Abstract art got its name from the Latin - Abstractus, which means abstract, that is, non-objective. This is one of the areas of art, which consciously renounces the image of the real world and items from the real world. The main canon of abstractness is the expression of feelings, emotions, experiences with the help of images, symbols, a sensual combination of colors. Abstract art is not a separate style or genre, but rather a combination of various art movements, such as Op Art, Expressionism and others. It arose as an official, presumably, in 1910 in France, where it developed vigorously until it conquered the whole world. Also, it is worth saying that it is applicable not only to painting, but also to sculpture, design and even architecture. After the Second World War, this style of art developed under the name of Tachisme, so for those who don't know, Tachisme and Abstract Art are synonyms. In Russia, the development of Abstract art was hindered in every possible way, and even at the time communist power, pursued any of its manifestations, as inappropriate to the communist ideology.

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abstract expressionism

Abstract Expressionism as the New York School developed in America. During the Second World War, almost all avant-garde artists emigrated to America, including Andre Breton, Salvador Dali and many others. Already there, by combining their efforts, the so-called school of abstract expressionism is being created. This kind of painting characterized quick image , using large brushes, often it is done with strokes or drops, all this is done for one thing - to convey some kind of emotion or strong expression. Basically, abstract expressionism is drawn on large, monumental canvases. Such a solid scope, and some canvases reached five meters in length, excites the viewer's imagination. Many artists saw this type of art in their own way, each had his own style. For example, Gorki added to his paintings some floating figures or, as they were called, hybrids. Jackson Pollock simply spread the canvas on the floor and sprayed paint on it. Subsequently, this style was called Dripping (dripping). Mark Rothko painted over his canvases with large colored planes, leaving unpainted areas between them, which aroused the interest of the viewer and aroused imagination. Frank Stella experimented with the canvases themselves, cutting corners or turning them into polygons. Thus, the Abstract Expressionists achieved the exact opposite of their art and the art of traditional painting.

Abstractionism in art

Abstract art or non-objective art. One of the forms of avant-garde that arose in the first half of the 20th century. The main criterion of Abstractionism was the renunciation and rejection of the image of the real world, real things and events. The founders of this interesting trend were V. Kandinsky, P. Mondrian and K. Malevich. The appearance of abstractionism in art, which will come to replace ordinary realism, was predicted by Plato, and appeared as a certain pattern of boring ordinary painting and other avant-garde (surrealism, dadaism). And so it happened. This genre is often distinguished by strong impulsiveness, as if by random color combinations.

For me, the style of abstract art is primarily a confrontation with the logic of civilization. The whole history of civilization of the last century is built on formulas, algorithms, principles, equations and rules. However, it is human nature to strive for balance and harmony. In this connection, at the dawn of the century of the scientific and technological revolution, such an art movement appears that does not obey the classical canons of drawing, but, on the contrary, serves as its goal to give freedom to the unconscious and chaotic, at first glance devoid of meaning, but thereby giving a person the opportunity to free himself from the influence of norms and dogmas and maintain internal harmony.

Abstractionism(from the Latin abstractus - remote, abstract) is a very broad trend in the art of the 20th century, which arose in the early 1910s in several European countries. Abstractionism is characterized by the use of exclusively formal elements to display reality, where imitation or an accurate display of reality was not an end in itself.

The founders of abstractionism are Russian artists and Dutchman Piet Mondrian, Frenchman Robert Delaunay and Czech Frantisek Kupka. Their method of drawing was based on the desire for "harmonization", the creation of certain color combinations and geometric shapes in order to evoke various associations in the contemplator.

In abstractionism, two clear directions can be distinguished: geometric abstraction, based mainly on clearly defined configurations (Malevich, Mondrian), and lyrical abstraction, in which the composition is organized from freely flowing forms (Kandinsky). Also in abstractionism there are several other major independent trends.

Cubism- avant-garde direction in fine arts, which originated at the beginning of the 20th century and is characterized by the use of emphatically conditional geometric shapes, the desire to “split” real objects to stereometric primitives.

Rayonism (Luchism)- a trend in abstract art of the 1910s, based on the shift of light spectra and light transmission. The idea of ​​the emergence of forms from the "crossing of the reflected rays of various objects" is characteristic, since a person actually perceives not the object itself, but "the sum of the rays coming from the light source, reflected from the object."

neoplasticism- designation of the direction of abstract art, which existed in 1917-1928. in Holland and united artists grouped around the magazine "De Stijl" ("Style"). Characterized by clear rectangular shapes in architecture and abstract painting in the layout of large rectangular planes, painted in the primary colors of the spectrum.

Orphism- a trend in French painting of the 1910s. Artists-orphists sought to express the dynamics of movement and the musicality of rhythms with the help of "regularities" of the interpenetration of the primary colors of the spectrum and the intersection of curvilinear surfaces.

Suprematism- a direction in avant-garde art, founded in the 1910s. Malevich. It was expressed in combinations of multi-colored planes of the simplest geometric outlines. The combination of multi-colored geometric shapes forms balanced asymmetric Suprematist compositions permeated with internal movement.

Tachisme- a trend in Western European abstractionism of the 1950s and 60s, which was most widespread in the United States. It is a painting with spots that do not recreate images of reality, but express the unconscious activity of the artist. Strokes, lines and spots in tachisme are applied to the canvas with quick hand movements without a premeditated plan.

abstract expressionism- the movement of artists who paint quickly and on large canvases, using non-geometric strokes, large brushes, sometimes dripping paint on the canvas, to fully reveal emotions. The expressive method of painting here is often as important as the painting itself.

Single Barrel Pattern, William Morris

"Abstractism", also called "non-objective art", "non-figurative", "non-representational", "geometric abstraction" or "concrete art", is a rather vague umbrella term for any object of painting or sculpture that does not depict recognizable objects or scenes. However, as we can see, there is no clear consensus on the definition, types, or aesthetic meaning of abstract art. Picasso thought that such a thing did not exist at all, while some art historians believe that all art is abstract - because, for example, no painting can count on being anything more than a rough summary of what it sees. painter. In addition, there is a sliding scale of abstraction, from semi-abstract to fully abstract. So while the theory is relatively clear - abstract art is detached from reality - the practical task of separating abstract from non-abstract works can be much more problematic.

What is the concept of abstract art?

Let's start with a very a simple example. Take a bad (non-naturalistic) drawing of something. The execution of the image leaves much to be desired, but if its colors are beautiful, the drawing can amaze us. This shows how a formal quality (color) can override a representational one (drawing).
On the other hand, a photorealistic painting from, say, a home can show excellent graphics, but the subject matter, color scheme, and overall composition can be completely boring.
The philosophical justification for assessing the value of artistic formal qualities stems from Plato's assertion that: "Straight lines and circles ... are not only beautiful ... but eternal and absolutely beautiful."

Convergence, Jackson Pollock, 1952

In essence, Plato's dictum means that non-naturalistic images (circles, squares, triangles, etc.) have absolute, unchanging beauty. Thus, a painting can only be judged for its line and color, it does not need to depict a natural object or scene. french artist, lithographer and art theorist Maurice Denis (1870-1943) had the same in mind when he wrote: “Remember that the painting is before becoming a war horse or a naked woman ... essentially a flat surface covered with color collected in a certain all right."

Frank Stella

Types of abstract art

To keep things simple, we can divide abstract art into six main types:

• Curvilinear
• based on color or light
• Geometric
• Emotional or intuitive
• Gestural
• minimalist

Some of these types are less abstract than others, but they all involve the separation of art from reality.

Curvilinear abstract art

Honeysuckle, William Morris, 1876

This type is strongly associated with Celtic art, which uses a range of abstract motifs including knots (the eight main types), interlaced patterns, and spirals (including the triskele or triskelion). These motifs were not invented by the Celts, many others early cultures have used these Celtic ornaments for centuries. However, it's fair to say that Celtic designers breathed new life into these patterns, making them more intricate and complex. They later returned during the 19th century and were particularly evident in book covers, textiles, wallpaper, and calico designs similar to those of William Morris (1834-96) and Arthur McMurdo (1851-1942). Curvilinear abstraction is also characterized by the "infinite picture" concept, a widespread feature of Islamic art.

Abstract art based on color or light

Water Lily, Claude Monet

This type is illustrated in the work of Turner and Monet, who use color (or light) in a way that separates the work of art from reality as the object dissolves into a swirl of pigment. Examples are the paintings Water Lily by Claude Monet (1840-1926), Talisman (1888, Musee d'Orsay, Paris), Paul Serusier (1864-1927). Several of the expressionist paintings by Kandinsky, painted in his time with Der Blaue Reiter, are very close to abstraction. Colored abstraction reappeared in the late 1940s and 50s in the form of color painting developed by Mark Rothko (1903-70) and Barnett Newman (1905-70). In the 1950s, a parallel variety of abstract painting related to color emerged in France, known as lyrical abstraction.

Talisman, Paul Serusier

geometric abstraction

Boogie Woogie on Broadway by Piet Mondrian, 1942

This type of intellectual abstract art has been around since 1908. An early rudimentary form was Cubism, specifically Analytic Cubism, which rejected linear perspective and the illusion of spatial depth in painting to focus on its two-dimensional aspects. Geometric abstraction is also known as concrete art and objectless art. As you might expect, it is characterized by non-naturalistic imagery, usually geometric shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, etc. In a sense, with absolutely no reference to or connection to the natural world, geometric abstractionism is the purest form of abstraction. One could say that concrete art is to abstract art what veganism is to vegetarianism. Geometric abstraction is represented by the Black Circle (1913, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), painted by Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935) (the founder of Suprematism); Boogie Woogie on Broadway (1942, MoMA, New York) Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) (founder of neoplasticism); and Composition VIII (The Cow) (1918, MoMA, New York) by Theo Van Dosburg (1883-1931) (founder of De Stijl and Elementarism). Other examples include Josef Albers' Appeal to the Square (1888-1976) and Op-Art by Victor Vasarely (1906-1997).

Black circle, Kazimir Malevich, 1920

Composition VIII, Theo Van Dosburg

Emotional or intuitive abstract art

This type of art covers a combination of styles, common topic which is a naturalistic tendency. This naturalism manifests itself in the forms and colors used. Unlike geometric abstraction, which is almost anti-nature, intuitive abstraction often depicts nature, but in a less representative way. Two important sources for this type of abstract art are: organic abstraction (also called biomorphic abstraction) and surrealism. Perhaps the most famous artist specializing in this art form was Russian-born Mark Rothko (1938-70). Other examples include paintings by Kandinsky such as Composition No. 4 (1911, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen) and Composition VII (1913, Tretyakov Gallery); Woman (1934, Private collection) Joan Miró (1893-1983) and Indefinite Divisibility (1942, Art Gallery Allbright-Knox, Buffalo) Yves Tanguy (1900-55).

Indefinite divisibility, Yves Tanguy

Gesticulation (gestural) abstract art

Untitled, D. Pollock, 1949

This is a form of abstract expressionism where the process of creating a painting becomes more important than usual. For example, paint is applied in an unusual way, strokes are often very loose and fast. Notable American sign painting exponents include Jackson Pollock (1912-56), inventor of Action-Painting and his wife Lee Krasner (1908-84), who inspired him to invent own technology, the so-called "drip painting"; Willem de Kooning (1904-97), famous for his work in the Woman series; and Robert Motherwell (1912-56). In Europe, this form is represented by the Cobra group, in particular Karel Appel (1921-2006).

minimalist abstract art

Learning to draw, Ed Reinhardt, 1939

This type of abstraction was a kind of avant-garde art, devoid of all external references and associations. This is what you see - and nothing else. It often takes geometric shape. This movement is dominated by sculptors, although it also includes some great artists such as Ed Reinhardt (1913-67), Frank Stella (born 1936), whose paintings are large scale and include clusters of form and color; Sean Scully (born 1945) Irish-American artist whose rectangular shapes of color appear to mimic the monumental forms of prehistoric structures. Also Joe Baer (b. 1929), Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015), Robert Mangold (b. 1937), Bryce Marden (b. 1938), Agnes Martin (1912-2004) and Robert Ryman (born 1930).

Ellsworth Kelly

Frank Stella

Text: Ksyusha Petrova

THIS WEEK AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM AND TOLERANCE CENTER ends the exhibition "Abstraction and Image" by Gerhard Richter - the first personal exhibition in Russia of one of the most influential and expensive contemporary artists. So far, the recently extended exhibition of Raphael and Caravaggio and the Georgian avant-garde at the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin is in line, Richter can be viewed in the comfortable company of a couple of dozen visitors. This paradox is due not only to the fact that the Jewish Museum is much inferior in popularity to the Pushkin Museum or the Hermitage, but also to the fact that many people are still skeptical about abstract art.

Even those who are versed in contemporary risk and understand well the significance of the Black Square for world culture are frightened off by the “elitism” and “inaccessibility” of abstraction. We sneer at the works of fashionable artists, marvel at auction records and fear that there will be a void behind the façade of art criticism terms - after all, the artistic merits of works resembling children's scribbles sometimes raise doubts among professionals. In fact, the aura of "inaccessibility" of abstract art is easy to dispel - in this instruction we tried to explain why abstraction is called "Buddhist television" and from which side to approach it.

Gerhard Richter. November 1/54. 2012

Don't try to find out
what the artist wanted to say

In the halls where the paintings of the Renaissance are hanging, even a not very prepared viewer will find his bearings: at least he will be able to easily name what is depicted in the picture - people, fruits or the sea, what emotions the characters experience, is there a plot in this work, are they familiar him participants in the events. Before the canvases of Rothko, Pollock or Malevich, we do not feel so confident - they do not have an object that you can catch your eye on and talk about it in order to find out “what the author wanted to say”, as in school. This is the main difference between abstract, or non-objective, painting from the figurative, more familiar to us: the abstract artist does not at all seek to depict the world, he does not set himself such a task.

If you carefully look at the last two centuries of the history of Western art, it becomes clear that the rejection of the subject in painting is not a whim of a handful of nonconformists, but a natural stage of development. In the 19th century, photography appeared, and artists freed themselves from the obligation to depict the world as it is: portraits of relatives and beloved dogs began to be made in a photo studio - it turned out faster and cheaper than ordering an oil painting from a master. With the invention of photography, the need to meticulously copy what we see in order to keep it in memory has disappeared.

← Jackson Pollock.
Shorthand figure. 1942

To mid-nineteenth century, some began to suspect that realistic art was a trap. The artists perfectly mastered the laws of perspective and composition, learned to depict people and animals with extraordinary accuracy, acquired suitable materials, but the result looked less and less convincing. The world began to change rapidly, cities became larger, industrialization began - against this background, realistic images of fields, battle scenes and naked models seemed outdated, divorced from the complex experiences of modern man.

Impressionists, post-impressionists, fauvists and cubists are artists who were not afraid to re-examine the question of what is important in art: each of these movements used the experience of the previous generation, experimenting with color and form. As a result, some artists came to the conclusion that the contact between the author and the viewer takes place not through projections of reality, but through lines, spots and strokes of paint - this is how art got rid of the need to depict anything, offering the viewer to feel the uncomplicated joy of interacting with color , shape, lines and texture. All this was perfectly combined with new philosophical and religious teachings - in particular, theosophy, and the locomotives of the Russian avant-garde Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich developed their own philosophical systems in which the theory of art is connected with the principles of an ideal society.

In any unclear situation, use formal analysis

Here's a nightmare every lover can find themselves in contemporary art: imagine that you are standing in front of a delightful, as it is written in the guidebook, painting by Agnes Martin and you do not feel anything at all. Nothing but irritation and slight sadness - not because the picture makes you feel that way, but because you don’t understand at all what is drawn here and where you need to look (you are not even sure that the curators hung the work on the right side). In such a situation, in a hurry to help formal analysis, from which it is worth starting acquaintance with any work of art. Exhale and try to answer a few children's questions: what do I see in front of me - a picture or sculpture, graphics or painting? With what materials and when was it created? How can these shapes and lines be described? How do they interact? Are they moving or static? Is there depth here - which image elements are in the foreground and which are in the background?

← Barnett Newman. Untitled. 1945

The next stage is also quite simple: listen to yourself and try to determine what emotions you see. Are these red triangles funny or disturbing? Do I feel calm or is the picture pressing on me? Security Question: Am I trying to figure out what it's like, or am I letting my mind freely interact with color and shape?

Remember that not only the picture is important, but also the frame - or lack of it. In the case of the same Newman, Mondrian or the “Amazon of the avant-garde” Olga Rozanova, the rejection of the frame is a conscious choice of the artist, which invites you to discard old ideas about art and mentally expand its limits, literally go beyond.

To feel more confident, you can remember a simple classification of abstract works: they are usually divided into geometric (Piet Mondrian, Ellsworth Kelly, Theo van Doesburg) and lyrical (Helen Frankenthaler, Gerhard Richter, Wassily Kandinsky).

Helen Frankenthaler. Orange hoop. 1965

Helen Frankenthaler. solarium. 1964

Do not rate "drawing skills"

“My child/cat/monkey can do just as well” is a phrase that is said every day in every museum of modern art (perhaps they thought of putting a special counter somewhere). easy way to answer such a claim - to snort and roll your eyes, complaining about the spiritual poverty of those around you, is complex and more productive - to take the issue seriously and try to explain why the skill of abstractionists should be assessed differently. The great semiologist Roland Barthes wrote a penetrating essay on the seeming "childhood" of Cy Twombly's doodles, and our contemporary Susie Hodge devoted an entire book to this topic.

Many abstract artists have a classical education and excellent skills academic drawing- that is, they are able to draw a pretty vase of flowers, a sunset on the sea or a portrait, but for some reason they do not want to. They choose a visual experience that is not burdened with objectivity: the artists, as it were, make it easier for the viewer, not allowing him to be distracted by the objects depicted in the picture, and help him immediately immerse himself in an emotional experience.

← Cy Twombly. Untitled. 1954

In 2011, the researchers decided to test whether paintings in the genre of abstract expressionism (the most questions arise about this direction of abstract art) are indistinguishable from the drawings of small children, as well as the art of chimpanzees and elephants. The subjects were asked to look at pairs of pictures and determine which ones were taken. professional artists- in 60–70% of cases, respondents chose “real” works of art. The advantage is small, but statistically significant - apparently, in the works of abstractionists there really is something that distinguishes them from the drawings of an intelligent chimpanzee. Another new study has shown that children themselves can distinguish the work of abstract artists from children's drawings. To test your artistic flair, you can take a test with similar conditions on BuzzFeed.

Remember that all art is abstract.

If your brain is ready for a little overload, consider that all art is inherently abstract. Figurative painting, whether it is Picasso's still life Boy with a Pipe or Bryullov's The Last Day of Pompeii, is a projection of the three-dimensional world onto a flat canvas, an imitation of the "reality" that we perceive through vision. There is no need to talk about the objectivity of our perception either - after all, the possibilities of human vision, hearing and other senses are very limited, and we cannot evaluate them on our own.

Marble David is not a living guy, but a piece of stone that Michelangelo shaped to remind us of a man (and we get an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat men look like from our life experience). If you get very close to the Mona Lisa, it will still seem to you that you see her delicate, almost living skin, a transparent veil and fog in the distance - but this is essentially an abstraction, just Leonardo da Vinci very painstakingly and for a long time applied layers of paint on top of each other to create a very subtle illusion. More clearly, the exposure trick works with the Fauvists and Pointillists: if you get closer to the Pissarro painting, you will see not the Boulevard Montmartre and the sunset in Eragny, but a lot of multi-colored small strokes. The illusory essence of art is dedicated famous painting Rene Magritte "Treachery of images": of course, "this is not a pipe" - these are just strokes of paint well located on the canvas.

← Helen Frankenthaler.
Nepenthe. 1972

The Impressionists, whose competence we do not doubt today, were the abstractionists of their time: Monet, Degas, Renoir and their friends were accused of having abandoned realistic image in favor of conveying feelings. "Careless" strokes, visible to the naked eye, "strange" composition and other progressive techniques seemed blasphemous to the public of that time. AT late XIX centuries, the Impressionists were seriously accused of "inability to draw", vulgarity and cynicism.

The organizers of the Paris Salon had to hang Manet's Olympia practically under the ceiling - there were too many who wanted to spit at it or pierce the canvas with an umbrella. Is this situation very different from the 1987 incident at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, when a man attacked the painting "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III" by abstract artist Barnett Newman with a knife?

Mark Rothko. Untitled. 1944-1946

Don't neglect context

The best way to experience a work of abstract art is to stand in front of it and look and look and look. Some works can immerse the viewer in deep existential experiences or an ecstatic trance - this happens most often with the paintings of Mark Rothko and the objects of Anish Kapoor, but works can also have a similar effect. unknown artists. Although emotional contact is most important, you should not refuse to read the labels and get acquainted with the historical context: the title will not help you understand the “meaning” of the work, but it can lead to interesting thoughts. Even dry titles like “Composition No. 2” and “Object No. 7” tell us something: by giving this name to his work, the author urges us to abandon the search for “subtext” or “symbolism” and focus on spiritual experience.

← Yuri Zlotnikov. Composition No. 22. 1979

The history of the creation of the work is also important: most likely, if you find out when and under what circumstances the work was created, you will see something new in it. After reading the biography of the artist, carefully prepared for you by the curators of the museum, ask yourself what significance this work could have in that country and at the time when its author worked: the same “Black Square” gives a completely different impression, if you know something about philosophical currents and art of the beginning of the 20th century. Another, less well-known example is the Signal Systems series by the pioneer of Russian post-war abstraction, Yuri Zlotnikov. Today, colored circles on a white canvas do not seem revolutionary - but in the 1950s, when official art looked something like this, Zlotnikov's abstractions were a real breakthrough.

Slow down

It is always better to pay attention to a few works that you like than to gallop through the museum, trying to grasp the immensity. Professor Jennifer Roberts from Harvard forces his students to look at one picture for three hours - of course, no one requires such stamina from you, but thirty seconds is clearly not enough for a Kandinsky painting. In his manifesto - a declaration of love for abstraction, the famous art critic Jerry Saltz calls Rothko's hypnotic canvases "Buddhist television" - it is understood that one can peer into them endlessly.

Repeat it at home

The best way to test the seditious thought “I can draw just as well”, which sometimes arises among professional art critics, is to conduct an experiment at home. It will be interesting in the opposite situation - if you are afraid to take on paints because of "inability to draw" or "lack of ability." It is not without reason that abstract techniques are most often used in art therapy: they help to express complex sensations for which it is difficult to find words. For many artists suffering from internal contradictions and their own incompatibility with outside world, abstraction has become almost the only way to reconcile with reality (except for drugs and alcohol, of course).

Abstract works can be created using any art materials- from watercolor to oak bark, so you're sure to find a technique that suits your taste and budget. Perhaps you shouldn't start with dripping "- the analysis of Mondrian's painting" Composition with red, blue and yellow" given in it for the smallest is not ashamed to be read by adults. Jewish Museum, ART4

Abstractionism is a relatively young art movement. The year of its birth is officially recognized as 1910, when the artist Wassily Kandinsky exhibited the first canvas in a new technique, painted in watercolor.

Representatives of abstract art take simple and complex forms, lines, planes as the basis for creating their own masterpieces and play with color. What happens in the end has nothing to do with real objects. This is a work that is accessible only to the superconscious through the sensory world of the individual.

For decades after the appearance of the first work in this style, abstractionism has undergone various changes, actively introduced into other avant-garde trends.

(Abstraction by Carol Hein)

Within the framework of abstractionism, artists created numerous paintings, sculptures, and installations. Separate elements have been used and continue to be successfully implemented, including in the interiors of modern premises.

Today, the abstract trend in art is divided into geometric and lyrical abstraction. The geometric direction of abstractionism is characterized by strict and clear lines, stable states. Lyrical abstraction is characterized by free form and demonstration of the dynamics set by the master or artist.

Abstract art in painting

It was with painting that abstractionism began its development. On canvas and paper, he was revealed to the world through the play of color and lines, recreating something that had no analogues in the real world of objects.

(...and a clearer abstraction by Carol Hein)

Bright representatives of abstractionism are:

• Kandinsky;
• Malevich;
• Mondrian.

Later, they had many followers, each of whom made his own artistic contribution, applying new techniques for applying paints and new principles for creating an abstract composition.

(Wassily Vasilyevich Kandinsky "Composition IV")

The founders of the direction, creating their masterpieces on canvas, relied on new scientific and philosophical theories. For example, Kandinsky, justifying his own artistic creations, appealed to the theosophical works of Blavatsky. Mondrian was a representative of neoplasticism and actively used pure lines and colors in his works. His paintings were repeatedly copied by many representatives of the field of painting and art. Malevich was an ardent supporter of the theory of Suprematism. The primacy in the art of painting was given by the master to color.

(Kazimir Malevich "Composition of geometric shapes")

In general, abstractionism in painting turned out to be a twofold direction for ordinary people. One considered such works to be dead ends, the second - they sincerely admired the ideas that the artists put into their creations.

Despite the randomness of lines, shapes and colors, paintings and works of art in the style of abstractionism create a single and holistically perceived composition by the audience.

Directions of art abstractionism

Works in the style of abstractionism are difficult to clearly classify, since this direction has many followers, each of whom contributed his own vision to development. In general, it can be divided according to the type of predominance of lines or techniques. To date, there are:

• color abstractionism. Within the framework of these works, the artists play with colors and shades, placing the emphasis in the works on the perception of them by the mind of the beholder;
• geometric abstractionism. This trend has its own strict characteristic differences. These are clear lines and shapes, the illusion of depth and linear perspectives. Representatives of this trend are Suprematis, neoplasticists;
• expressive abstractionism and tachisme. The emphasis in these branches is not on colors, shapes and lines, but on the technique of applying paint, through which dynamics is set, emotions are conveyed and the unconscious of the artist is reflected, working without any preliminary plan;
• minimalistic abstract art. This trend is closer to the avant-garde. Its essence boils down to the absence of references to any associations. Lines, shapes and colors are used concisely and to a minimum.

The birth of abstractionism as a trend in art was the result of the changes that were hovering at the beginning of the last century, associated with numerous new discoveries that began to move humanity forward. Everything new and still incomprehensible needed the same explanation and way out, including through art.