Image of Paintings and Abstract art
In Western art history, the break from the notion that a painting had to represent something happened in the early 20th century. Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and other art movements of the time all contributed by breaking the "rules" of art followed since The Renaissance. Impressionism saw painters not "finishing" their paintings. The Fauvists used colour in a non-realistic way. Cubism introduced the idea of painting an object from more than one view point. From all of these the idea developed that colour, line, form, and texture could be the "subject" of the painting.
Abstract Expressionism, which emerged in the 1940s, applied the principles of Expressionism to abstract painting. The action painting of Jackson Pollock, in which paint was dripped, dropped, smeared,
spattered, or thrown on the canvas, is a good example. In 1864 the critic Ernest Chesneau wrote that if the trend the Impressionists were setting continued, paintings would eventually consist of nothing but "two broadly brushed areas of colour". What would he have thought of the art being produced 100 years later? Abstract art is a style of painting a departure from reality and was definitely modern at the time. Abstraction in paintings started to make the scene right around the same time modern art became known because it is a painting style classified in the modern art movement. But full blown abstract
paintings really started appearing early 1900's in Europe by the likes of Pablo Picasso and others in the cubism movement. Abstract art really was not created in America until the 1940's in the abstract expressionism movement with Jackson Pollock at the helm. Because abstract art is a style of painting and not a classification of an art period, abstract paintings are still being created today.
And that brings us to right now. Right now we use the term "contemporary" to define artwork as being created in our lifetime or in the current present moment. So any paintings being created right now are contemporary paintings no matter what the style. What has happened is that people generally use"contemporary art" to describe artwork from the 1970's until now. It is hard, if not near impossible to define a period while we are living in it. One might wonder, will we always use the word "contemporary" to describe the artwork being created in the present moment? Or will there be an end to the use of th word "contemporary" signifying an end of another artwork period very similarly to how "modern" was used. I don't know. But in any case, I hope this information has helped and not confused you even more.
abstract art is one without a recognisable subject, one which doesn't relate to anything external or try to"look like" something. Instead the colour and form (and often the materials and support) are the subject of the abstract painting. It's completely non-objective ornon -representational. A furtherdistinction tends to be made between abstract art which is geometric, such as the work of Mondrian,and abstract art that is more fluid (and where the apparent spontaneity often belies careful planning and execution), such as the abstract art of Kandinsky or Pollock. Also generally classified with abstract art are figurative abstractions and paintings which represent things that aren't visual, such an emotion, sound, or spiritual experience. Figurative abstractions are abstractions or simplifications of reality, where detail is eliminated from recognisable objects leaving only the essence or some degree of recognisable form.
In Western art history, the break from the notion that a painting had to represent something happened in the early 20th century. Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and other art movements of the time all contributed by breaking the "rules" of art followed since The Renaissance. Impressionism saw painters not "finishing" their paintings. The Fauvists used colour in a non-realistic way. Cubism introduced the idea of painting an object from more than one view point. From all of these the idea developed that colour, line, form, and texture could be the "subject" of the painting.
spattered, or thrown on the canvas, is a good example. In 1864 the critic Ernest Chesneau wrote that if the trend the Impressionists were setting continued, paintings would eventually consist of nothing but "two broadly brushed areas of colour". What would he have thought of the art being produced 100 years later? Abstract art is a style of painting a departure from reality and was definitely modern at the time. Abstraction in paintings started to make the scene right around the same time modern art became known because it is a painting style classified in the modern art movement. But full blown abstract
paintings really started appearing early 1900's in Europe by the likes of Pablo Picasso and others in the cubism movement. Abstract art really was not created in America until the 1940's in the abstract expressionism movement with Jackson Pollock at the helm. Because abstract art is a style of painting and not a classification of an art period, abstract paintings are still being created today.
