CategoriesStyles and Movements
Geometric Abstraction
Abstract art built from lines, circles, squares and other regular shapes, from the pioneers of the 1910s to the hard-edged work that followed.
No works indexed yet · 4 related artists
No open-access works for Geometric Abstraction are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
Geometric abstraction uses shapes that could be drawn with a ruler or compass, rather than forms taken from the visible world or loose gestures. It emerged in the 1910s. Kazimir Malevich exhibited Black Square in 1915 as the emblem of Suprematism, Piet Mondrian reduced painting to a grid of black lines and primary colours, and the Russian Constructivists carried geometry into design and architecture.
The approach proved adaptable. From 1950 Josef Albers painted nested squares to study how colours change beside one another. In the 1940s and 1950s artists in Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Caracas developed their own Concrete and kinetic versions. Op artists such as Bridget Riley used pattern to make surfaces seem to move, and the Dutch artist Ad Dekkers cut circles and squares into white-painted reliefs. Look for flat colour, crisp edges and a sense of order or tension produced by proportion alone.
Related artists
More in Styles and Movements
German Expressionism
Gestural Abstraction
Gothic Art
Graffiti and Street Art
Grand Manner
Group Material
Group Zero
Gutai
Happenings
Harlem Renaissance
High Renaissance
Hudson River School
Hyperrealism and Photorealism
Iconic Works of Art History
Impressionism
Impressionism and Contemporary Impressionist
Japanese Erotic Prints
Japanese Photography
Japonisme
Kanō School
