| Nonrepresentational or nonobjective art is | | | | Abstract art began in the avant-garde |
| not an invention of the twentieth century. A | | | | movements of the late 19th century |
| number of cultures, like the Islamic and | | | | -Impressionism, neo-Impressionism, and |
| Jewish, have developed over the centuries a | | | | post-Impressionism. These painting styles |
| high standard of decorative or non-figurative | | | | reduced the importance of the original |
| art forms. Today, abstract art is generally | | | | subject matter and began to emphasize the |
| understood to be the form of art that does | | | | creative process of painting itself. As |
| not depict objects in the natural world, but | | | | artists in Europe at the early twentieth |
| instead uses shapes and colors in a | | | | century "broke free" from the conventional |
| nonrepresentational or subjective way. | | | | representational rules art forms had to |
| | | | follow, figurative abstractions, or |
| According to art experts, in its purest form | | | | simplifications of reality, where detail is |
| in Western art, an abstract art is one | | | | eliminated from recognizable objects leaving |
| without a recognizable subject, one which | | | | only the essence or some degree of |
| does not relate to something external. This | | | | recognizable form, became popular increasing |
| type of ornamental art, without figurative | | | | the variations of art forms and view points. |
| representation occurs today in many cultures. | | | | With different abstract styles, like |
| As the modern abstract movement in sculpture | | | | Synchronism and Orphism, abstract art |
| and paining emerged in Europe and North | | | | emphasized on color over form, on feelings |
| America between 1910 and 1920, two approaches | | | | over logic. The action painting of an |
| have been generally accepted to produce | | | | American Abstract Expressionist, Jackson |
| different abstract styles: images that have | | | | Pollock, who dripped, dropped, smeared, |
| been "abstracted" from nature to the point | | | | spattered, or thrown paint on the canvas, is |
| where they no longer reflect a conventional | | | | a good example of such a tremendous change in |
| reality, and nonobjective, or "pure" art | | | | art focus and technique. |
| forms, which do not share any reference to | | | | |
| reality. A further distinction tends to be | | | | After the introduction of technology and the |
| made between abstract art which is geometric, | | | | mass utilization of software programs that |
| such as the work of Piet Mondrian, and | | | | assisted people "play around" with their own |
| abstract art that is more fluid, such as in | | | | photographs, paintings or other art forms, |
| the works of Wassily Kandinsky. It was | | | | abstract art has gained more popularity than |
| Kandinsky who once said that "of all arts, | | | | ever before. But although being able to draw |
| abstract painting is the most difficult. It | | | | well is not an issue anymore, as Kandinsky |
| demands that you know to draw well, that you | | | | pointed out, being a "true" poet is what |
| have a heightened sensitivity for composition | | | | still separates the amateur attempts to |
| and of colors, and that you are a true poet; | | | | create abstract art from the artifacts of a |
| this last is essential." | | | | true talent. |
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