Abstract Art

Since its beginnings in the early part of the 20th century, Western abstract art has fascinated, outraged and bewildered. Anna Moszynska shows here how abstract art originated and evolved, placing it in its broad historical and cultural context. She traces the paths to abstraction forged by artists such as Balla, Kupka and Delaunay, and examines the pioneering work of Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. She discusses the Russian Constructivists, the De Stijl group and the Bauhaus artists, and contrasts the geometric tendencies of the 1930s and 1940s with the post-War emphasis on personal expression that culminated in Abstract Expressionism in the United States. Finally, she considers the work of "Post-Painterly," Op, Kinetic and Minimal artists and examines the revived abstraction practised by NeoGeo and other artists of the 1980s.