Sarah Jane Szikora
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract More Art
Oil, Canvas
People Also Browsed
1990s Abstract Abstract Prints
Monotype
2010s Pop Art Still-life Drawings and Watercolors
Archival Paper, Watercolor
Late 19th Century Victorian Landscape Paintings
Oil, Canvas
2010s Contemporary Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Panel, Paper, Charcoal, Carbon Pencil
Vintage 1980s Italian Posters
Paper
2010s Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Charcoal, Paper, Carbon Pencil
Antique 1790s English Tea Caddies
Hardwood
1980s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
Mixed Media, Oil
Antique 1840s American Victorian Tapestries
Linen, Thread
19th Century Victorian Animal Paintings
Oil, Canvas
19th Century Victorian Animal Paintings
Oil
2010s Modern Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Charcoal, Carbon Pencil, Paper
1980s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
Mixed Media, Oil
1990s Abstract Abstract Prints
Monotype
1930s American Modern Landscape Prints
Lithograph
1970s Abstract Sculptures
Bronze
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.
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