• What is abstract painting?
• History of abstract painting
• Types of abstract painting
• Renowned abstractionist painters

We explain what abstract painting is, its history, characteristics and the types that exist. Also, the main abstractionist painters.

Mondrian's abstract painting influenced other arts such as design and architecture.

What is abstract painting?

The painting abstract or pictorial abstractionism is, together with sculpture abstract and music abstract, one of the manifestations of Abstract art or Abstractionism, the modern aesthetic trend born at the beginning of the 20th century and sustained over time until the advent of the 21st.

This trend is characterized, more than anything, by its opposition to figurative art. In other words, it moves away from the pictorial imitation of the reality and instead proposes a new reality, on its own terms, that is, on its own language visual of shapes, colors and lines.

Abstract painting, from its beginnings, manifested itself in different ways, going to techniques Y strategies different expressives, from the commitment to geometry to slopes close to the surrealism. Thus, it gave rise to numerous aesthetic movements inscribed in the same aesthetic.

The latter is considered typical of modern art and also of contemporaneity, not only because of its temporal location, but because it perfectly reflects the expressive and existential search of the humanity contemporary, taking into account its nihilism, and also his relationship of faith and fear with the science and the reason.

History of abstract painting

In addition to creating works, Kandinski theorized around abstractionism.

The first abstract painting frame was the work of the Swedish artist Hilma af Kint (1862-1944), as part of her series Paintings for the temple, in which he tried to capture his complex spiritual vision. However, the author never exhibited her paintings and was recognized as a forerunner of pictorial abstractionism more than 20 years after her death.

Thus, for a long time the movement of the Russian Kasimir Malévich (1879-1935), which emerged in 1915 and known as Suprematism, was considered the beginning of abstractionism, around which various artists inscribed their works, such as the abstract constructions of Rodchenko, Popova, Rózanova, Jean Pougny and other artists of the moment.

But they had not been the only ones to try a new pictorial language. The emergence of abstractionism was significantly influenced by artistic experiences such as:

• Adolf Hoelzel, who proposed in 1905 a color system close to abstraction, and in 1917 tried to pair it with music in his "Colored Sounds".
• The French painter Francis-Marie Picabia (1879-1953), who ventured into the cubism in 1910.
• A group of French artists from the city of Puteaux, who gathered in Jacques Villon's studio between 1911 and 1914, created the Section D’or, a movement that tried to decipher the foundations math of artistic composition.
• The Frenchman Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), who together with his wife Sonia developed a movement called Synchronism in 1912, based on the theories about color by Eugéne Chevreul, and in conjunction with a group of American artists in France.
• Russian Vasili Kandinski made his first abstract watercolors between 1910 and 1913, and in his 1911 book On the spiritual in art he theorized around abstractionism.
• The French painter Ferdnand Léger (1881-1955), who between 1913 and 1914 created his series “Contrasts of Forms”.

In 1917 the Neoplasticism of the Dutch Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) appeared, who was part of the De Stijl movement, in search of the integration of the Arts to achieve the "total art". As will be seen, it was a time eager for experimentation, which gave birth to the avant-garde.

Abstractionism was in vogue until the 1950s and 1960s, having a huge dialogue with the decorative arts and nascent graphic design. After that date, he did not stop valuing and cultivating, but not with the fervor of his most important years.

Types of abstract painting

Geometric abstract painting is based on rational precepts.

Abstract painting arose in two specific aspects: that which is related to decorative art, and that which is linked to music, thus giving rise to two great types of abstract painting, which however can occur simultaneously in the same work, depending on of the case. We talk about:

• Expressive abstract painting. Subjective and spontaneous traits, with methods impulsive and improvised painting, in order to obtain unstructured, ambiguous, suggestive works with highly expressive visual elements. It is typical of Expressionism abstract, Tachismo, among others.
• Geometric abstract painting. Very different from the previous one, since it aspires to a certain degree of objectivity and universality, planning the work before its execution based on rational, logical, impersonal precepts, which produce systematic, logical, precise works, through neutral, geometric elements. . It is typical of Suprematism, Constructivism, Concrete Art, among others.

There is, however, a third aspect, with a contradictory name, called figurative abstract painting, in which moving and changing elements are combined with other static and immutable ones, through a wide range of colors.

Renowned abstractionist painters

Matisse was one of the leading artists of the 20th century.

Some of the most famous artists of pictorial abstractionism were:

• Vasili Kandinski (1866-1944). A forerunner of abstractionism and theorist of Russian art, he began to paint in his 30s and was a renowned artist of his time, despite the fact that his tendencies were not politically valued in the nascent Soviet Union. Trained in Germany, he lived in Munich until in 1933 the Nazis closed the Bauhaus School, where he taught, which is why he resided in France for the rest of his life.
• Piet Mondrian (1872-1944). Dutch avant-garde painter, member of De Stijly, creator together with Theo van Doesburg of Neoplasticism. Along with Kandinski and Malevich, he is one of the greatest representatives of abstractionism, which he arrived at after venturing into naturalism and symbolism. His work and theories greatly influenced other twentieth-century arts, such as the design, the architecture, decoration and sculpture.
• Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935). Russian painter of Polish origin, creator of one of the main avant-garde movements in Russia, Suprematism. With this movement, which reduces the pictorial elements to a minimum in his works, he invents a new artistic language and is valued by the incipient October Revolution, naming him director of prestigious workshops in Petrograd and he becomes one of the great figures of Soviet art.
• Henri Matisse (1869-1954). French painter, draftsman, printmaker and sculptor, considered together with Pablo Picasso as one of the greatest European artists of the 20th century. His work was famous for his particular use of color and his fluid use of drawing, in which his influence from Fauvism and Moroccan art played an important role.
• Arthur Garfield Dove (1880-1946). One of the earliest abstract painters of America, This American artist was artistically trained in Paris, at that time considered the capital of art, venturing into the styles of Fauvism and other Italian and Spanish trends. Back in the United States, he was an important painter, although he always had to overcome great financial difficulties.