Abstract art uses a
visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.
[1] 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.
[2]
Abstract art, nonfigurative art, nonobjective art, and nonrepresentational art are loosely related terms. They are similar, but perhaps not of identical meaning.
Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of
imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum. Even art that aims for verisimilitude of the highest degree can be said to be abstract, at least theoretically, since perfect representation is likely to be exceedingly elusive. Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance color and form in ways that are conspicuous, can be said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to anything recognizable. In
geometric abstraction, for instance, one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic entities.
Figurative art and total abstraction are almost
mutually exclusive. But
figurative and
representational (or
realistic) art often contains partial abstraction.
Both
geometric abstraction and
lyrical abstraction are often totally abstract. Among the very numerous
art movements that embody partial abstraction would be for instance
fauvism in which color is conspicuously and deliberately altered vis-a-vis reality, and
cubism, which blatantly alters the forms of the real life entities depicted
Abstraction in early art and many cultures
Main articles:
Prehistoric art and
Eastern art history
Much of the art of earlier cultures – signs and marks on pottery, textiles, and inscriptions and paintings on rock – were simple, geometric and linear forms which might have had a symbolic or decorative purpose.
[5] It is at this level of visual meaning that abstract art communicates. One can enjoy the beauty of
Chinese calligraphy or
Islamic calligraphy without being able to read it.
20th century
Main articles:
Western painting,
Fauvism, and
Cubism
Post Impressionism as practiced by
Paul Gauguin,
Georges Seurat,
Vincent van Gogh and
Paul Cézanne had an enormous impact on
20th century art and led to the advent of 20th century abstraction. The heritage of painters like
Van Gogh,
Cézanne,
Gauguin, and
Seurat was essential for the development of
modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century
Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubist
Georges Braque,
André Derain,
Raoul Dufy and
Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive, landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called
Fauvism. With his expressive use of color and his free and imaginative drawing Henri Matisse comes very close to pure abstraction in
French Window at Collioure, (1914),
View of Notre-Dame, (1914), and
The Yellow Curtain from 1915. The raw language of color as developed by the
Fauves directly influenced another pioneer of abstraction
Wassily Kandinsky (see illustration).
Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch:
[ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləɱ‿vɑŋ‿ˈɣɔx] ⓘ;
[note 1] 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch
Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860
oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes
landscapes,
still lifes,
portraits, and
self-portraits, most of which are characterized by bold colors and dramatic
brushwork that contributed to the rise of
expressionism in
modern art. Van Gogh's work was beginning to gain critical attention before he died at age 37, by what was suspected at the time to be a suicide.
[5] In more recent years, many historians and researchers have come to believe that he most likely died due to homicide. During his lifetime, only one of Van Gogh's paintings,
The Red Vineyard, was sold.
Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful, but showed signs of mental instability. As a young man, he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a missionary in southern Belgium. Later he drifted into ill-health and solitude. He was keenly aware of
modernist trends in art and, while back with his parents, took up painting in 1881. His younger brother,
Theo, supported him financially, and the two of them maintained
a long correspondence.
Van Gogh's early works consist of mostly
still lifes and depictions of
peasant laborers. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the artistic
avant-garde, including
Émile Bernard and
Paul Gauguin, who were seeking new paths beyond
Impressionism. Frustrated in Paris and inspired by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, in February 1888, Van Gogh moved to
Arles in southern France to establish an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, Van Gogh's art changed. His paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the natural world, depicting local
olive groves,
wheat fields and
sunflowers. Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in the fall of 1888.
Van Gogh suffered from
psychotic episodes and
delusions. Though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he severed his left ear. Van Gogh spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at
Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the
Auberge Ravoux in
Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the
homeopathic doctor
Paul Gachet. His depression persisted, and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a revolver, dying from his injuries two days later.
Van Gogh's work began to attract critical artistic attention in the last year of his life. After his death, Van Gogh's art and life story captured public imagination as an emblem of misunderstood genius, due in large part to the efforts of his widowed sister-in-law
Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.
[6][7] His bold use of color, expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant-garde artistic groups like the
Fauves and
German Expressionists in the early 20th century. Van Gogh's work gained widespread critical and commercial success in the following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the romantic ideal of the
tortured artist. Today, Van Gogh's works are among the
world's most expensive paintings ever sold. His legacy is honored and celebrated by the
Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.
