2. Movements That Led Up To
Abstractionism
• Fauvism
• Cubism
• Impressionism
3. Characteristics of Abstractionism
• Attempt to show pure form and meaning
• Shouldn’t require any sort of obvious subject
matter, observer doesn’t need to know what
the painting is of necessarily because that’s
not the point of the picture
• Simplification, focus on
color, line, shape, composition rather than
form or subject
4. New Movements Born From
Abstractionism
• Neoplasticism (or De Stijl- The Style)- created by
Mondrian, artists involved in neoplasticism created works that were
considered ‘pure’ abstractions, using only horizontal and vertical
line, primary colors, and black and white
• Constructivism- a movement with the ideology that the purpose of
art should be it’s social importance and impact on society; conflicts with
suprematism and helped influence Neoplasticism
• Suprematism- created by Malevich, Suprematism is based on “the
supremacy of pure artistic feeling”. Suprematist pieces were painted using
a limited number of colors and their subject matter was limited to basic
geometric shapes and forms.
These movements were in opposition of each other; Suprematism was
focused on removal from materialism, meaning, and practicality, whereas
social influence was critically important to the De Stijl movement.
5. Kazimir Malevich
• Desired to ‘free art from
the burden of the object‘
• Started off working in an
impressionist style, was later inspired
by Fauvism
• He discovered cubism on a trip to
Paris in 1912
• Was part of the Russian cubist
movement
• In 1915 he exhibited paintings more
abstractly geometrical than any seen
before
• In the 1920s he was forced to go back
to making representational paintings
again by the Russian government, but
couldn’t conform to the social realism
stardard set by the government
• His suprematist and abstract works
greatly influenced Western art and
design
• founded Suprematism, believed in an
extreme of reduction
-“No phenomenon is mortal, and this
means not only the body but the
idea as well, a symbol that one is
eternally reincarnated in another
form which actually exists in the
conscious and unconscious person.“ -
Malevich
11. Georgia O’Keefe
• Well known for her flower paintings
and abstract interpretations of nature
• studied at the Art Institute of Chicago
in the early 1900s and was a member
of the Art Students League.
• Photographer and gallery owner
Alfred Stieglitz loved her work and
promoted it at his gallery multiple
times, he gave O’Keefe her first
exposure.
• O’Keefe and Stieglitz married in
1924, she was his muse and the
subject of one of his most famous
large photography projects, and yet
continued to create her own artwork
and be her own artist instead of only
getting credit under his shadow
15. Black Cross, New Mexico(1929 Cow's Skull with Calico Roses (1931).
O’Keeffe visited New Mexico a number of times, and moved there in 1946 after
her husband’s death and became inspired by the landscape and environment of
the area. This environment inspired paintings such as Black Cross, New
Mexico(1929) and Cow's Skull with Calico Roses (1931).
16. Wassily Kandinsky
• Initially was a law professor
• Encountered impressionism in
1895 and disliked it, and soon
after went to art school to study
anatomy and life drawing when
he was 30
• Works grew increasingly
abstract as time went on
• Very influenced by music;
"music is the ultimate teacher"
21. Piet Mondrian
• Went to school to become a
drawing teacher like his
father, awarded diplomas to
teach elementary school and
secondary school
• Began fine art schooling at the
age of 20
• Painted landscapes with his
uncle early on
• Believed that the world that we
see was an illusion and that
through his abstract artwork, he
was revealing the true world, a
simplified existence
• Created Neoplasticism
22. The Red Tree, Piet Mondrian, 1908-1910 The Gray Tree, Piet Mondrian, 1911
Apple Tree In Flower, Piet Mondrian, 1912 Façade in Tan and Grey, Piet Mondrian, 1913-14
25. Critical Reception to Abstractionism
• Abstractionism was one of many new and different art
movements that were a part of Bauhaus in
Germany, thrived in the environment with many talented
and now famous artists
• Didn’t always sell well and was criticized, but
abstractionism wasn’t going completely unappreciated
• Bauhaus and modern art in Germany and Russia were shut
down when the Nazis and totalitarianism came into power
• Over 100 abstract and modern art pieces, including some of
Kandinsky’s work, were toured around in a Nazi showcase
titled ‘Entartete Kunst”, or ‘degenerate art’
• Artists fled to Paris and New York and the works left behind
were removed from museums and either auctioned
off, sold, or burned
Editor's Notes
Monet’s haystacks, matisse painting,
Example of suprematism, along with White on White
With his White on White (1918) series Malevich pushed the limits of abstraction to an unprecedented degree. Reducing pictorial means to their bare minimum, he not only dispensed with the illusion of depth and volume but also rid painting of its seemingly last essential attribute, color.
Mondrian started out with landscapes and moved on to abstracted landscapes, then very stylized trees, then ‘lozenges’ which were square canvases to be displayed hanging from one of the corners
