Abstractionism

By Haley Griffey

& Meredith Yancy

Movements That Led Up To Abstractionism

• Fauvism

• Cubism

• Impressionism

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

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.

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

Haymaking (1909) Malevich

Bureau and Room-Malevich, 1913

Suprematism (SupremusNo. 58), Malevich, 1916

Black Square, Malevich, 1915

White on White, Malevich, 1918

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

Black Iris (1926) Georgia O’ Keefe

Canna Red and Orange (1922)

Shadow with Pelvis and Moon (1943)

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).

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"

Untitled - Kandinsky, 1910

Composition VIII - Kandinsky, 1923

Composition X, Wassily Kandinsky, 1939 (5 years before his death- DELETE RED TEXT LATER)

Composition VII, Wassily Kandinsky, 1913

Composition VIII, Wassily Kandinsky, 1923

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

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

Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red, Piet Mondrian 1937–42

Broadway Boogie-Woogie,Piet Mondrian, 1942-1943

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