Abstract art combines a wonderful visual language of type, coloration and line to create a composition which can exist with a particular diploma of independence from visual references seen in the world right now and in the past. Geometrical abstraction is exemplified by Black Circle (1913, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg) painted by Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) (founding father of Suprematism); Broadway Boogie-Woogie (1942, MoMA, New York) by Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) (founding father of Neo-Plasticism); and Composition VIII (The Cow) (1918, MoMA, New York) by Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) (founder of De Stijl and Elementarism).

Ernst Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Ernst, Alexei Jawlensky, Oskar Kokoschka, Franz Marc, August Macke and Max Beckmann) weren’t summary painters, but their vivid palette – together with Kandinsky’s theoretical writings – alerted other extra abstract-inclined artists to the power of color as a way of attaining their targets.

Among the many very quite a few art movements that embody partial abstraction can be for instance fauvism in which color is conspicuously and intentionally altered vis-a-vis reality, and cubism , which blatantly alters the forms of the true life entities depicted.

It is the form of art that makes some folks scratch their heads and say, “My 5-yr old might do that.” What folks do not realize is that the most effective abstract artists have wonderful drawing expertise, a finely honed sense of composition, and a deep understanding of the workings of shade.

Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) developed this new fashion in phases: first, proto-type Cubism (see Picasso’s semi-summary Les Demoiselles d’Avignon , 1907, MoMA, NY); then Analytical Cubism (see Nude Descending a Staircase No.2, 1912, Philadelphia Museum of Artwork) by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968); then Artificial Cubism , which was more collage-oriented.