The REASON BEHIND THE ARTAbstract art is the type of visual art which employs a language of color, form and line in order to create a work that is related to the existing world but has no visual reference because it comes from a unique point of view. Beginning with Renaissance and up until the 19th century, art and painting especially was defined by the logic of perspective, and by a rendition of life as accurate and realistic as possible. Since the 20th century however, artists started challenging this “rule” and wanted new means of expressing themselves, and especially of expressing the feelings or the thoughts that they were interested in. Abstract art departed from reality and was a means of conveying a changing reality and society, with all its technological innovations. Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II American art movement developed during the 40s in New York. This movement was the first to achieve international influence and transform New York into the art center of the western world, a title previously held by Paris. Abstract paintings elicit emotional reactions from viewers through the use of colors, lines, and shapes which don't necessarily reflect any specific objects from reality. This art form values the unknown over the known, the individual over society, expression over perfection, the inner over the outer and the veiled over the clear. Abstract art manifested itself at a time when people were beginning to question their reality and the concepts on which it is based; the numerous discriminating attitudes and preconceptions, the inequalities and the socio-political turmoil made people turn to a dream-scape, to a land where you are permitted to reinvent yourself and to forget objective but meaningless rules. Thus, among the famous abstract artists who changed the world you could find women too, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, who trusted her own instincts when it came to paintings. In order to free herself from conventions of living and painting, she began using only black and white and experimented with these non-colors.
And when there was room for color in her paintings, she challenged herself by painting the same flower over and over again, from different perspectives and in different colors, exposing the object to the viewer in all its splendor. Other famous abstract artists had their influence as well, and some actively contributed to the creation of this artistic concept. Finally, it is worth mentioning painters like Paul Klee, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Piet Mondrian, or Hans Hofmann |