ABSTRACT

ART

What is Abstract Art?

Definition:

• Abstraction is at total departure from reality.

• It gets away from drawing or painting accurate

representations of any forms or objects.

• It typically has no recognizable things, objects are

changed or exaggerated by altering its color, shape

or form.

• Artists purposely changed the appearance so that

it is no longer realistic or have any reference to any

figurative reality.

Dates:

1910-1950

Which art movement was influential?

Impressionism• The style of painting reduced the importance of the

original subject matter and began to emphasize the

creative process of painting itself.

• They labored to capture the ever changing effects

of light. Paint application became more abstract.

Who was regarded as first abstract artist?

Wassily Kandinsky

What is the difference between objective and

non-objective (non-figurative) abstract art?

Objective: when real things such as nature, still life, animals,

people or objects are used to deviate from its norm. This is

done through distortion, overlapping transparencies and angular

planes.

Non-objective: when elements of art such as line, shape, color

and texture are used to create a mood or feeling. Some works

create balanced beauty whereas others create chaotic

disharmony.

What prompted the Abstract Expressionism

movement and how did this play a role in the

art style?

World War II • Hitler's persecution of the Jewish people.

• The condemnation of modern art by the Nazis.

• Led to a wave of immigration of European avant-garde

artists to the United States - mainly to New York.

• The art movement called Abstract Expressionism was

born.

• It is less a style than a concept of performing art in a

spontaneous way without the limits of conventional forms.

Paul Cezanne - Impressionist

Wassilly Kandinsky1866-1944

Russian

Improvisation, 1910

In Grey 1919

Composition VIII, 1923

Pablo Picasso1881-1973

SPANISH

Me and Picasso

CUBISM

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910

Three Musicians, 1921

Weeping Woman, 1937

Guernica: Testimony of War, 1937(Main attraction for the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris)

(Modern arts most powerful anit-war statement)

DURING World War II Picasso suffered some

harassment from the Gestapo in

Nazi-occupied Paris. An inquisitive German

officer, coming into his apartment, noticed a

photograph of Guernica lying on a table.

"Did you do that?" he asked Picasso.

"No, you did," said Picasso.

Jackson Pollack1912-1956

American(Abstract Expressionist)

The Moon Woman, 1942

Convergence, 1947

Autumn Rhythm, 1950