Wyndham Lewis was not only an artist, he was also a writer. That is why his main goal when painting was to build up a visual language as beautiful as the ones we speak and write and as abstract as music. Lewis succeeded in his goal with this painting because there is something almost textual about the way he paints the mass of people. It is almost impossible to tell that the complex characters are people unless you give them a closer look. You can see that each one is unique and some do look like miniature people.

        Wyndham Lewis was a Vorticist. Vorticism was a short-lived artistic movement that originated in Britain and lasted from 1914-1915 that he was a co-founder of. The movement favored Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism without having to identify yourself with any specific one of those. Although Vorticism was identified strongly with Cubism, it was more closely related to Futurism in its embrace of dynamism, the machine age and all things modern. However, Vorticism parted from Futurism in the way that the artists tried capture movement in an image. In a Vorticist painting modern life is depicted as an arrangement of bold lines and harsh colors drawing the viewer's eye into the center of the canvas. Which is exactly what Lewis does, he uses large and small thick red and yellow lines to show the dynamism and vigorous movement and development of the subject matter.

         Lewis’ goal was to show the advancement of humankind without being too specific in his details.

 

This Italian artist, had very little formal art training. When he was a young artist, he visited France (around 1900) where the artist saw the neo-classicist movement. The artist was greatly influenced by the neo-classicist movement and for while painted in that style. The artist later moved to neo-impressionism, which the artist worked on with Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini. This artist taught Umberto and Boccioni certain art styles. While working together those three artists came under the influence of the Italian poet, Filippo Marinetti. In 1909 Marinetti launched the writing style now known as Futurism. The three artists based their art off of Marinetti’s writing which created the art movement, Futurism. The futurist movement was taking action, light, and speed and turning it into art.

The deep blue middle draws your eye to the central part of the flower, which is surrounded by layers of green and pink petals. It’s a peaceful space that stands alone amidst the swirling mix of colors that surround it. It almost makes the viewer want to float through it. The color blue is associated with the feeling of serenity. This affects how the viewer responds to the work, and creates depth and movement into the painting. The top corners of the painting represent the gentle folds of the outer layers of the flower. The silky, sweet surface of the petals create the ideal medium for the blending of colors. The difference between the softer outer colors and the deeper central blue, is that the outer colors float on the surface, or top plane of the painting, whereas the darker blue recedes into the background. The warmest colors seem project outward, whereas the blues sink inwards. 

There is no specific kind of abstraction reflected in O’Keeffe’s work, since she doesn’t follow any kind of artistic movement. She was, however, influenced by Paul Strand’s use of cropping, which is clearly represented in this piece. Although her work is of a flower, the way she crops it and intensely zooms in, makes it much more abstracted, and relates to how she strips away aspects that she considers “inessential”. By stripping away excess detail, the expressiveness of the painting becomes much more emotional and musical, which correlates to the title, and makes the viewer understand why she chose the name. Her goal was to focus solely on color and shape. An overall theme in O’Keeffe’s paintings, one that is represented here, is her love of the natural world. She isn’t choosing an inanimate object, like a shoe, to express her art, she is choosing a flower. A flower has many connotations, one being female sexuality. Therefore, it is easy to interpret this piece in terms of sexuality. There is, however, a fine line between sexuality and femininity. Although this work of art is not intended to be a representation of female genitalia, it is supposed to reference femininity. This is because O’Keeffe wanted to set herself apart within the masculine world of the 20^th century. By creating works of art that seemed both daringly sexual and obviously feminine, O’Keeffe was able to distinguish herself from the male contemporary artists of the time. If one were to define the kind of abstraction O’Keeffe creates, it would come down to two main things: color and form. O’Keeffe says, “The subject matter of a painting should never obscure its form and color, which are its real thematic contents”. 

The Architect's Table was one of Picasso’s “Analytic Cubism” period pieces, which lasted from 1908 until 1912. The main idea behind “Analytic Cubism” was artist’s trying to portray different viewpoints and ways of layering images on top of each other. The end goal of any “Analytic Cubism” piece was to have an abstract painting of a real scene and play around with texture and composition. The Architect's Table started off as a horizontal piece hoping to show off one of Picasso’s classic pieces. The original idea was going to be a cafe scene with a mandolin and a glass on a tabletop.  Picasso started this piece in 1911, and took a break from it for a whole year to later come back and change the original idea. When he returned to the composition, Picasso rotated the canvas vertically and started to repaint the picture using the technique of cubism. The Mandolin that was a part of the original picture was still present but Picasso transformed it into a violin. Picasso kept the idea of a table top and he added an architect's ruler which can be seen laying across the canvas under a bunch of shapes. 

During 1912, artists were not only exploring the composition and viewpoint of a piece, some painters started to play around with the canvas size and shape. Picasso, being one of these explorers, decided to paint The Architect's Table on an oval canvas. When looking at this piece from far away, every element and overlapping object looks to be working in harmony to make an industrial-like painting. When first glanced at, this piece can be seen as overwhelming and not intimate to the viewer or the painter. On the contrary, Picasso included references to his personal life such as “Ma Jolie” which was a nickname for his new lover. He also added the calling card of a woman named Gertrude Stein who he was hoping to regain her attention. 

Unlike most Picasso paintings, this cubist piece was very minimal in terms of color but not with style. He uses different shades of browns, whites, oranges, yellow and black. The use of these autumn colors making the painting as a whole look like a factory in smoke. When looking closer at the painting, you can identify the brushstrokes that Picasso used and you can tell where he overlapped shapes along with color. Almost all the shapes and lines are bordered with a brush stroke of black paint which helps define when a composition is changing. Not only does the overlapping style give a collage like feel but it also gives the viewer a better understanding of Picasso’s process. The painting around the edges of the piece are small, fast-paced like brushstrokes while the rest of the canvas has layer upon layer of paint and cubes. 

 

Léger’s abstraction takes the form of the cubist technique of breaking objects into geometric shapes, but Léger retained the three-dimensional nature of them. He also worked with cylindrical forms, and used mostly primary colors. 

Léger first worked as an architectural draftsman, creating the early stages of blueprints for buildings in urban neighborhoods. From an early stage in his artistic career, he has been familiar with three-dimensional shapes and placing them together. He then applied to the Paris School of Decorative Arts, and got rejected. He studied as an unofficial pupil under two of its professors anyway. During his studies, he was greatly influenced by a retrospective of Cezanne. In 1908, he rented a studio in the artists’ settlement and met Delaunay, Chagall, and Soutine. He also met sculptors and poets who were friends with Picasso and Braque, and through them he learned and eventually gained a connection with the Cubist movement. He moved from a Fauvist style to more cubist. Instead of breaking down forms into cubes, however, he broke forms into tubular shapes. He enjoyed playing with relationships of primary colors and fracturing spaces with them. He also liked to compare curved and flat shapes to see how they interact and lay on top of each other. 

During World War One, he found a new love for cylindrical and three-dimensional shapes, as they were commonly found in weaponry. 

From then on, he attempted to capture the beauty of human life through geometric and mechanized figures. 

Boccioni was first a neo-impressionist painter, drawn to traditional landscape and portrait subjects. However, it was not until he encountered Cubism that he developed a style that reflected futuristic ideals (dynamism, societal upheaval). Boccioni strongly believed that his old painting techniques and subjects could simply not encapsulate the scientific advancements and modernity of his time. Art to him meant physical movement, interpenetration between objects and the depiction of energy. Boccioni could only portray his beliefs and thoughts through abstract art over neo-impressionism. Boccioni’s painting path lead to futurism because he has always been interested in exploring more sophisticated cities with more excitement and action. This necessitates a painting style beyond impressionism or pointillism; these styles cannot employ and depict the vast ideas and imagination of Boccioni. 

 Once she had her son, she began to stitch blankets, book covers, and every type of clothes. This work, strongly resembled Russian folk art and cubism. Robert and her would wear her clothes to go out clubbing in Paris at night, and would be consumed by the lights, music, and the dancing. The couple incorporated bold shapes into their everyday life for many years. It only seems fitting that electric prisms is so bright and bold. It is based off of her life with Robert. It not only represents the clubs, as she described new street lights going up around the city, “Halos were making colors and shadows turn and vibrate around us, as if unidentified objects were falling from the sky, friendly and crazy”. 

 Robert and Sonia changed the abstract art world forever. Together they created the style Orphism, named after the Greek god of music orpheus. This name was coined because of layering of different colors to come together in a harmonic way to create something so beautiful. Another reference to living in a chaotic hectic city, absorbing all of the craziness and something wonderful and strangely peaceful comes out of it. Not only the colors and lights of a city but also the sounds inspired the Delaunay’s. 

 Together, Robert and Sonia, also they created simultaneous painting. Simultaneous mean happening at the same time. In both of their art, a lot is happening, the colors, the shapes. Throughout their entire lives this saying, always traveling and doing something. In 1925 Sonia was very invested in her fashion and registered to have Simultané as a brand name. The abstract art Robert and Sonia was not just art to them, it was a lifestyle. 

Sonia Delaunay-Terk was very ahead of her time, she used many different mediums so create art. She would not only paint, but she would sew and write poems. She showed people in particular women that they can create any type of art they want, they just need to try and push themselves. She shows that being an abstract artist is a way of life and if one is not fully invested in the ideals then the work will not be good. Abstract art has to be believed in by both the creator and audience. 

“The Black Square” is a very complex painting; painting that requires an in depth knowledge of colors, composition, and artistic proportions.Contrary to the critics, the ‘Black square’ is not actually a square. It was painted by a series of different colors mixed together, and none of them were black. Due to the sufficient amount of layers, the painting began to crack over time, revealing an intricate network of colors ranging from beige to purple. Moreover, none of its sides are parallel, therefore, it can not be considered a square. The same applies to the shape below it. Although it looks like a square, it is not considered one. The focal point of the painting is the black square, and the red shape below is merely a small substitute.

A famous Russian myth suggests that Malevich never intended to paint the black so called ‘square’ in the first place. Given the fact that he was pressed on time before he had to present is art work and lal of his fellow artists were done except for him, he decided to paint one freshly started canvas completely blank, since he knew he wouldn’t have enough time to finish it. This concept is rather controversial, since Malevich informed the public that he painted it in a mystical trance, and was under the influence of a cosmic consciousness, an experience he addresses in one of his treaties. He even accentuated this by placing the composition directly across from the entrance of his exhibition, a place this is usually reserved for Christian icons in careful accordance and respect to the Russian tradition.

Although art critics were almost bewildered by the placement of the black square at the very beginning of the exhibition, Malevich had his clear reasoning for doing so.  Placing the black square against a plain white background became symbolic for the basic element in the suprematist movement. In fact, Malevich created several different versions of the Black square. All four squares ranged from 1915 to 1933 and revolved around the same concept, although colors and sequences in the composition varied based on the year of their creation and the different trances the author underwent while creating them. Malevich related back to the first Black square in nearly every composition, suggesting that all his works were interconnected and all had some sort of correlation with the first black square. Malevich first presents his Back square at the :art Futurist Exhibition in Petrograd, present day St. Petersburg in 1915, the same year he painted it.  It was later transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow as part of their permanent exhibition. 

Over the years his art was suppressed critics continued to analyze the black square. They came to a final consensus that the same painting could have been easily created by a child, or perhaps, even a severely mentally disturbed person. They specifically articulated the fact that anyone can take a blank canvas, paint the sides white, and daub the middle with thick black paint. They also suggested that this kind of work could have also been performed by any uneducated draftsman, which was an ironic comment given that Malevich used to be one in his youth. The continuous disapproval of Malevich's painting disappointed him, since he had his own theory behind his work. Two decades later, his black square was accidentally discovered and became a national phenomenon. Afterall, it is highly doubtful that this painting would have been exhibited in one of the greatest museum halls of St. Petersburg if it wasn’t mind-blowing.  As soon as his work was played on display, he became the author of the most famous, enigmatic, and most frightening painting known to man “The Black Square”. The painting crosses the uncrossable line between a man and his shadow, between life and death, between God and the 🤬. He believed that he reduced everything to the zero form with his composition, and in his mind, the idea of zero form was a dark square in the middle of a white canvas that looks very simple, but in really crosses multiple extremities. The rediscovery of his art, more specifically the meaning behind this painting, was seen as the most frightening events in art in all of its history and existence.

Additionally, Alexandre Benois, both an excellent artist and a critic, commented the following about the painting: “This black square in a white frame—this is not a simple joke, not a simple dare, not a simple… it’s an act of self-assertion of that entity called ‘the abomination of desolation,’ which boasts that through pride, through arrogance, through trampling of all that is loving and gentle it will lead all beings to death.” Benois evidently contradicts the previous opinions of the critics, reiterating the fact that the painting is not as simple as one would think, and despite its continuous critique regarding the lack of depth, the true meaning behind the painting is mesmerizing and eventually lead the audience will come to the powerful realization and take them to his dimension. During the time Malevich painted the Black square, he was on a spiritual quest in which he saw different visions of objects that interacted with him in his sleep.  Although he wasn’t on a specific search for the square, it frequently came up in his visions and attacked him. Initially frightened by the domination of the black square, he preached alogism, an attempt to escape the boundaries of common sense, and therefore became extremely influenced by it, allowing it to dominate his art. 

    Nearly a century after his death, the black squares remains to be his most famous composition, and one of the most fragmenting works of art created in history. Malevich reduces painting to a simple shape and a single color, removing all of the elements art had been about, whether they were people, animals or landscapers. Although the concept of stripping down a painting to it’s zero form was extremely controversial and considered a rarity , the Black square became one of the most influential existing works of modern art. 

Despite the constant offers from world renowned museums all over the world, the Tretyakov gallery insists on keeping it’s prized possession as a permanent collection, and refuses to lend it to any other venue, even if it’s in Moscow.

Piet Mondrian was a contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group. He evolved a non-representational form called neoplasticism where "plasticism" referred to the action of forms and colors on the surface of the canvas as a new method for representing modern reality. Parts of De Stijl showed pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and color; they simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal, using only black, white, and primary colors. This simplicity, was unique and appropriate for the time. Certain aspects of Tableau No 2 Composition No V seem to foreshadow the movement that Mondrian was to become a leading force behind. 

Mondrian's Paris years played a significant role in the shaping of  his artistic identity. Here, he became acquainted with the avant garde art scene, inspiring him to move away from the pastoral landscapes that he had been painting back home in The Netherlands, and to take on the influence of the cubist style that was in full swing in cosmopolitan Europe. He began to develop an independent abstract style. Seeking to refine the rhythms of what he saw, Mondrian began drawing the area where he lived. After constant work and many adjustments, these initial compositions evolved into flat planes of interlocking rectangles that no longer showed objects. Although Mondrian’s sources exist in the natural world, his images are reduced to the essentials. He stated, “For in nature the surface of things is beautiful but its limitation is lifeless. The objects give us everything, but their depiction gives us nothing.”

Tableau No 2 Composition No V was displayed alongside works by Picasso and Braque in the June 1914 exhibition at the Walrecht gallery in The Hague. In spite of his proximity to cubist painters, and in spite of the influence cubism had on him, works such as this one are the nearest Mondrian ever came to becoming a fully fledged cubist painter. The Cubists challenged conventional forms of representation, such as perspective, which had been important since the Italian Renaissance. Their aim was to develop a new way of seeing which reflected the modern age and rapid technological advancements. The problem for artists at this time was how to reflect the modernity of the era using the tired and trusted traditions that had served art for the last four centuries. Photography had begun to replace painting as the tool for documenting the age which meant that artists needed a more radical approach - a 'new way of seeing' that expanded the possibilities of art in the same way that technology was extending the boundaries of communication and travel. Mondrian used this technique in his own work to capture these changes and intangible feelings of the people. In his 1914 painting he used a white background and filled the canvas with black lines to signify the opposing forces of the world. He used primary colors, lightened with white, to create his own take on cubism. He blended the colors together which is a strong contrast to his later work which is neat and refined. The painting almost looks watered down which creates a visually cohesive palette. The canvas’ wet, luminescent look is focused on the center while the background is slowly smudged creating a vignetting effect. Mondrian's best and most-often quoted expression of this theory is: 

I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things…

I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true.

Mondrian’s ability to capture nature and the state of the world is the quality that makes his paintings so special. 

De Stijl was the result of Mondrian’s evolving style, which was influenced by modern art movements such as luminism, impressionism, and cubism. Mondrian believed that by simplifying his compositions, he would express an overall utopian ideal of universal harmony in all of the arts. The simplicity and plainness of the art would help the viewer focus on the main idea, which was to go beyond divisions in culture and create a common language of art. This common language through his abstract use of just lines and rectangles could represent everything in the universe. Mondrian had progressed from cubism and other art movements because he wanted to focus not on the natural forms of an object, but on the plastic elements of objects. An individual’s vision of the everyday world had to be excluded from art precisely because it prevented the creation of art, according to Mondrian. His magnificent work, Composition with Color Planes, is a great example of De Stijl style. In this painting, it is clear that Mondrian evolved from the cubist palette of ochres, grays, and browns, by using reds, yellows, and blues. This new palette shows how Mondrian matured as an artist by focusing on primary colors. The blocks of various colors in this work of art float on a white background, and do not refer to a physical object in nature. His composition depicts that Mondrian eliminated all illusionistic depth from the painting in order to focus on the underlying balance of forces of the object he was trying to convey. 

It was during World War I when Mondrian helped create this style and formed a group of artists and architects who concentrated on De Stijl. “Always further” was how Mondrian termed his evolution of style. He was constantly looking for ways to transform and improve his work. In his earlier works, Mondrian mostly painted traditional landscapes until 1905, when those landscapes began to reveal a new sense of drama and light. After being introduced to Post Impressionists, his style changed dramatically. This style came to be De Stijl, with the main idea that art and philosophy were deeply intertwined. Through his studies of philosophy, he was influenced into believing that through art, he could represent complete, pure harmony, by the balance and tension of form and color in his paintings.