The start of the 20th century was an incredibly promising time for Western societies. Major technological and industrial breakthroughs brought about key societal changes and revolutionized the daily lives of entire populations. The two World Wars devastated the world during the first half of the 20th century and deeply scarred the generations who lived through them. Their violence had a profound influence on the art movements of the time.
Within art and literature, artists started to move away from rational thinking. In art, new movements emerged which completely broke away from traditional artistic conventions, including Surrealism, Dadaism, Figurative art, Expressionism, Cubism and also Abstract Art.
The first abstract tendencies were seen in Germany with Wilhem Worringer, who used abstract art, more specifically geometric shapes, as the means to express and portray his fears. Fauve artists had already used pure colors but this technique became even more commonplace in abstract works. The invention of photography also had a key impact on painters as it meant that they became less concerned about their work being realistic. The origins of the abstract movement are difficult to pin down as its several initiatives developed at the same time in several different countries, without any kind of dialogue unifying them.
It was a watercolor by Vassily Kandinsky, the figurehead of the abstract movement, which triggered the shift in artistic attitudes. Like a piece of cacophonous music, shapes and colors create a sense of movement in his abstracts paintings, communicating specific emotions. From this point on, new artists concentrated on trying to depict a 'contraction of reality', by simplifying shapes and drawing nothing more than its essence or the underlying idea.
Piet Mondrian decided to work with geometric shapes. As for Malévich, he chose to showcase the invisible in his highly symbolic and spiritual works, including his most famous painting 'Black Square.' In his own unique way, Jackson Pollock created nearly 700 impressive modern paintings. His brush rarely ever touching the canvas as he preferred the pouring technique, which involves pouring paint directly onto the painting from a paint pot or stick.
Just like oil painting or abstract sculpture, abstract drawing can come in various different forms. On Artsper, you will find a collection of works made with ink, gouache, watercolor, pen, charcoal, thin lead pencils or felt-tip pens and often on paper. Similar to painting, abstract drawing can highlight shapes, textures, lines or colors. What the artists decide to focus on is dependent on their artistic vision.
Abstract art is the opposite of figurative art, which aims to represent the physical, visual world. Abstract art aims instead to represent the world through a different visual language, using shapes, symbols, lines, and color.
Who created drawing?
The origin of the practice of drawing is hard to trace, as it has existed since well before humans began recording historical information. However, it is believed to have originated during the Stone Age, when humans began experimenting with drawing as an art form. The earliest known example is an abstract crayon drawing on a piece of stone that was created around 73,000 years ago.
