Abstract

Abstract Art is an artistic trend born in the XXth century which frees itself from the mimetic representation of the outside world. Thus we are no longuer going to have faithful representations of subjects or objects of visual reality but only forms and colors for themselves and thus opposing itself to figurative art. The artists have a new language, a " visual language " based on the simplification and decomposition of forms. The impressionists and 'fauves' had begun this trend using colors which do not reflect reality, deliberately distorting reality, it is the triumph of the color over the representation of reality. As for cubism, artists began the deconstruction of forms. Two main trends are going to emerge from these first research:

The first is the lyric abstraction based on emotion, the influence of music, the study of psychology and principles of perception of reality. Thus, will emerge a language based on the expressive and symbolic function of color and the rhythm obtained by the use of pure forms. Vassily Kandinsky shall develop this research with the group Der Blaue Reiter (1911), he is the precursor of abstract art and he is going to theorize its development with his work in 1910, Du Spirituel dans l’art, et dans la peinture en particulier. Thus he is going to open the way to other artists as Kasimir Malevitch, famous for his « Carré noir sur fond blanc », 1915 and his « Carré blanc sur fond blanc », 1918.

The second is the geometrical abstraction emerging from mathematical rigor, from a radical simplification of geometrical forms. The first artists to use this new language are the Dutch artists of the group of Stijl with Piet Mondrian, T. Van Doesburg and the architect J.J.P. Oud.

Other artists as Francis Picabia, Robert and Sonia Delaunay or Kupka too are going to attempt to develop a non objective language, just like the futurists Italian, the English vorcisme or still the Russian experiments with Larionov and the rayonism.

After the Second World War, abstract art is going to turn to new developments but always with this non representational formal will that we can find in the American abstract expressionism with the action painting or the colorfield painting. Today still, abstraction remains a source of inspiration and is widely used by contemporary artists.