The Development of Abstraction

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The statement: “Modern art movements challenge conventional ways of looking at the world”, is made clear when the development of abstraction in European painting is researched and analysed further. Abstract art uses a visual language of form, colour and line to create an arrangement which may exist with independence from visual references in the world. Respectable artists whom contributed to the development of the morden art style included Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock. Western art had been underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would incorporate the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. The sources from which individual artists drew their theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture at that time. Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be only slight, partial, or complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum. Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance colour and form in ways that are noticeable, can be said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to anything recognisable. In geometric abstraction, one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic objects. Figurative art and total abstraction are almost mutually exclusive. But figurative and representational (or realistic) art often contains partial abstraction. With abstract art so present in the world today it is hard to believe that this style of modern art originated as early as 1910. One artist, who was known as one of the forerunners of abstract art, was Wassily Kandinsky. Over a period
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