Abstract art

Abstract art uses a visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures other than the European had become accessible and showed alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. The sources from which individual artists drew their theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture at that time.Albert Gleizes, 1910–12, Les Arbres (The Trees), oil on canvas, 41 × 27 cm. Reproduced in Du 'Cubisme', 1912Arthur Dove, 1911–12, Based on Leaf Forms and Spaces, pastel on unidentified support. Now lostFrancis Picabia, 1912, Tarentelle, oil on canvas, 73.6 × 92.1 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Reproduced in Du 'Cubisme'Wassily Kandinsky, 1912, Improvisation 27 (Garden of Love II), oil on canvas, 120.3 × 140.3 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory ShowPablo Picasso, 1913–14, Head (Tête), cut and pasted colored paper, gouache and charcoal on paperboard, 43.5 × 33 cm, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, EdinburghHenri Matisse, 1914, French Window at Collioure, Centre Georges Pompidou, ParisHilma af Klint, Svanen (The Swan), No. 17, Group IX, Series SUW, October 1914–March 1915. This abstract work was never exhibited during af Klint's lifetime.Theo van Doesburg, Neo-Plasticism: 1917, Composition VII (The Three Graces)Fernand Léger 1919, The Railway Crossing, oil on canvas, 53.8 × 64.8 cm, The Art Institute of ChicagoJoseph Csaky, Deux figures, 1920, relief, limestone, polychrome, 80 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum, OtterloAlbert Gleizes, 1921, Composition bleu et jaune (Composition jaune), oil on canvas, 200.5 × 110 cmPiet Mondrian, Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray, 1921, Art Institute of ChicagoPaul Klee, Fire in the Evening, 1929Otto Gustaf Carlsund, Rapid (1930), a Concrete Art restaurant mural, StockholmBarnett Newman, Onement 1, 1948, Museum of Modern Art, New York Abstract art uses a visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures other than the European had become accessible and showed alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. The sources from which individual artists drew their theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture at that time.