Works of this style are often characterized by strong, thick, and gestural brushstrokes and active mark-making.

Kandinsky also incorporated his interest in music into his vividly colored paintings and would often use musical terms to describe his works, such as “lyrical”, “improvisations”, and “compositions”.Ībstract Expressionism is an American art movement that developed following WWII. His bright, dynamic, and colorful pieces have been described to represent the world through emotion and expression. German Expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky has been regarded as the pioneer of abstract art and one of the first to truly embrace completely abstract compositions.

Many placed precedence on the formal qualities of their work over the actual subject matter and visual accuracy of the painting itself. The movement subsequently saw the development towards more abstract depictions, which was evident in Cubism and Fauvism.īy the turn of the 20th century, instead of replicating objects from the real world, artists began to paint abstract ideas derived from their own minds and imagination.

Arguably, such tendencies towards abstraction began with the Impressionist movement, which reinforced the notion that art could be non-representational and less objective. However, the rise of abstract art movements only really came in the late 19th century when artists began to deviate from classical and traditional modes of painting as a result of growing feelings of cynicism and disillusionment that followed WWI. Abstract art has existed even as early as the Tang dynasty (618 - 907).

2d abstract art