A brief introduction into the abstract art

The term abstract art derives from the notion abstraction that has been used in art since the late nineteenth century for works painted by memory rather than by nature. With the development of art, the meaning of this notion in the direction of designating works that do not depict the outside world and radically break their connection with the figurative reflection of reality is changing in parallel. Abstractionism is a trend in modern art, which develops mainly in the field of painting. In it, the colors are free from the shape, and the shapes have no analogue to the nature. What distinguishes it from decorative art is that it happens within the framework of the cavalry sphere - in the picture. The first abstract watercolor, painted in 1910 by Vasily Kandinsky, is considered to be the formal beginning of abstractionism, although there have been similar attempts before (Gustav Moro, for example). According to Kandinsky, painting can express everything with its own means without using the nature. The abstract artist is the most free, is not limited by nature but expresses his own reality.

Abstract art can be divided into two directions: natural (non-geometric) abstraction and geometric abstraction. Kandinsky belongs to the first direction. He is influenced by the ideas of Expressionism and Russian folk ornaments, on the basis of which he creates non-figural art, in which there is no plot and does not resemble nature. The starting point is painting to act in the way it effects an unimaginable art like music. On this basis, he refuses to look for forms existing in the visible reality. Parallel to his picturesque experiments, Kandinsky also makes theoretical developments in which he believes that art can change the world. He speaks about the leading function of the spiritual, hidden personality in the personality - ideas related to theosophy and anthroposophy. The second direction in abstract art encompasses the geometric abstraction. It brings together artists like Kazimir Malevich and Pitt Mondrian. Although they work independently from each other, they come to the idea that the higher function of art can be achieved by denaturation - cleansing of objects through geometrization. In this respect, Cesan's influence and the art of Cubism can be found. They are both artists who build a theoretical foundation for their art.

Mondrian for his painting gave the name "neoplasticism". This concept became fundamental to the works of the De Steele band, formed around the Dutch magazine of the same name. The principles of neoplasticism are reduced to asymmetric compositions of horizontal and vertical lines and planes in which only the basic colors (red, blue, yellow) plus black, gray and white are used. The main figures in De Steele are Mondrian, Theo van Dusburg, Bart van der Leck. For a few years, the three, under the influence of impressionist ideas, draw in nature. There they gradually stylized natural shapes to achieve totally abstract images of geometric shapes and made lines in the main colors. This creates the collective abstract style characteristic of the aesthetics of the movement. Like Kandinsky and Malevich, Mondrian is very strongly influenced by the ideas of neoplatonism. In their view, creation is a projection of the divine, and therefore this projection is the material world. Man has a mental world that is beyond the material and helps shape the form. The task of the artist is to clear the matter, the random (phenomenal) of his work.

Kazimir Malevich is the author of the term "supremacy". He published the book "From Cubism and Futurism to Supremacy. The New Picture Realism "(1916). According to the concept laid down in it, supremacy seeks the highest art, cleared of "all unthinkable"; an art that goes beyond the "boundaries" of reality. Malevich defends the idea of ​​pure art, freed from everything objectively, figuratively, content. This way of looking for purity comes down to the end positions - the clean plane, the circle, the cross - "extremely economic figures that will create the vocabulary of the new plastic language that will change the world." Here is the utopia of these views, close to the ideas of the constructivists, who think that the transformation of the environment will transform the man himself for the better. Malevich creates paintings made of combinations of squares, crosses, circles, rectangles, rarely with triangles, trapezes, ellipses. He calls some of the compositions "suprimies". It also creates suppurative spatial forms - "architectons". The emblematic work of Supremacy is a Black Square on a White Background (1913). With this work, Malevich reaches the peculiar absolute, the ultimate, the pure form. This work is an "icon" of abstract art. Means the fusion of the form with the subject itself - the work does not refer to anything but to itself. The painting has reached its extreme. The picture has four variants. It was first shown in 1915 at the "0.10: The Last Futuristic Exhibition" and was placed in the corner opposite the entrance of the hall. This is the place where icons are placed in Russian houses.

The artists associated with the supremacy are: Ivan Kluen, Alexandra Exter, Nikolay Suetin and others. A branch of abstract art is also the so-called "orphism" (from the orphisme by the name of the mythical hero Orpheus). The author of the term is the poet Giyom Apolliner. In a lecture on modern painting in 1912, Giyom Apolliner described the works of Robert Delone to emphasize their particular musicality, intuitiveness and irrationality. Orphism is largely influenced by futurist ideas. It is based on the visual effect of motion that is produced by comparing contrasting colors. Its characteristic traits are related to the rhythmic rotation of colored spots in concentric circles. The phenomenon is a relatively short period of time, with his wife, Sonia Delone, working in the area besides Robert Delone. Their followers are also František Kupka, Fernan Leze, Francis Picabia, Vladimir Baranov-Rossine and others.

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