their approaches. Jackson Pollock did overall drip paintings. Mark Rothko painted shimmering color field canvases based on a simple square pattern. Willem de Kooning did not abandon subject matter like the others, but abstracted the female figure in much of his work.
Art that has no intentional
beginnings in any subject matter is sometimes referred to as non-objective, or non-representational. A related term is minimalism, or the tendency to take as much away from the painterly surface of the canvas as possible. A white square painted on a white background is an example of minimalism. The end result is not so much the point as the daring it took to get there.
Modern art is another ter.commonly used to refer to abstract art, though originally this term was used to differentiate the experimenters of the twentieth century from the traditional European painters and sculptors. Thus, modern art began over seventy years ago, and is no longer new. Many movements in art hav.come and gone since then. For example, pop art incorporates popular culture such a.comics and movie stars. Well-known artists of this genre include Andy Warhol, who painted Cambell’s soup cans and portraits of Marilyn Monroe, and Jasper Johns, who did a series of flag paintings.
Contemporary art is another one of those terms that covers a wide variety of art. The best definition of contemporary is the work of any living artist, though the term has also been used to mean art that you would hang in a contemporary home. This sense of contemporary is more like the term modern, in that it means the opposite of traditional. Thus, contemporary art is also sometimes used to mean abstract art.
Another way to define the term abstract art is to enter it as a search term on Google or Yahoo and look at the results. There will be millions of them, proving that the term is used today to cover a vast amount of art. I use the term abstract art to define my own painting because I know that people who love my art tend to define it this way. They often find me by entering the term on Google. Others use the term modern art or contemporary art to find me.
So where does that leave us in our definition of abstract art? Like most definitions of art movements, the answer i.complex. We can look at it historically from an art critic’s perspective, or use it as the general public would, to mean something other than traditional realistic representation.
Copyright 2006 Lynne Taetzsch
About The Author
Lynne Taetzsch is an artist and writer whose contemporary abstract paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the world. Described by collectors as vibrant and exciting, her colorful paintings and prints can be viewed on her website
artbylt.com
