23/11/2025
All the major movements of the first two decades of the 20th century, including Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism, in some way emphasized the gap between art and natural appearances.
There is, however, a deep distinction between abstracting from appearances, even if to the point of unrecognizability, and making works of art out of forms not drawn from the visible world. During the four or five years preceding World War I, such artists as Robert Delaunay, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Vladimir Tatlin turned to fundamentally abstract art. (Kandinsky was traditionally regarded as having been the first modern artist to paint purely abstract pictures containing no recognizable objects, in 1910–11. That narrative, however, was later questioned, especially in the 21st century with the renewed interest in Swedish artist Hilma af Klint. She painted her first abstract work in 1906 but with a different goal than achieving pure abstraction.) The majority of even the progressive artists regarded the abandonment of every degree of representation with disfavor, however. During World War I the emergence of the de Stijl group in the Netherlands and of the Dada group in Zürich further widened the spectrum of abstract art. Abstract art did not flourish between World Wars I and II. Beset by totalitarian politics and by art movements placing renewed emphasis on imagery, such as Surrealism and socially critical Realism, it received little notice. But after World War II an energetic American school of abstract painting called Abstract Expressionism emerged and had wide influence. Beginning in the 1950s abstract art was an accepted and widely practiced approach within European and American painting and sculpture. Abstract art puzzled and indeed confused many people, but for those who accepted its nonreferential language there is no doubt as to its value and achievements. See also modern art.
