Abstract art does not depict objects as they appear in reality.
Abstract art, also known as non-figurative art, is not representational of reality. While representational art depicts recognizable objects, abstract art is more evocative of the feeling such objects invoke. Despite the fact that abstract art has existed in one form or another for centuries, many people still do not appreciate it.
Beginnings of Abstract Art
Until the end of the 19th century, nearly all artistic painting was representational. In the early 1870s, a movement called Impressionism, in which abstract art was taken seriously, emerged in France. The Impressionists attempted to portray nature as it changed in terms of color, light and form from one hour to another and from one season to the next. Claude Monet was among these Impressionists. Wassily Kandisky began producing abstract art in the 20th century. He created the first pure abstract work of art, a watercolor, in 1910.
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract art bloomed in the United States during World War II. The Nazi condemnation of modern art, coupled with Adolf Hitler's attacks on the Jews, resulted in the mass immigration of European artists to New York. The subsequent art movement, known as Abstract Expressionism, or the New York School, pervaded the American art scene. Famous artists representing that movement included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.
From Abstract Art to Pop Art
By the 1960s, Abstract Expressionism was overshadowed by Pop Art, which began in the 1950s in Great Britain and the United States. Many credit British art critic Lawrence Alloway for coining the term "Pop Art" in an essay in which he used the words "popular mass culture." Unlike Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art draws its themes from popular culture, such as television, film and advertising. Those who study art view Pop Art as either a reaction to Abstract Expressionism or its natural extension.
Two Types of Abstract Art
There are two main types of abstract paintings --- those which depict natural objects in an abstract form, such as work done by Monet, and pure abstract art, which is composed of shapes, colors, lines and patterns, and bears no similarity to anything in the real world.
