Abstract art! Abstraction in art! Abstract painting! Abstractionism! Painting by contemporary artists: Abstract art What is abstract painting.

Single Barrel Pattern, William Morris

"Abstract art", also called "non-figurative art", "non-figurative", "non-representational", "geometric abstraction" or "concrete art", is a rather vague umbrella term for any piece of painting or sculpture that does not depict recognizable objects or scenes. However, as we can see, there is no clear consensus regarding the definition, types or aesthetic meaning of abstract art. Picasso thought there was no such thing at all, while some art historians believe that all art is abstract - because, for example, no painting can hope to be anything more than a rough summary of what one sees artist. Additionally, there is a sliding scale of abstraction, from semi-abstract to fully abstract. So while the theory is relatively clear—abstract art is detached from reality—the practical task of separating abstract from non-abstract works can be much more problematic.

What is the idea of abstract art?

Let's start with very simple example. Let's take a bad (unnaturalistic) drawing of something. The execution of the image leaves much to be desired, but if its colors are beautiful, the design can amaze us. This shows how a formal quality (color) can override a representational quality (drawing).
On the other hand, a photorealistic painting of, say, a house may show excellent graphics, but the subject matter, color scheme, and overall composition may be completely boring.
Philosophical rationale for assessing value artistic forms ical qualities stems from Plato's statement that: "Straight lines and circles... are not only beautiful... but eternal and absolutely beautiful."

Convergence, Jackson Pollock, 1952

Essentially, Plato's saying means that non-naturalistic images (circles, squares, triangles, etc.) have absolute, unchanging beauty. Thus, a painting can only be appreciated for its line and color, it does not need to depict a natural object or scene. French artist, lithographer and art theorist Maurice Denis (1870-1943) had the same thing in mind when he wrote: “Remember that a painting is, before it becomes a war horse or a nude woman...essentially a flat surface covered with color collected in a certain order."

Frank Stella

Types of abstract art

To keep things simple, we can divide abstract art into six main types:

Curvilinear
Based on color or light
Geometric
Emotional or intuitive
Gestural
Minimalist

Some of these types are less abstract than others, but they all involve separating art from reality.

Curvilinear abstract art

Honeysuckle, William Morris, 1876

This type is strongly associated with Celtic art, which uses a range of abstract motifs including knots (eight main types), interlace patterns, and spirals (including triskele or triskelion). These motifs were not invented by the Celts, many others early cultures have been using these Celtic designs for centuries. However, it's fair to say that Celtic designers have inspired new life into these patterns, making them more intricate and complex. They later returned during the 19th century and were particularly evident in book covers, fabrics, wallpaper and chintz designs such as the work of William Morris (1834-96) and Arthur Maczmurdo (1851-1942). Curvilinear abstraction is also characterized by the concept of "endless painting" - a widespread feature of Islamic art.

Abstract art based on color or light

Water Lily, Claude Monet

This type is exemplified in the works of Turner and Monet, which use color (or light) in such a way as to separate the work of art from reality as the object dissolves into a swirl of pigment. Examples include the paintings Water Lily by Claude Monet (1840-1926), Talisman (1888, Musee d’Orsay, Paris), Paul Seruzier (1864-1927). Several of Kandinsky's expressionist paintings during his time with Der Blaue Reiter are very close to abstraction. Color abstraction reappeared in the late 1940s and 50s in the form of color painting developed by Mark Rothko (1903-70) and Barnett Newman (1905-70). In the 1950s in France, a parallel variety of abstract painting related to color, known as lyrical abstraction, emerged.

Talisman, Paul Seruzier

Geometric abstraction

Boogie-Woogie on Broadway, Piet Mondrian, 1942

This type of intellectual abstract art has been around since 1908. An early rudimentary form was Cubism, specifically Analytical Cubism, which rejected linear perspective and the illusion of spatial depth in painting to focus on its two-dimensional aspects. Geometric abstraction is also known as concrete art and objectless art. As one might expect, it is characterized by non-naturalistic images, usually geometric shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, etc. In a sense, containing absolutely no reference to natural world and without being associated with it, geometric abstractionism is the purest form of abstraction. One could say that concrete art is to abstract art what veganism is to vegetarianism. Geometric abstraction is represented by the Black Circle (1913, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), painted by Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) (founder of Suprematism); Boogie-Woogie on Broadway (1942, MoMA, New York) Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) (founder of neo-plasticism); and Composition VIII (The Cow) (1918, MoMA, New York) by Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) (founder of De Stijl and Elementarism). Other examples include the works Address to the Square by Josef Albers (1888-1976) and Op-Art by Victor Vasarely (1906-1997).

Black Circle, Kazimir Malevich, 1920

Composition VIII, Theo Van Doesburg

Emotional or intuitive abstract art

This type of art covers a combination of styles, common topic of which there is a naturalistic tendency. This naturalism comes through in the shapes and colors used. Unlike geometric abstraction, which is almost anti-nature, intuitive abstraction often depicts nature, but in a less representational way. Two important sources for this type of abstract art are: organic abstraction (also called biomorphic abstraction) and surrealism. Perhaps the most famous artist A specialist in this art form was Russian-born Mark Rothko (1938-70). Other examples include Kandinsky's paintings such as Composition No. 4 (1911, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen) and Composition VII (1913, Tretyakov Gallery); Woman (1934, Private collection) Joan Miro (1893-1983) and Indefinite Divisibility (1942, Art Gallery Allbright-Knox, Buffalo) Yves Tanguy (1900-55).

Indefinite divisibility, Yves Tanguy

Gestural (gestural) abstract art

Untitled, D. Pollock, 1949

This is a form of abstract expressionism where the process of creating a painting becomes more important than usual. For example, the paint is applied in an unusual way, the strokes are often very loose and fast. Notable American exponents of gestural painting include Jackson Pollock (1912-56), inventor of Action-Painting, and his wife Lee Krasner (1908-84), who inspired him to invent his own technique, so-called "drip painting"; Willem de Kooning (1904-97), known for his work in the Woman series; and Robert Motherwell (1912-56). In Europe, this form is represented by the Cobra group, in particular Karel Appel (1921-2006).

Minimalist abstract art

Learning to Draw, Ed Reinhardt, 1939

This type of abstraction was a kind of avant-garde art, devoid of all external references and associations. This is what you see - and nothing more. It often takes a geometric shape. This movement is dominated by sculptors, although it also includes some great artists such as Ad Reinhardt (1913-67), Frank Stella (b. 1936), whose paintings are large in scale and include clusters of form and color; Sean Scully (born 1945) Irish-American artist whose rectangular forms of color seem to imitate the monumental forms of prehistoric structures. Also Joe Baer (b. 1929), Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015), Robert Mangold (b. 1937), Brice Marden (b. 1938), Agnes Martin (1912-2004) and Robert Ryman (b. 1930).

Elsworth Kelly

Frank Stella

Abstraction in art!

Abstractionism!

Abstractionism- this is a direction in painting, which is highlighted in a special style.

Abstract painting, abstract art or abstract genre, implies a refusal to depict real things and forms.

Abstractionism is aimed at evoking certain emotions and associations in a person. For these purposes, paintings in an abstract style try to express the harmony of color, shapes, lines, spots, and so on. All forms and color combinations, which are located in the perimeter of the image, have an idea, their own expression and semantic load. No matter how it may seem to the viewer, looking at a picture where there is nothing except lines and blots, everything in abstraction is subject to certain rules of expression, the so-called “abstract composition”.

Abstraction in art!

Abstractionism, as a movement in painting, arose at the beginning of the 20th century simultaneously in several European countries.

It is believed that abstract painting was invented and developed by the great Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky.

The recognized founders and inspirers of abstractionism are the artists Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, Frantisek Kupka and Robert Delaunay, who in their theoretical works shaped approaches to the definition of “Abstractionism”. Differing in goals and objectives, their research was united in one thing: Abstractionism, as the highest stage of development of visual creativity, creates forms inherent only to art. An artist “freed” from copying reality thinks in special ways figurative images the incomprehensible spiritual principle of the universe, eternal “spiritual essences”, “cosmic forces”.

Abstract painting, which literally blew up the art world, became a symbol of the beginning of a new era in painting. This era means a complete transition from frameworks and restrictions to complete freedom of expression. The artist is no longer bound by anything, he can paint not only people, everyday and genre scenes, but even thoughts, emotions, sensations and use any form of expression for this.

Today, abstraction in art is so wide and varied that it itself is divided into many types, styles and genres. Each artist or group of artists tries to create something of their own, something special that could best reach a person’s feelings and sensations. Achieving this without using recognizable figures and objects is very difficult. For this reason, the canvases of abstract artists, which truly evoke special sensations and make one marvel at the beauty and expressiveness of an abstract composition, deserve great respect, and the artist himself is considered a real genius of painting.

Abstract painting!

Since the advent of Abstract Art, two main lines have emerged in it.

The first is geometric or logical abstraction, creating space by combining geometric shapes, colored planes, straight and broken lines. It is embodied in the Suprematism of K. Malevich, the neoplasticism of P. Mondrian, the Orphism of R. Delaunay, in the work of masters of post-painterly abstraction and op art.

The second is lyrical-emotional abstraction, in which compositions are organized from freely flowing forms and rhythms, represented by the work of V. Kandinsky, the works of masters of abstract expressionism, tachisme, and informal art.

Abstract painting!

Abstract art, as painting of a special personal expression, at first for a long time was in the underground. Abstract art, like many other genres in the history of painting, was ridiculed and even condemned and censored as art without any meaning. However, over time, the position of abstraction has changed and now it exists on a par with all other forms of art.

As an artistic phenomenon, Abstractionism had a huge influence on the formation and development of modern architectural style, design, industrial, applied and decorative arts.

Recognized masters of Abstract Art: Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Frantisek Kupka. Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, Theo Van Doesburg, Robber Delaunay, Mikhail Larionov, Lyubov Popova, Jackson Pollock, Josef Albers.

Modern abstractionism in painting!

In modern fine art, abstractionism has become an important language of deep emotional communication between artist and viewer.

IN modern abstract art new interesting directions are emerging that use, for example, special images of various color forms. Thus, in the works of Andrei Krasulin, Valery Orlov, Leonid Pelikh, the space of white - the highest tension of color - is generally filled with endless variable possibilities, allowing the use and metaphysical ideas about the spiritual, and the optical laws of light reflection.

In modern abstractionism, space begins to play new roles and forms different semantic loads. For example, there are spaces of signs and symbols that arise from the depths of archaic consciousness.

In modern abstractionism, the plot direction is also developing. In this case, while maintaining non-objectivity, the abstract image is constructed in such a way that it evokes specific associations - at different levels of abstraction.

Modern abstractionism is infinite in its boundaries: from the objective situation to the philosophical level of figurative abstract categories. On the other hand, in modern abstract painting, the image may look like a painting of someone fantasy world- for example, abstract surrealism.

See what “abstract art” is in other dictionaries:

- (from the Latin abstractus abstract), abstractionism, non-objective art, nonfigurative art, a modernist movement that fundamentally abandoned the depiction of real objects in painting, sculpture and graphics. Program… … Art encyclopedia

Abstract art- Abstract art. V.V. Kandinsky. Composition. Watercolor. 1910. National Museum contemporary art. Paris. ABSTRACT ART (abstract art), a movement in avant-garde (see Avant-garde) art of the 20th century, refusing... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (non-objective, non-figurative) direction in painting of the 20th century, which abandoned the depiction of the forms of reality; one of the main avant-garde trends. The first abstract the works were created in 1910 by V. Kandinsky and in 1912 by F. Kupka... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

- (abstractionism), a direction in avant-garde (see Avant-garde) art of the 20th century, which refuses to depict real objects and phenomena in painting, sculpture and graphics. It arose in the 10s, belonged to the most widespread... ... Modern encyclopedia

- (abstract art, non-objective art, non-figurative art), a set of trends in art culture of the 20th century, replacing naturalistic, easily recognizable objectivity more or less free play lines, colors and shapes (plot and subject... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Noun, number of synonyms: 1 abstractionism (2) Dictionary of synonyms ASIS. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

abstract art- a direction in painting, sculpture and graphics of the twentieth century, abstractionism Kandinsky especially loves to compare painting with music, and therefore abstract art is, from his point of view, the extraction of pure sound (Reinhardt) ... Popular dictionary of the Russian language

Abstract art, non-objective art, nonfigurative art, a movement in the art of many, mainly capitalist, countries, which has fundamentally abandoned any signs of depicting real objects in painting... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

National Museum of Modern Art. Paris... Collier's Encyclopedia

Abstractionism (Latin “abstractio” removal, distraction) is a direction of non-figurative art that abandoned the depiction of forms close to reality in painting and sculpture. One of the goals of abstract art is to achieve “harmonization”... Wikipedia

Books

Gleb Bogomolov, Non-figurative, “abstract” art - which is well known to professionals and serious viewers - is partly a myth. Any artist paints only reality. However, there is reality and reality... Category:

Details Category: Variety of styles and movements in art and their features Published 05/16/2014 13:36 Views: 10491

"When sharp corner a triangle touches a circle, the effect is no less significant than that of Michelangelo, when the finger of God touches the finger of Adam,” said V. Kandinsky, the leader of avant-garde art of the first half of the 20th century.

– a form of visual activity that does not aim to display visually perceived reality.
This direction in art is also called “non-objective”, because. its representatives rejected the image, which was close to reality. Translated from Latin, the word “abstraction” means “removal”, “distraction”.

V. Kandinsky “Composition VIII” (1923)
Abstract artists created certain color combinations and geometric shapes on their canvases in order to evoke various associations in the viewer. Abstractionism does not aim to recognize an object.

History of abstract art

The founders of abstract art are considered to be Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Natalya Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, Piet Mondrian. Kandinsky was the most decisive and consistent of those who represented this direction at that time.
Researchers say that it is not entirely correct to consider abstractionism a style in art, because it is a specific form of fine art. It is divided into several directions: geometric abstraction, gestural abstraction, lyrical abstraction, analytical abstraction, Suprematism, Aranformel, Nuageism, etc. But in essence, a strong generalization is an abstraction.

V. Kandinsky “Moscow. Red Square""
Already with mid-19th V. painting, graphics, sculpture are based on what is inaccessible to direct depiction. The search begins for new visual means, methods of typification, increased expression, universal symbols, and compressed plastic formulas. On the one hand, this is aimed at displaying the inner world of a person - his emotional psychological states, on the other hand, to update the vision of the objective world.

Kandinsky's work goes through a number of stages, including academic drawing and realistic landscape painting, and only then goes into the free space of color and line.

V. Kandinsky “The Blue Rider” (1911)
Abstract composition is that last, molecular level at which painting still remains painting. Abstract art is the most accessible and noble way to capture personal existence, and at the same time it is a direct realization of freedom.

Murnau "The Garden" (1910)
The first abstract painting was painted by Wassily Kandinsky in 1909 in Germany, and a year later here he published the book “On the Spiritual in Art,” which later became famous. The basis of this book was the artist’s thoughts that the external can be accidental, but the internally necessary, spiritual, constituting the essence of man, may well be embodied in a picture. This worldview is associated with the theosophical and anthroposophical works of Helena Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner, which Kandinsky studied. The artist describes color, the interaction of colors and their effect on humans. “The psychic power of paint... causes spiritual vibration. For example, the color red can cause mental vibration similar to that caused by fire, since red is at the same time the color of fire. Warm red color has a stimulating effect; such a color can intensify to a painful, excruciating degree, perhaps also due to its resemblance to flowing blood. The red color in this case awakens the memory of another physical factor, which, of course, has a painful effect on the soul.”

V. Kandinsky "Twilight"
“... the color violet is a cooled red, both in the physical and mental sense. It therefore has the character of something painful, extinguished, has something sad in itself. It is not for nothing that this color is considered suitable for old women’s dresses. The Chinese use this color directly for mourning garments. Its sound is similar to the sounds of the English horn, flute and, in its depth, to the low tones of woodwind instruments (for example, bassoon).”

V. Kandinsky “Grey Oval”
“Black color internally sounds like Nothing without possibilities, like dead.”
“It is clear that all the given designations for these simple colors are only very temporary and elementary. The same are the feelings that we mention in connection with colors - joy, sadness, etc. These feelings are also only material states of the soul. The tones of colors, as well as music, have a much more subtle nature; they cause much more subtle vibrations that cannot be expressed in words.”

V.V. Kandinsky (1866-1944)

An outstanding Russian painter, graphic artist and theorist of fine arts, one of the founders of abstract art.
Born in Moscow into the family of a businessman, he received his basic musical and artistic education in Odessa, when the family moved there in 1871. He brilliantly graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University.
In 1895, an exhibition of French impressionists was held in Moscow. Kandinsky was especially struck by Claude Monet’s painting “Haystack” - so at the age of 30 he completely changed his profession and became an artist.

V. Kandinsky “Motley Life”
His first painting was “A Variegated Life” (1907). It presents a general picture human existence, but this is already the prospect of his future work.
In 1896 he moved to Munich, where he became acquainted with the work of the German Expressionists. After the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Moscow, but after some time he again left for Germany, and then to France. He traveled a lot, but periodically returned to Moscow and Odessa.
In Berlin, Wassily Kandinsky taught painting, became a theorist of the Bauhaus school (Higher School of Construction and Artistic Design) - educational institution in Germany, which existed from 1919 to 1933. At this time, Kandinsky received worldwide recognition as one of the leaders of abstract art.
He died in 1944 in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Abstract art as an artistic movement in painting was not a homogeneous phenomenon - abstract art united several movements: Rayonism, Orphism, Suprematism, etc., about which you can learn in more detail from our articles. Beginning of the 20th century - time rapid development various avant-garde movements. Abstract art was very diverse, it also included cubo-futurists, constructivists, non-objective artists, etc. But the language of this art required other forms of expression, but they were not supported by the figures official art Moreover, contradictions were inevitable among the avant-garde movement itself. Avant-garde art was declared anti-people, idealistic and was practically banned.
Abstractionism did not find support in fascist Germany, so the centers of abstractionism from Germany and Italy moved to America. In 1937, a museum of non-objective painting was created in New York, founded by the family of millionaire Guggenheim, and in 1939, the Museum of Modern Art, created with funds from Rockefeller.

Post-war abstract art

After World War II, the “New York School” was popular in America, whose members were the creators of abstract expressionism D. Pollock, M. Rothko, B. Neumann, A. Gottlieb.

D. Pollock "Alchemy"
Looking at the painting of this artist, you understand: serious art does not lend itself to easy interpretation.

M. Rothko “Untitled”
In 1959, their works were exhibited in Moscow at the exhibition of US national art in Sokolniki Park. The beginning of the “thaw” in Russia (1950s) opened a new stage in the development of domestic abstract art. The studio “New Reality” opened, the center of which was Eliy Mikhailovich Belyutin.

The studio was located in Abramtsevo, near Moscow, at Belutin’s dacha. There was an installation on teamwork, which the futurists of the early 20th century strived for. “New Reality” united Moscow artists who held different views on the methodology of constructing abstraction. Artists L. Gribkov, V. Zubarev, V. Preobrazhenskaya, A. Safokhin came out of the “New Reality” studio.

E. Belyutin “Motherhood”
A new stage in the development of Russian abstraction begins in the 1970s. This is the time of Malevich, Suprematism and Constructivism, the traditions of the Russian avant-garde. Malevich's paintings aroused interest in geometric forms, linear signs, and plastic structures. Modern authors discovered the works of Russian philosophers and theologians, theologians and mystics, and became familiar with inexhaustible intellectual sources that filled the works of M. Shvartsman, V. Yurlov, E. Steinberg with new meaning.
The mid-1980s marked the completion of the next stage in the development of abstraction in Russia. End of the 20th century outlined a special “Russian path” of non-objective art. From the point of view of the development of world culture, abstractionism as a style movement ended in 1958. But only in post-perestroika Russian society did abstract art become equal to other movements. Artists were given the opportunity to express themselves in not only classical forms, but also in forms of geometric abstraction.

Modern abstract art

The modern language of abstraction often becomes White color. For Muscovites M. Kastalskaya, A. Krasulin, V. Orlov, L. Pelikh, the space of white (the highest color tension) is filled with endless possibilities, allowing the use of both metaphysical ideas about the spiritual and the optical laws of light reflection.

M. Kastalskaya “Sleepy Hollow”
The concept of "space" has contemporary art different meaning. For example, there is a space of a sign, a symbol. There is a space of ancient manuscripts, the image of which has become a kind of palimpsest in the compositions of V. Gerasimenko.

A. Krasulin “Stool and Eternity”

Some trends in abstract art

Rayonism

S. Romanovich “Descent from the Cross” (1950s)
The direction in Russian avant-garde painting in the art of the 1910s, based on the shift of light spectra and light transmission. One of the early areas of abstractionism.
The basis of the creativity of raymen is the idea of “the intersection of the reflected rays of various objects,” since what a person actually perceives is not the object itself, but “the sum of the rays coming from the light source, reflected from the object and falling into our field of vision.” The rays on the canvas are transmitted using colored lines.
The founder and theorist of the movement was the artist Mikhail Larionov. Mikhail Le-Dantu and other artists of the “Donkey’s Tail” group worked in Rayonism.

Rayonism received particular development in the work of S. M. Romanovich, who made the coloristic ideas of Rayonism the basis of the “spatiality” of the colorful layer of a figurative painting: “Painting is irrational. It comes from the depths of man, like a spring flowing from underground. Its task is to transform the visible world (object) through harmony, which is a sign of truth. Work - write in harmony - can be done by the one in whom it lives - this is the secret of man.”

Orphism

A movement in French painting at the beginning of the 20th century, formed by R. Delaunay, F. Kupka, F. Picabia, M. Duchamp. The name was given in 1912. French poet Apollinaire.

R. Delaunay “Champs of Mars: Red Tower” (1911-1923)
Orphist artists sought to express the dynamics of movement and the musicality of rhythms through the interpenetration of the primary colors of the spectrum and the intersection of curved surfaces.
The influence of Orphism can be seen in the works of Russian artist Aristarkh Lentulov, as well as Alexandra Ekster, Georgy Yakulov and Alexander Bogomazov.

A. Bogomazov “Composition No. 2”

Neoplasticism

This style is characterized by clear rectangular forms in architecture (“international style” by P. Auda) and abstract painting in the arrangement of large rectangular planes, painted in the primary colors of the spectrum (P. Mondrian).

"Mondrian style"

Abstract expressionism

A school (movement) of artists who paint quickly and on large canvases, using non-geometric strokes, large brushes, sometimes dripping paint onto the canvas to fully reveal emotions. The artist's goal with this creative method is the spontaneous expression of the inner world (subconscious) in chaotic forms not organized by logical thinking.
The movement gained particular momentum in the 1950s, when it was headed by D. Pollock, M. Rothko and Willem de Kooning.

D. Pollock “Under different masks”
One of the forms of abstract expressionism is Tachisme; both of these movements practically coincide in ideology and creative method, however, the personal composition of the artists who called themselves Tachistes or abstract expressionists does not completely coincide.

Tachisme

A. Orlov “Scars in the soul never heal”
It is painting with spots that do not recreate images of reality, but express the unconscious activity of the artist. Strokes, lines and spots in tachisme are applied to the canvas with quick movements of the hand without a pre-thought-out plan. The European group "COBRA" and the Japanese group "Gutai" are close to tachisme.

A. Orlov “Seasons” P.I. Chaikovsky

And Mikhail Larionov, who founded “Luchism” in 1912, the creator of Suprematism as a new type of creativity, Kazimir Malevich, author of the “Black Square” and Evgeniy Mikhnov-Voitenko, whose work is distinguished, among other things, by an unprecedentedly wide range of areas of the abstract method applied in his works (the artist was the first among not only domestic but also foreign masters to use a number of them, including the “graffiti style”).

A related movement to abstractionism is cubism, which seeks to depict real objects with a multitude of intersecting planes, creating the image of certain rectilinear figures that reproduce living nature. One of the most bright examples there were cubism early works Pablo Picasso.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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In 1910-1915, painters in Russia, Western Europe and the United States began to create abstract works of art; Among the first abstractionists, researchers name Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian. The year of birth of non-objective art is considered to be 1910, when Kandinsky painted his first abstract composition. The aesthetic concepts of the first abstractionists assumed that artistic creativity reflects the laws of the universe hidden behind the external, superficial phenomena of reality. These patterns, intuitively comprehended by the artist, were expressed through the relationship of abstract forms (color spots, lines, volumes, geometric figures) in an abstract work. In 1911 in Munich, Kandinsky published his now famous book “On the Spiritual in Art,” in which he reflected on the possibility of embodying the internally necessary, the spiritual, as opposed to the external, the accidental. The “logical basis” for Kandinsky’s abstractions was based on the study of the theosophical and anthroposophical works of Helena Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner. In the aesthetic concept of Piet Mondrian, the primary elements of form were the primary oppositions: horizontal - vertical, line - plane, color - non-color. In the theory of Robert Delaunay, in contrast to the concepts of Kandinsky and Mondrian, idealistic metaphysics was rejected; The main task of abstractionism seemed to the artist to study the dynamic qualities of color and other properties artistic language(the direction founded by Delaunay was called Orphism). The creator of “rayonism,” Mikhail Larionov, depicted “the emission of reflected light; color dust."
Originating in the early 1910s, abstract art developed rapidly, appearing in many areas of avant-garde art in the first half of the 20th century. The ideas of abstractionism were reflected in the works of the expressionists (Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Marc), cubists (Fernand Léger), Dadaists (Jean Arp), surrealists (Joan Miró), Italian futurists (Gino Severini, Giacomo Balla, Enrico Pram Polini), Orphists (Robert Delaunay, Frantisek Kupka), Russian Suprematists (Kazimir Malevich), “Radiants” (Mikhail Larionov and Natalya Goncharova) and constructivists (Lyubov Popova, Lazar Lisitsky, Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova), Dutch neoplasticists (Piet Mondrian, Te o van Doesburg , Bart van der Lek), a number of European sculptors (Alexander Archipenko, Constantin Brancusi, Umberto Boccioni, Antoine Pevzner, Naum Gabo, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Vladimir Tatlin). Soon after the emergence of abstract art, two main directions in the development of this art emerged: geometric abstraction gravitating towards regular geometric forms and stable, “substantial” states (Mondrian, Malevich), and preferring freer forms, dynamic processes lyrical abstraction(Kandinsky, Kupka). The first international associations of abstract artists (“Circle and Square”, “Abstraction-Creativity”) were formed in the early 1920s - early 1930s in Paris.
For aesthetic programs abstractionists were characterized by universalism; abstract art was presented in them as a universal model of the world order, including both the structure of the environment and the structure of society. Working with the primary elements of pictorial language, abstractionists turned to general compositional principles and the laws of shape formation. It is not surprising that abstractionists found use for non-representational forms in industrial art, artistic design, and architecture (the activities of the “Style” group in the Netherlands and the Bauhaus school in Germany; Kandinsky’s work at VKHUTEMAS; Malevich’s architects and design projects; Alexander Calder’s “mobiles”; Vladimir Tatlin’s designs , works by Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevzner). The activities of abstractionists contributed to the formation modern architecture, arts and crafts, design.
At the end of the 1940s, abstract expressionism, formed on the basis of lyrical abstractionism, developed in the United States. Representatives of abstract expressionism (Pollock, Mark Tobey, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline) proclaimed “unconsciousness” and automaticity of creativity, unforeseen effects (“action painting”) as their method. Their aesthetic concepts no longer contained idealistic metaphysics, and a non-objective composition sometimes became a self-sufficient object that excluded associations with reality. The European analogue of abstract expressionism was Tachisme, whose prominent representatives were Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, Volsa, Georges Mathieu. Artists sought to use unexpected, non-standard combinations of colors and textures, sculptors (Eduardo Chillida, Seymour Lipton and others) created bizarre compositions and used unusual ways materials processing.
In the 1960s, with the decline of abstract expressionism, op art, which developed the principles of geometric abstraction and used optical illusions of perception of flat and spatial objects, became a noticeable movement in abstractionism. Another direction in the development of geometric abstraction was kinetic art, which plays on the effects of real movement of the entire work or its individual components (Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Nicholas Schöffer, Jesus Soto, Taxis). In parallel, post-painterly abstraction arose in the United States, the principles of which were reduction and extreme simplification of pictorial forms; Having inherited regular geometric forms from geometric abstraction, post-painterly abstraction rounds and “softens” them. Notable representatives of this trend are Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, and Kenneth Noland. The ultimate expression of geometric abstraction in sculpture was minimalism, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.

History of abstract art in Russia and the USSR

1900-1949

The artists Kandinsky and Malevich at the beginning of the 20th century made a significant contribution to the development of the theory and practice of abstract art.
In the 1920s, during the rapid development of all avant-garde movements, abstract art included in its orbit the cubo-futurists, non-objectivists, constructivists, and suprematists: Alexandra Ekster and Lyubov Popova, Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, Georgy Stenberg and Mikhail Matyushin, Nikolai Suetin and Ilya Chashnik . The language of non-figurative art was the basis of the culture of a new, modern plastic form, easel, decorative and applied or monumental, and had every opportunity for further fruitful and promising development. But the internal contradictions of the avant-garde movement, strengthened by the pressure of ideological officialdom, in the early 1930s forced its leaders to look for other creative ways. Anti-national, idealistic abstract art henceforth had no right to exist.
With the coming to power of the fascists, the centers of abstractionism from Germany and Italy moved to America, since the concept of abstractionism did not find support among the ideologists of fascism. In 1937, a museum of non-figurative painting was created in New York, founded by the family of millionaire Guggenheim, and in 1939, the Museum of Modern Art, created with funds from Rockefeller. During the Second World War and after its end, all the ultra-left forces of the artistic world gathered in America.
In post-war America, the “New York School” was gaining strength, whose members included the creators of abstract expressionism Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Neumann, and Adolph Gottlieb. In the summer of 1959, their works were seen by young artists in Moscow at the exhibition of US national art in Sokolniki Park. Two years before this event, modern world art was presented at an art exhibition as part of World Festival youth and students. The information breakthrough has become a kind of symbol of spiritual and social freedom [ ] . Abstract art was now associated with internal liberation from the totalitarian oppression of the bloody regime, with a different worldview [ ] . The problems of contemporary artistic language and new plastic forms turned out to be inextricably linked with socio-political processes. The era of the “thaw” implied a special system of relationships between abstract art and power. A new stage in the development of Soviet abstract art began - the 1950-1970s.
For young Soviet artists, brought up in the traditions of the academic system and a materialistic vision of the world, the discovery of abstraction meant the possibility of reproducing personal subjective experience. American researchers characterized abstract expressionism as “a gesture of liberation from political, aesthetic, moral values” [ ] . Similar feelings were experienced by young painters in the USSR, who were comprehending contemporary art that was unfamiliar to them and at the same time building their own forms of coexistence with the authorities or opposition to them. The underground was born, and among informal artists the turn to abstract art was generally accepted and widespread.
During these years, many painters felt the need for the language of non-objective art. The need to master a formal vocabulary was often associated not only with immersion in spontaneous creativity, but also with the composition of thoughtful theoretical treatises. As at the beginning of the century, for these painters abstraction did not mean negation different levels sense. Contemporary European and American abstract art was based on such fundamental layers as the study of primitive mythological consciousness, Freudianism, the principles of existentialism, and Eastern philosophies - Zen [ ] . But in the conditions of Soviet reality, abstract artists were not always able to become sufficiently fully and deeply acquainted with the primary sources; they intuitively found answers to the problems that worried them [ ] and, rejecting accusations of simply copying Western models, they took their own professional reputation seriously [ ] .

1950-1970

The return of abstract art to the cultural space of Russia was not just a consequence of a change in the political climate or an imitation of the artistic phenomena of the West. The laws of “self-development of art” built forms that were “vital for art itself.” There was a “process of repersonalization of art. It’s now possible to create individual pictures of the world.” [ ] The latter caused a powerful negative reaction at the state level, which for many years taught us to view abstractionism as “an extremely formalistic direction, alien to truthfulness, ideology and nationality” [ ], and works created by abstractionists, such as: “A meaningless combination of abstract geometric shapes, chaotic spots and lines.” [ ]
For almost thirty years (from the late 1950s to 1988) he developed own style abstract creativity Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko, unique master by the range of methods used. The different periods of his work are marked by many experiments in the field of painting and decorative arts; the artist's heritage includes graphics, paintings made in mixed media, nitro enamel, pastel, sauce, oil, gouache, tempera, as well as works made of wood, metal, glass, foam.
First [ ] the “New Reality” studio, which gathered around E. M. Belyutin, became an informal artistic association of the “Thaw” period that developed the principles of abstract art. Initially, the studio functioned as advanced training courses at the City Committee of Graphic Artists. The course towards general liberalization set by the 20th Congress opened up prospects for freedom of creativity and artistic exploration. However, the 1962 exhibition in Manege, harsh criticism from the New Reality party of artists and a campaign against abstract art forced the artists to go underground. Over the next 30 years, the studio worked continuously in workshops in Abramtsevo, in a house owned by Belyutin.
Developing the principles of non-figurative depiction, the studio’s artists relied both on the experience of Russian avant-garde artists of the beginning of the century and on modern Western artists. A feature of the “New Reality” was the focus on collective work, which the futurists of the early 20th century strove for. “New Reality” united Moscow artists who held different views on the methodology of constructing abstraction. Artists Lucian Gribkov and Tamara Ter-Ghevondyan worked in a style closest to abstract expressionism. While retaining elements of real forms in their works, they developed categories of expression emotional states through visual and plastic moves. Vera Preobrazhenskaya, who was for a long time the head of the studio and fixed the theory and methodology of the school, has come a long way from expressionism through the aesthetics of op art to geometric abstraction. Together with Eliy Belyutin, Preobrazhenskaya worked on the development of “psychogranule” modules, symbols that would express concrete states and abstract concepts using clear color-plastic solutions. Vera Preobrazhenskaya said: “In my paintings, God is almost always a black square” [ ] . In the process of working with the studio students, Eliy Belyutin formed the theory of “universal contact”, in which he expressed the principles of development creative potential artist.
The artists of the “New Reality” considered themselves heirs, first of all, of the art of Wassily Kandinsky. The founder of Russian abstraction focused on depicting the spiritual world through plastic art. Their artistic searches were also enriched by the achievements of European abstractionists of the mid-century, who partially returned figurative images to their works in a new quality. optical illusion or a fetish.
Kandinsky said that: “Consciously or unconsciously, artists are increasingly turning to their material, testing it, weighing on spiritual scales the inner value of the elements from which art must be created” [ ] . What was said at the beginning of the century again became relevant for subsequent generations of painters. In the second half of the 1950s, an abstract sculpture equipped with an “electronic brain” appeared - “Cysp I” by Nicolas Schöffer. Alexander Kalder creates his own “stables”. One of the isolated areas of abstractionism emerges - op art. At the same time, almost simultaneously in England and the USA, the first collages appeared, using labels of mass-produced products, photographs, reproductions and similar objects of the new pop art style.
Moscow abstraction at the turn of the 1960s, delving into the search for a new form, corresponding to the internal state of “creative insight,” a kind of meditation, provided convincing examples of its own understanding of the culture of the non-objective. For example, in the works of Vladimir Nemukhin, Lydia Masterkova, Mikhail Kulakov, who were certainly passionate about abstract expressionism, which they were able to fill with high spiritual tension. Other type abstract thinking demonstrated the most consistent in his analytical and practical work Yuri Zlotnikov, author of the extensive “Signals” series, created in the late 1950s. According to the artist: “Dynamism, rhythm, clearly expressed in geometric abstraction,” led him to the analysis: “Dynamic concepts inherent in art,” and further: “To the study of human motor reactions” [ ] . In “Signals,” the artist explored “ feedback» spontaneous psychological reactions to color symbols.
The next stage in the development of Russian abstraction begins in the 1970s. It's dating time contemporary artists with the work of Malevich, with Suprematism and constructivism, with the traditions of the Russian avant-garde, its theory and practice. Malevich’s “Primary Elements” aroused a stable interest in geometric forms, linear signs, and plastic structures. “Geometric” abstraction made it possible to get closer to the problems that worried the masters of the 1920s, to feel the continuity and spiritual connection with the classical avant-garde. Modern authors discovered the works of Russian philosophers and theologians, theologians and mystics, and became familiar with inexhaustible intellectual sources, which in turn filled the works of Mikhail Shvartsman, Valery Yurlov, and Eduard Steinberg with new meaning.
Geometric abstraction formed the basis of the working methods of artists who united in the early 1960s in the group “Movement”. Among its members were Lev Nusberg, Vyacheslav Koleichuk, Francisco Infante. The latter was especially keen on Suprematism. In “Dynamic Spirals,” Infante studied the model of an infinite spiral in space and carefully analyzed: “The non-existent plastic situation.”
American painting of the 1970s. returns to figurativeness. The 1970s are said to be: “The moment of truth for American painting, which is freed from the European tradition that fed it and becomes purely American.” [ ]
The mid-1980s can be considered as the completion of the next stage in the development of abstraction in Russia, which by this time had accumulated not only a vast experience of creative efforts, meaningful philosophical issues, but also convinced of the demand for abstract thinking.
The 1990s confirmed the special “Russian path” of non-objective art. From the point of view of the development of world culture, abstractionism as a style movement ended in 1958. However, in: “Post-reconstruction Russian society only now arose the need for equal communication with abstract art, there was a desire to see not meaningless spots, but the beauty of plastic play, its rhythms, to penetrate their meaning. To finally hear the sound of picturesque symphonies.” [ ] Artists were given the opportunity to express themselves in not only classical forms - Suprematism or abstract expressionism, but lyrical and geometric abstraction, minimalism, sculpture, an object, a hand-made author's book, in paper pulp cast by the master himself.

Modern abstractionism in painting

An important term modern language abstraction became white. For Marina Kastalskaya, Andrei Krasulin, Valery Orlov, Leonid Pelikh, the space of white - the highest tension of color - is generally filled with endless variable possibilities, allowing the use of both metaphysical ideas about the spiritual and the optical laws of light reflection.
Space as a conceptual category has different semantic loads in modern art. For example, there is a space of a sign, a symbol that emerged from the depths of archaic consciousness, sometimes transformed into a structure reminiscent of a hieroglyph. There is a space of ancient manuscripts, the image of which has become a kind of palimpsest in the compositions of Valentin Gerasimenko.
1997. - 416 p.
Abstraction in Russia: XX Century: State Russian Museum. Almanac. No. 17 / In Russian and English; ed. Evgenia Petrova. - State Russian Museum, Palace Editions, 2001. - 814 p. - ISBN 5-93332-070-6, 3-935298-50-1.

Abstract art! Abstraction in art! Abstract painting! Abstractionism! Painting by contemporary artists: Abstract art What is abstract painting.

Single Barrel Pattern, William Morris

What is the idea of ​​abstract art?

Convergence, Jackson Pollock, 1952

Frank Stella

Types of abstract art

Curvilinear abstract art

Honeysuckle, William Morris, 1876

Abstract art based on color or light

Water Lily, Claude Monet

Talisman, Paul Seruzier

Geometric abstraction

Boogie-Woogie on Broadway, Piet Mondrian, 1942

Black Circle, Kazimir Malevich, 1920

Composition VIII, Theo Van Doesburg

Emotional or intuitive abstract art

Indefinite divisibility, Yves Tanguy

Gestural (gestural) abstract art

Untitled, D. Pollock, 1949

Minimalist abstract art

Learning to Draw, Ed Reinhardt, 1939

Elsworth Kelly

Frank Stella

See what “abstract art” is in other dictionaries:

Books

History of abstract art

V.V. Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Post-war abstract art

Modern abstract art

Some trends in abstract art

Rayonism

Orphism

Neoplasticism

Abstract expressionism

Tachisme

Encyclopedic YouTube

History of abstract art in Russia and the USSR

1900-1949

1950-1970

Modern abstractionism in painting

What is the idea of abstract art?