marc, August Macke and Max Beckmann were not abstract painters in the narrower sense.

Her lively palette - together with Kandinsky's theoretical writings - alarmed and encouraged other artists with a rather abstract tendency to pursue them with full strength.

Fauvism

The parallel of Parisian avant-garde style of Fauvism (1905-08) underlined the effect of the color only marginally-for example with work like "Red Studio" (1911, Moma, NY) by Henri Matisse .

Here, too, the rejection of the three -dimensional perspective can be found as a decisive characteristic. Fauvism shows objects with intensive, arbitrary color.

Henri Matisse was probably the most famous fauvist and works like his "The Green Stripe" (1905) are still listed as a prime example of the characteristic style of this art movement. The work is a portrait of his wife with green and yellow skin on a multicolored background. Famous Orphism painters are Robert Delaunay , whose "Simultaneous Windows on the City" (1912) and "The First Disk" (1912-1913) consist of several patches or segments of different colors. Georgia O'keeffe is known for her colorful, tightly cut abstract flower pictures.

Cubism and the dissolution of image depth and perspective

The birth of Cubism (1908-14) can be seen as a direct reaction to the decorative beauty and aesthetics of Impressionism. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) developed this new style in this awareness in several steps.

Picasso's semi-abstract work "Les demoiselles d'Avignon" from 1907 (now in the MoMA, NY) was still part of the first phase of the prototype of Cubism.

This was followed by analytical cubism (see "Act with" Akt with Stair Leaving No. 2 "from 1912 by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)).

The final phase of synthetic cubism was then significantly more collage -oriented. Her basic concept was based on developing from the nicely, but trivial art of impressionism into a more intellectual art form. The representatives of Cubism primarily were concerned with researching new methods to represent reality.

Characteristic of Cubist works was the dissolution of the academic method of representing reality by using a linear perspective (depth) in order to achieve the usual three -dimensional effect of a painting.

Cubists held everything on a two -dimensional, flat level on which they interpreted different "views" of the same object.

Although most of the cubist works still come from objects or scenes with a real cover and therefore cannot be considered completely abstract, the rejection of the traditional perspective has completely undermined natural realism in art and thus opened the door for pure abstraction.

Significant representatives of cubism with influence on abstract art:

• Francis Picabia (1879-1953)-French painter with influence in Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism.
• Carlo Carra (1881-1966)-known for his early cubist and futuristic painting.
• Albert Gleizes (1881-1953)-Cubist painter, co-author of du Cubisme, the first bound document about Cubism.
• Jean Metzinger (1883-1957)-was inspired by analytical cubism; Published "du Cubisme" together with Albert Gleizes.
• Roger de la Fresnaye (1885-1925)-uses the geometric simplicity of cubism to make concrete, politically motivated statements
• Juan Gris (1887-1927)-Spanish painter and leading theorist of Cubism
• Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)-Cubist-inspired abstract sculptor, was also influenced by African and oriental art.
• Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918)-Used cubist instruments for displaying movement
• Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973)-significant French-American sculptor of the 20th century.

Orphism

This abstract painting style of the early 20th century was also called orhic cubism and sought to combine cubist composition with color and music.

The term was derived from the mythical singer and liver player Orpheus and sustainably characterized by Guillaume Apollinaire in 1912 after color-intensive works by Robert Delaunay .

, orphism is characterized by bright color spots than by figurative objects. Especially circular structures in bright colors are the highlighting features of this art direction.

Significant representatives of preliminaryism:

• Robert Delaunay - French painter of the avant -garde, who also wrote art -theoretical writings
• Franz Kupka - Czech painter. The color always played an important role for Kupka.

The previousism

Previousism 1913-14 ) was a British art movement of the pre-war period, which was also strongly influenced by the Cubist language. The term is derived from the Latin word "Vortex", which means something like "storm" or "vertebrae".

It was founded by Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) and explicitly understood as a specific English contribution to modernity. Similarly to Cubism, he understood as a counter -concept for realistic representations in art. preliminaryism denied their moral mission and insisted on the autonomy of the artwork.

Significant representatives of preliminaryism:

• Richard Aldington - English writer and editor of the avant -garde magazine "The Egoist".
• Malcolm Arbuthnot - is considered the inventor of "Vorttography"
• Lawrence Atkinson
• Jessica Dismorr - English painter and one of only two women active in the pre -movement
• Henri Gaudier-Brzeska -French sculptor
• Cuthbert Hamilton
• Wyndham Lewis - British writer and painter, co -founder of pre -indicism and editor of the magazine Blast.
• Ezra Pound -American poet is considered one of the outstanding representatives of literary modernism.
• William Roberts - British painter of Cubism and co -founder of preliminaryism
• Helen Saunders
• Edward Wadsworth - British painter, who was based on futurism and cubism to develop geometric art until abstraction

Futurism

The Italian futurism movement (1909-13) was significantly justified by Marinetti (1876-1944) and in the artistic work of Gino Severini (1883-1966) and Giacomo Balla (1871-1958).

This current was also influenced by cubism and in turn delighted numerous painters with his emphasis on movement and technology. In the sculpture, futurism had the strongest impact on the development of kinetic art and influenced abstract sculptors such as Naum Gabo (1890-1977) and Alexander Calder (1898-1976).

Tubism

Another related art direction was constituted almost at the same time. In connection with the art of Fernand Léger (1881-1955), this could no longer be talked about by Cubism, but by tubism (tube art) .

Here, cylindrical and spherical parts were used instead of the flat overlapping elements of Cubism. This created numerous pictures with machine -like motifs that reflected Légers futuristic belief in technology.

With Russian suprematism to new geometric shapes

The Russian movement for abstract art is known as suprematism . In 1915 she was named and justified by her leadership figure Kasimir Malewitsch (1878-1935) as an expression of the superiority of feelings and sensations in art.

Undoubtedly influenced by Kandinsky, Malewitsch created a series of outstanding abstract avant-garde paintings with rectangular single-colored blocks on a white background. He also emphasized the flatness in artistic works. He was likely to have been ahead of his time.

He viewed suprematism as the successor to the traditional icon images of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Byzantine style of antiquity. In 1927, his suprematis theory was officially declared in the book entitled "The Non-Objective World" Schwarz on white.

Constructivism & rayonism

Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953) is considered the most important driving force behind the establishment of the related Russian style of constructivism . Lyubov Popova (1889-1924) together with Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) were also co-founders. This school essentially dealt with space, new materials, three -dimensional forms and the linking of science and art. At the same time, Lyubov Popova was also an important member of the Suprematis movement.

Another interesting Russian art movement that created a new kind of pictures was rayonism (or Luchism). This stretched over the years 1912-14 and was launched Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964) and Natalya Goncharova

Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) and Naum Gabo (1890-1977) were among the abstract sculptures that were strongly influenced by suprematis / constructivist ideas

The influences of de Stijl

De Stijl was originally a Dutch group of painters, architects and designers. The name quickly reached a distribution through the establishment of an artist association and a Dutch design and aesthetic magazine.

This quickly developed an avant -garde art movement that primarily devoted itself to geometric abstraction. Theo van Doesburg is the founding father of de Stijl , who also took over the management.

However, the clear protagonist of the movement was Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), who is known for his series of simple rectangular grids, which contained only black, white and basic colors. With his flat grids, he tried to physically create the concept of infinity.

The concepts of de Stijls worked not only in visual art and architecture, but also in the design of furniture and other everyday objects.

Neo-Plasticism & Elementarism

He called this style neo-plasticism (Nieuwe Beelding). As one of the most influential pioneers of concrete art in 1920-1944, he developed his precise geometric style as a conscious counterpoint to emotional chaos and general uncertainty during the first half of the 20th century.

Together with the abstract group Cercle et Carre (1929-31) and the Abstraction Creation Group, he switched to New York in 1938.

To the delight of his contemporaries, van Doesburg was little dogmatic and introduced a more relaxed form of neo-plasticism , elementaryism .

In 1930 he also shaped the term " concrete art " . Unfortunately, he died in 1931, but his ideas were continued not only by students from the Bauhaus design school, but also by the abstraction creation group under the direction of the Belgian artist Georges Vantongerloo , the French painter Jean Helion and Auguste Herbin .

Other members of the group were European abstractionists such as Jean Arp (1886-1966), Naum Gabo (1890-1977), El Lissitzky (1890-1941), Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962) and Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) and Ben Nicholson (1894-1982).

The Swiss ex-construction house architect, sculptor and designer Max Bill (1908-94) was another follower who contributed significantly to the promotion of the genre in Switzerland, Italy, Argentina and Brazil.

Surrealism & organic abstraction

Organic abstraction is a further subordination of abstract art. Surrealism, which was created in parallel to geometric concreteism, is also a close relative of abstraction with its quasi-naturalistic images.

The great role models of these styles of biomorphic / organic abstraction were Jean Arp and Joan Miro, none of which was based on the technology of automatism.

Her surrealistic compatriot Salvador Dali (1904-89) also created some extraordinary paintings such as "The Persistence of Memory" (1931, Moma, NY) and "Soft Construction with Boiled Bean" (1936, Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Jean Arp was also an extremely busy sculptor who specialized in organic abstraction. The English sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986) and Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) did it in this regard.

A number of abstract artists from Europe later searched for refuge in America, where they came across a new generation of local abstract painters and influenced them.

These influential emigrants included painters such as Hans Hofmann (1880-1966), Max Ernst (1891-1976), Andre Masson (1896-1987), Arshile Gorky (1904-48), Yves Tangy (1900-55) and others.

Despite the controversy around the New York weapons show in 1913, the American metropolis developed a strong interest in abstraction. The world -famous Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was founded in 1929 and the Museum of Obstate Painting (later renamed Samuel R. Guggenheim Museum).

Less geometry, more color - abstract expressionism

Although the European artists of the post -war period preserved their interest in abstract art through the “Salon des Realites Nouvelles” in Paris, the center of modern art had shifted to New York from 1945.

From then on, the avant -garde was represented by the New York School of Abstract Expressionism . This movement emerged from the global economic crisis and the Second World War.

Abstract expressionist painting remains vague and there was never a coherent, postulated program. Therefore, the term is often misleading and confusing on artists who were neither really abstract nor expressionist.

It generally describes a form of abstract painting (not figurative, not naturalistic), in which color has priority over shape. And the latter is no longer geometric.

Early work in this style typically filled large -format canvases, the size of which overwhelm the viewers and should move them into another world. Dealing with abstract expressionists with visual effects, in particular the effect of colors, was a reflection of her main goal - the inclusion and research of basic human emotions.

Her icons included without a doubt the artist sizes Jackson Pollock (1912-56), Mark Rothko (1903-70), Willem de Kooning (1904-97), Clyfford Still (1904-80), Barnett Newman (1905-70) and Adolph Gottlieb (1903-74).

The next generation then included painters like Robert Motherwell. The name of the movement was consolidated by Robert Coates, who worked as an art critic at New York.

The branches of abstract expressionism include Pollock's "Action Painting" and Rothko's "Color Field Painting" as well as the somewhat strange "Abstract Impressionism" by Philip Guston (1913-80).

Action painting, color field painting & Co.

Later, the abstract expressionism under the roof of the postal painting abstraction produced a series of individual styles as a kind of anti-gesture trend. These included: hard-edge painting , color stainless painting , Washington color movement , American lyrical abstraction and shaped canvas .

The abstract expressionism also provoked avant-garde reactions from several other artists, including Cy Twombly (1928-2011), whose calligraphic sketch is partly graffiti. Another example is the Californian abstract sculptor Mark di Suvero , which is known for its large-format iron / steel sculptures.

Informal art, tachism and the group Cobra

While in the post -war period on the other side of the great pond of abstract expressionism, the tone stated, a new art movement called Art Informel or informal art was created on the old continent at the end of the 1940s.

Regarded as a European version of abstract expressionism, it was actually an umbrella movement with a number of sub -variants.

This included tachism , a style of abstract painting, which is characterized by stains and blobs. Precoked as a French answer to the American art movements, the avant-garde American artist Mark Tobey (1890-1976) gave awareness and recognition in particular. His calligraphic painting style even anticipated that of Pollock.

Important members of Tachism were Jean Fautrier (1898-1964), Georges Mathieu (1921-2012), Pierre Soulages (born 1919) and the Portuguese artist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-92) and the American abstract Expressionist Sam Francis (1923-94).

The avant-garde group Cobra, also practiced the gestures or "action painting" style of the American abstract expressionism. Cobra was founded by painters, sculptors and graphic artists from the Danish group "Host", the Dutch group "Reflex" and the "Belgian Revolutionary Surrealist Group".

Among their artists mingled with the foremost front Asger Jorn (1914-73), the Belgian writer Christian Dotremont (1922-79), Pierre Alechinsky , Karel Appel (1921-2006) and Pol Bury (1922-2005), who later gave up painting in favor of researching kinetic sculptures.

Optical art through optical deception-op art was born

One of the most pronounced and perhaps visually memorable styles of the geometric abstract painting of modernity was the OP art movement .

Their license plate was the employment of the eye with complex, often single -colored, geometric shapes and patterns to stimulate it, to perceive colors and forms that are actually not there. One can speak of cleverly arranged images here that specifically produced optical illusions.

The leading members of this movement were the Hungarian painter and graphic artist Victor Vasarely (1908-97) and the English painter Bridget Riley . In the early 1970s, the movement disappeared again after a short flower phase.

The last chapter for the time being - the postmodernity

The postmodernity, including contemporary art , or new German contemporary art , is located in time from the beginning of the 1960s.
From this turning point, contemporary art tends to fragment into numerous smaller, more regional or even more local schools.

According to the argumentation of art historians, this may be due to the fact that the prevalent attitude of contemporary art movements was to counter the great styles of the early 20th century.

An exception to this trend is the minimalism school , which was able to establish a fundamentally new style of geometric abstraction.

It is particularly illustrated by postmodern artists such as the sculptors Donald Judd (1928-94), Sol Lewitt (1928-2007), Robert Morris and Walter de Maria . Another important minimalist sculptor is Richard Serra .

The well-known abstract painters associated minimalism ad Reinhardt (1913-67), Frank Stella and the Irish-American painter Sean Scully, whose rectangular color forms seem to imitate the monumental forms of prehistoric structures.

Other important representatives of minimalism:

• Morris Louis (1912-62)-American minimalist, researched the Soak-Stain Technik with Helen Frankenthaler
• Agnes Martin (1912-2004)-minimalist painter, known for her pencil grid on a single-colored background
• Kenneth Noland - minimalist painter with a close bond with Hard Edge Painting
• Cy Twombly (1928-2011)-Minimalist painter, known for his calligraphic work
• Helen Frankenthaler -minimalist painter, developed the Soak-Stain Technik
• Robert Ryman - American minimalist painter, known for his white single -colored compositions
• Jo Baer -American painter and graphic artist. She is considered a major representative of minimalism.
• Ellsworth Kelly -American painter and sculptor. Kelly overcame the concept of the right -angled picture with its compositions. He was a main representative of color field painting and Hard Edge.
• Robert Mangold -American painter
• Brice Marden -American artist, who can be assigned to minimalism, among other things

In addition to sculpture and painting, the school of minimalism also found its way into architecture and design - with sustainable success .

Neo-Expressionism as the latest iteration level

The latest developments in modern art is finally neo-expressionism. This was partly a reaction against the rigor of minimalism and, above all, a figurative movement from the early 1980s.

However, some outstanding abstract painters were also represented among the followers, including the Englishman Howard Hodgkin and the German artists Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer .

Among the internationally recognized abstract artists of this time, the British sculptor and gymnast winner Anish Kapoor , who is known for his large-format work made of raw stone, metal casting and stainless steel, can also be found.

Contemporary abstract artists

Numerous contemporary painters and sculptors can be found, for example, in the middle of the art and cultural metropolis of Dresden. In 2005, the producer gallery “Abstract Moments” in Dresden created a hotspot for abstract art in Germany in 2005.

paintings from oil , the art makers find sculptures in the steadily growing portfolio .

The artists of the gallery currently include:

• André Mimor
• Andy Larrett
• Alejandro Rojo
• Annette Freymuth
• Andreas Garbe
• Bozena Ossowski
• C. David Schwartz
• Christiane Middendorf
• Dirk Hille
• Frank Lorenz
• Frank-Ole Haake
• Gia hung
• Hans-Jürgen Gorenflo
• Holger Mühlbauer-Gardemin
• Ilona Schmidt
• Jean-Jacques Piezanowski
• Jo tip
• Julio Fernandez
• Klaus Boekhoff
• Koroush Namazi
• Lina Roth
• Maciej Cieśla
• Manuela Rathje
• Maja Kühne
• Martina Rick
• Maya
• Raphael König
• Stefan Petrunov
• Torsten Peter
• Uwe Fehrmann

And what comes afterwards ...

The future has already started, as the saying goes. In this sense, the world of modern art will continue to develop and produce new, significant movements, styles and art movements. We look forward to you with an open mind ...

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