How abstract art got its name and what gave rise to it?

How abstract art got its name? and where?

Abstract art was not an official art movement. It gained its name from the artists depiction of “abstract” (pure) forms and colors. It emerged in Paris, the long-time capital of Western art, in the first decade of last century. Later on, German and Russian avant-garde artists would flee to Paris following the rise of Nazi and Soviet dictatorships. Modern art was seen as a decadent form of expression that had to be banned under the Nazis and and Soviets. One of the best known avant-garde artists who fled the Nazi rule to Paris was Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). Other artists moved to New York, which would become the new Western center of art post-WWII, while European capitals laid in ruins. Among the most significant abstract artists from that place and period is Jackson Pollock (1912-1956).

What gave rise to abstract art?

Abstract art, which emerged around 1910, and dominated the twentieth-century is still popular until today. It is also the most ridiculed art movement of all time. When it appeared as the ultimate form of modern art, it was not entirely new. Non-figurative art had always been around in many forms, e.g. calligraphy or Islamic patterns. However, it was in the last century that it was transformed from a decorative art into a fine art movement. Three major trends could be behind the its appearance:

1. Forever in the shadow of the masters

Since the advent of modern art, starting with Impressionism around 1870, art had been slowly evolving into abstraction. In fact, one could describe all modern art movements as somehow abstract since they all experiment with breaking the traditional representational forms. In movements such as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism, the subject matter was fragmented or de-emphasized. Eventually, the subject matter was completely removed in abstract art movements of the twentieth-century. To fully explain this phenomenon towards abstraction is not easy, however one major reason was the experimentation with forms, and the pursuit of novelty, by modern artists trying to break away from the traditions left behind by the Renaissance Masters, whose era of two centuries (1400-1600), laid the foundations of Western art.

2. Reaction to modern horrors and alienation

Modern artists had increasingly viewed the world as a hostile place. Many around industrialized Europe at the turn of the century, suffered from the malaise of alienation. The two world wars and the destruction they left behind exacerbated the anxiety of artists. The logic, and orderliness, of traditional painting had no place, in their view, in the world of modern art. If artists viewed the world as meaningless, then it is no surprise that their art would be also meaningless.

3. The invention of the camera

Since the invention of photography in 1839, artists had mixed feelings about its influence. Some art movements viewed photography as a positive influence. Realism tried to imitate its frankness in depicting “real life.” Futurist artists went further by studying and copying photography on a technical level. In reality however, most artists were not excited about that invention. When the French painter Paul Delaroche saw the first daguerreotype around 1840, he cried out “from today, painting is dead.” One could say that photography, with cameras becoming smaller and more popular at the beginning of the century, helped push painting into abstraction. Around that time, also film as another artistic medium emerged. Now that photographs and films are the dominant forms of visual arts, artists felt liberated from the need to accurately represent objects or record life events. Abstraction started with depicting landscapes and cityscapes through experimentation with light and color (Impressionist art) but eventually the canvases showed only simple shapes and primary colors. Not only was the subject matter eliminated, but also the artist’s emotional state or any traces of personal expression.