This site offers abstract art information, biographies of famous artists and
original abstract art
by Marten Jansen.
Although native cultures have always produced arts containing abstract elements, today's perception of abstract art dates back to 1910, when Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque invented cubism, which within half a decade, led to the pure abstract art created by Piet Mondrian and Russian styles such as constructivism and suprematism. While cubism and the styles that preceded it, such as post-impressionism, were partly based on native art that contained abstract elements (see for instance Picasso's
black period
), in cubism, for the first time in art history, artists began to
paint abstract art
as a result of a deliberate artistic and philosophical development. Halfway the 19th century philosophers had begun to doubt the sincerity and usefulness of classical art, with its emphasis on technique and its dependence of nature as a model to depict. At the same time the art of painting had reached a dead end in terms of inspiration and innovative thought. The impressionists were a fresh wind, but their emphasis on first impressions failed to convince men like Van Gogh, Gauguin and ultimately Picasso, who perceived
impressionism
as shallow and sought more powerful means of expression.
Abstract art timeline:
±1850 - 1907
: Philosophical debate puts into question the established values of classical art.
1905 - 1915
:
Pablo Picasso
and Georges Braques create
cubism
and Henri Matisse's fauvism serves as a bridge between post-impressionism and expressionism. Before the advent of cubism, Picasso's 1907 painting Les Demoisselles d'Avignon already inspires many artists to abstractism (Kandinsky, Léger).
1910
: First signs of pure abstract art: Kandinsky, Mondrian.
1912 - 1925
:
Piet Mondrian
and Russian abstract artists, led by Kasimir Malevich's
suprematism
and Vladimir Tatlin's constructivism, complete the creation of pure abstract art.
Modigliani
sets benchmark for abstract portraitism.
1925 - 1945
: Period characterised by geometric abstraction (De Stijl) and painterly automatism (Joan Mir�).
1945 - 1960
: Painterly automatism becomes more radical in
abstract expressionism
and
art informel
, while some artists combine automatism with geometric abstraction (Rothko).
1960 - 1980
: Introduction of abstract art with design characteristics, as in Op Art, Pop Art and contemporary geometric abstraction.
1980 - NOW
: Postmodernism - artistic inability to innovate or lack of social acceptance of innovation?
The post-impressionists´ (such as Van Gogh and Gauguin) primary goal was to express their inner world and Gauguin would begin to paint from his imagination rather than to use nature as a model. Georges Braques had pioneered the technique of faceting an image, in order to capture the essence of an object, rather than the appearance, which would lead to cubism. While not able to reproduce the figurative function of Branques' technique of faceting, Picasso's way of faceting would become a stylistic means that led to almost pure abstraction, a process which would be completed by Mondrian and the Russian abstract artists. From there on the world of abstract art could be roughly divided into two directions:
- Geometric abstraction
- Painterly automatism
The first refers to a style that consists of the depiction of geometric objects: squares, rectangles, triangles, disks, etc.
continued below
....
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Abstract Painting
Abstract portrait No 6,
2007
abstract oil painting on composite surface
Marten Jansen >> 80 by 122 cm abstract painting - media: oils, acrylics and oilbar
Abstract Painting
abstract oil painting on wood
Marten Jansen >> 80 by 122 cm abstract painting - media: oils, acrylics and oilbar
Abstract Painting
abstract oil painting on paper
Marten Jansen >> 122 by 80 cm abstract painting - media: oils, acrylics and oilbar
Abstract Painting
"Abstract portrait No 5",
2006
abstract oil painting on paper
Marten Jansen >> 70 by 100 cm abstract painting - media: oils, acrylics and oilbar
Abstract Painting
2009
oils & acrylics on canvas
Marten Jansen >> 80 x 118 cm abstract painting - media: oils & acrylics
Abstract Painting
2003 - 2008
oils & acrylics on composite surface
Marten Jansen >> 100 x 122 cm abstract painting - media: oils, acrylics and oilbar
Abstract art print
open series screen print
Marten Jansen >> 60 x 70 cm abstract screen print - ten colors - printed on museum paper - open series
updated 2019
oils & acrylics on canvas
Marten Jansen >> 110 x 72 cm abstract painting - media: acrylics & oils
Abstract Painting
abstract oil painting on composite surface
Marten Jansen >> 80 by 122 cm abstract painting - media: oils, acrylics and oilbar
Abstract Painting
2008
oils & acrylics on linen
Marten Jansen >> 100 x 122 cm abstract painting - media: oils, acrylics and oilbar
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continued
: The prime example of geometric abstraction is
Piet Mondrian's neo-plasticism
, a style that consists of rectangles painted in the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. While geometric abstraction emphasizes the conceptual, intellectual side of art, painterly automatism is about emotionality and spontaneity. "Painterly" refers to a seemingly unfinished technique of painting, in which the brushstroke remains clearly visible and serves as a means of expression. "Automatism" refers to the intuitive and spontaneous aspect of painting, as if the paint is applied without thinking. During the 1940s and after WWII, painterly automatism became the dominant approach to abstract art in the form of
abstract expressionism
and
art informel
.
Freedom of abstract art
Figurative Paintings
How free can abstract art be, that is the question. As abstract expressionists felt limited by the abstract-geometric and cubistic bounds, abstract paintings began to gain expression and at the same time "lose shape". Abstract paintings by Jackson Pollock demonstrate how abstract expressionism moved towards the production of paintings without conscious control. How effective is abstract art when the emphasis on form is reduced, or absent? Is there a trade-off between expression and form? These are interesting questions about paintings which should transcend the "its all just a matter of taste" platitudes.
The creation of abstract expressionism in America had been preceded in the mid 40's by Europeans like Wolfgang Schulze (aka "Wols"). "Wolfgang Schulze was the spiritual father of 'Tachism' (after the French
tache
= stain, scratch) and in a broader sense of art informel, the style of wild gestures" and 'action painting', a rebellion against the formalism of abstract codes, that reintroduced 'feeling' in art, by freely applying the paint, dripping and splashing" (after "Kunst van de 20e eeuw" - Ruhrberg, Schneckenburg, Fricke, Honnef - Taschen Verlag GmbH).
Contemporary paintings no longer reflect a contraposition between abstract art and figurative art, but these styles either come together in paintings by contemporary artists, or exist side by side in pure figurative paintings or pure abstract art paintings.
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