New Orleans Ice Cream
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Prints and Multiples
Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Giclée
1970s Abstract Mixed Media
Mixed Media, Acrylic
Jeffry Jennings“Totem #1” Modern Purple Toned Abstract Mixed Media Collage of Everyday Objects, 1979
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Modern Benches
Fabric, Velvet, Lacquer, Wood
Vintage 1920s French Art Deco Tobacco Accessories
Multi-gemstone, Gold, Bronze, Enamel
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Prints
Canvas, Giclée
Mauro OliveiraZEZE: THE HERD CROWN PRINCE -Portrait (Limited Edition Of 30 48X32 Print-Canvas), 2022
20th Century French Country Barware
Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Figurative Prints
Canvas, Giclée
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Prints
Giclée
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Prints and Multiples
Canvas, Cotton Canvas
21st Century and Contemporary Pop Art Abstract Prints
Canvas
Mauro OliveiraCOLORFUL WATERCOLOR FESTIVAL II (Limited Edition Of Only 30 Prints 36X48 Canvas), 2021
21st Century and Contemporary Futurist Figurative Prints
Canvas
Antique 17th Century Italian Baroque Wall-mounted Sculptures
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Prints and Multiples
Canvas, Giclée
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Prints and Multiples
Giclée, Canvas
Antique 16th Century Italian Renaissance Scientific Instruments
Bronze
Antique 17th Century Paintings
Canvas
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
Canvas, Resin, Magazine Paper, Photographic 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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