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The Abstract Art movement took place in the United States. It is also known as abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism began in the 1940s in New York after World War ll. It was an American art movement. Abstract expressionism was the first American movement to achieve international influence. This movement’s influence put New York City at the center of the western art world. Previously, the role had been filled by Paris. In the United States, Alfred Barr was the first to use this term in 1929 in relation to the works of Wassily Kandinsky. A new generation of American artists began to emerge and they were called Abstract Expressionists.

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Abstract art is a general term known by many artists for art that is not representational. Abstract art, however, may also be based on reality. There are 3 basic categories of abstraction: non-naturalist geometric forms, shapes from reality (but not recognized as such), heavily disguised representational works. Synonyms for abstract art include: concrete art, non-representational art, non-object art, and non-figurative work. Abstract art is meant to create emotion and feeling without having familiar, recognizable objects in clear sight.

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This week I mainly did research on the definition of abstract art. I wanted a solid definition that would be easily understandable for a non-artist like myself so that I could draw some sort of "conclusion", or meaning behind abstract art. The definition on Dictionary.com is "A trend in painting and sculpture in the twentieth-century. Abstract art seeks to break away from traditional representation of physical objects. It explores the relationships of forms and colors, whereas more traditional art represents the world in recognizable images". It is also defined as "art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures". From those definitions, I believe that abstract art's meaning is cause the viewer to feel something. The piece of artwork does not have to be traditional and have recognizable objects and features, but rather "explores the relationships of forms and colors."

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