Virgil Grotfeldt
1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings
Acrylic, Pigment
Early 2000s Abstract Animal Drawings and Watercolors
Found Objects, Mixed Media
People Also Browsed
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Late Victorian Decorative Art
Textile, Wood
Vintage 1970s German Space Age Vases
Ceramic
Artist Comments
"Sometimes, when you lose your way in life, you will find yourself in a quiet place," says artist Jeff Fleming. In a secluded lake corner, he captures a scene b...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist More Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Danish Modern More Asian Art, Objects and ...
Steel
Antique 19th Century British Victorian Pillows and Throws
Beads, Glass, Silk
1960s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Fiberboard, Laid Paper, Oil
1960s American Impressionist Still-life Paintings
Paper, Gouache
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
Textile
Antique 15th Century and Earlier Peruvian Pre-Columbian Antiquities
Textile
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Antique 15th Century and Earlier Peruvian Pre-Columbian Antiquities
Textile
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Abstract Photography
Photographic Paper
Late 20th Century Modern Decorative Art
Paper
2010s Art Nouveau More Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Mixed Media
Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and W...
Color Pencil, Graphite
Recent Sales
Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Charcoal, Pencil, Paper
A Close Look at abstract Art
Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.
Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.
Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.
Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.
Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.
Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.
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The New York Botanical Garden, in the Bronx, has mounted a multifaceted show honoring the polymath modernist's legacy, including new work by contemporary landscape maker Raymond Jungles.
Brooklyn Artist Angel Otero’s Abstract Works Tell a Unique Story about Art and Heritage
In his current show at New York's Lehmann Maupin gallery, the Puerto Rican–born talent reveals new paintings with a semiautobiographical aspect.