The 7 most famous ABSTRACT paintings of the 20th century

The abstract art it is an artistic expression in which the idea or concept prevails over the figurative representation of reality. A modern style that has its origins in the late nineteenth century, although, as some critics point out, abstract art is connected with rock art.

In the case of painting, abstract art was also inspired by avant-garde movements such as expressionism, the Cubism or Fauvism and claiming the emotion, the unconscious and the concepts above the figurative and the academicism. Thus, the abstraction materialized in four main currents: the organic abstract art, lyrical, geometric and abstract expressionism.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you a selection of famous abstract paintings that will help you to better understand abstract art and its evolution throughout the 20th century.

Index

1. List of famous abstract paintings
2. Chaos No. 2 by Hilma Af Klint (1906)
3. Untitled (First abstract watercolor) by Wassily Kandinsky (1910)
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4. Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow by Piet Mondrian (1930)
5. Peinture (Etoile Bleue) by Joan Miró (1927)
6. 1934 (Relief) by Ben Nicholson (1934)
7. Jackson Pollock's Convergence (1952)
8. Mountains and Sea by Helen Frankenthaler (1952)
9. White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) by Mark Rothko (1950)

Most of the iconic and famous abstract paintings of the 20th century were created by artists who sought and found new ways of making a type of art that reflected all the fundamental changes that the West had witnessed in technology, science and philosophy. A versatile art that sought an emotional response in the viewers.

As an artistic trend, the abstract art starts at the beginning of the 20th century, and although some specialists considered Wassily Kandinsky As the author of the world's first abstract painting, today, she has been recognized as a pioneer of abstract art through Hilma Af Klint. So in our list of famous abstract paintings we include:

Hilma af klint (Solna, October 26, 1862-Danderyd, October 21, 1944) was a Swedish artist who created the first abstract works of her in 1906, considering the work Chaos # 2 as the first abstract painting, prior to Kandinsky. Her pictures are full of a I am colorful and very audacious in its forms and composition.

Hilma herself was aware that she was ahead of her time and that neither the public nor the critics were prepared to appreciate her art. To protect her art and make it appreciated, Hilma stipulated that only her works be shown to the public until 20 years after her death, but it would not be until 1986 when the first exhibition of the artist.

After it, and although abstract art theorists point out that some elements of abstract art date back to the late nineteenth century, until not long ago this famous work of Wassily Kandinsky, the First abstract watercolor.

With this work, Kandinsky vindicated painting as one of the most revolutionary fields for experimentation and development of new techniques and artistic styles.

This composition marked a turning point in the Piet Mondrian's pictorial trajectory. In his search for complete abstraction, Mondrian believed that universal purity could be expressed through plastic arts, investigating balance and compositional harmony through his works to transmit stillness.

This work became a icon of the second half of the 20th century and one of the symbols of the cpop culture. The broad lines contrast with the large red square, while the small yellow rectangle emerges at the bottom of the work, while the red meets the blue.

This painting constitutes the passage of Miró from figurative to abstract. This blue star is one of the most important paintings by Joan Miró, highlighting that intense and vibrant blue that the artist used in several more works and that will influence painters such as Yves Klein and Mark Rothko.

Nicholson abandoned his figurative and abstract works close to cubism and post-impressionism to try to represent space by producing abstract reliefs. The painter tries to show how painting can also represent space.

Thus, he creates abstract geometric sculptural reliefs by hand to later paint them in white. His work is influenced by the works of Piet mondrian and the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, his lover at the time, as well as that of abstractionists such as Joan Miro and Alexander Calder.

Pollock was a really prolific painter, coming to paint up to 363 paintings. Among them, Convergence stands out for his innovative character within the history of art, especially painting, for his defense of freedom of expression and to capture his ideas on the cold War.

This work became the world's most difficult puzzle when it was released as a game in 1964.

Helen Frankenthaler is an artist known for her stain technique. The technique consisted of diluting her paint with turpentine or kerosene, absorbing that resulting fluid by the unprimed canvas. The stains generated a kind of aura that gave her works a feeling of continuous movement.

Mountains and Sea is a step further from abstract expressionism. Frankenthaler's work is changeable, translucent and light.

This work was sold in 2007 for 72.84 million dollars, becoming the postwar artwork most expensive sold at auction.

Rothko achieved fame and notoriety thanks to this work, a work part of a series of canvases in horizontal bands of color, managing to convey the feeling that the colors were floating in front of the color field against which they are placed. The artist made numerous variations following a wide range of movements and moods.

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• Straine, Stepanie (2020). Abstract art (Art essentials). Blume
• Elger, Diermar (2008). Abstract art. Taschen Beneditk