Buying an abstract painting seems natural today, but originally abstract art broke away from the codes of the art market.
Abstract painting is the main trend that emerged in 20th-century painting and sculpture. Abstract painting represents a true revolution in art because, until then, non-figurative forms, when observed, had a rather decorative or ornamental purpose.
However, the approach of abstract art is to directly propose a non-figurative image. Abstract painting thus seems to carry a paradox: how can an image whose function is the representation of reality be an abstract representation of painting?
Opposing it to figurative art, Michel Seuphor (1901-1999), abstract painter, art critic, and writer, considered that abstract painting includes "all art that contains no reminder, no evocation of observed reality, whether this reality is, or is not, the starting point of the abstract artist."
Abstract art, as a visual language, advocates for the independence of form and color. Abstract painting can be described as modern due to its innovation.
Art history places the birth of abstract painting around the 1910s. It is commonly thought that this unprecedented art form emerged when the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky painted Untitled (Watercolor) in 1910. On the back of this watercolor, he wrote: "abstract watercolor."
Abstract Art is a form of art contemporary with its time. It responds to the transformations of its era. New scientific theories: quantum physics and the theory of relativity emerged and severely challenged the notion of reality. A new artistic path took shape: abstract painting.
In 1915, Kazimir Malevich painted Quadrangle, better known as Black Square on a White Background. With this work, the Ukrainian-born painter (1878-1935) freed himself, through abstract painting, from all the codes and references that painting had carried until then. The abstract painting does not convey meaning, yet everyone is free to subjectively attribute one to it. The work no longer lives through its meaning but through its sole condition as a work of art. Later, in 1918, Malevich would create White Square on White and found Suprematism; an artistic movement whose aim is to represent only the essential. To do this, three shapes are favored: the circle, the cross, and the square. The colors are primary and meet specific requirements: white for the background, black for the square, and red for the other shapes. Finally, space offers Suprematists a way to seek a fourth dimension through the superimposition of layers of paint. Here is our selection of modern abstract paintings:
Come discover our abstract canvases and paintings; a wide selection of modern and abstract paintings are for sale in our art gallery.
