Abstract painting in the 20th century emerged in the context of World War I as an attempt to reject the traditional realism of Western art and express human inner and social reality through purely figurative elements.
In the 20th century, Western art has been characterized by a trend toward abstract painting that emphasizes the sculptural qualities of painting over the realistic depiction of objects. In some ways, the formative elements of a painting are similar to the components of music: melody, rhythm, and beat. Although there are songs with lyrics, music is mainly composed of abstract rhythms, rhythms, and beats, and they alone have a great impact on us. Art, too, can be beautifully composed with just colors and lines, without any theme or content, and it can give us great pleasure. Abstract painting is a work that removes the story or realistic representation from the painting, just like removing the lyrics from a song, and relies purely on the elements of form. For this reason, critics often divide Western art before abstract painting into literary art and Western art after abstract painting into musical art. The emergence of abstract painting was an important moment for Western art to discover new possibilities and potentials for art.
Abstract painting was formed in the period around the First World War. This fact has important implications regarding the nature of abstract painting. European society on the eve of the war was characterized by the development of reason and rationalism, which led to the advancement of science and technology and the enrichment of material life, but there was also an extreme gap between the rich and the poor, which intensified class conflict. The First World War was a war in which these contradictions of Western civilization exploded all at once. Reason and rationalism brought about a huge catastrophe of civilization’s destruction and carnage, and people began to seriously doubt and reflect on reason and rationalism. Art was not immune to this situation. The abstract paintings that emerged during this period denied all the centuries-old traditions of realism in Western art, including scientific perspective, optical laws, and an understanding of anatomy based on reason and rationalism. As a result, abstract painting became increasingly non-figurative.
The first to recognize the possibility and necessity of abstract painting was the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. His first attempt at abstract painting was purely accidental. One day, after working outside, he walked into his studio and was stunned to see a beautiful, dazzling painting, which he realized he had misplaced on its side. When he realized it was a mistake, the painting didn’t look as beautiful as before. Kandinsky’s anecdote about not recognizing the subject matter and shapes at all, but instead discovering an indescribable beauty, illustrates how art can move us beyond the story and shapes to the elements of form alone. Kandinsky believed that color, line, and surface could reveal the deep spiritual truths behind everyday life. He was an artist who valued the feeling that wells up deep within us, and his work is a testament to how passionately he sought to embody this feeling.
Kandinsky’s influence completely changed the course of Western art. Whereas previous art had focused on realistic representations of the external world, Kandinsky sought to express inner emotions through pure form and color alone. His work was a great inspiration for other artists, which in turn contributed to the global spread of abstract art. Following Kandinsky, other artists such as Mondrian and Malevich explored abstract art, each expressing their artistic vision in different ways. All of them realized that art was a new tool to express the invisible world, rather than simply painting what they could see.
Abstract painting can be summarized as an expression of the inner world rather than a depiction of the outer world. In an abstract painting, it doesn’t matter how hard you try to imitate the external shapes and how well you represent them. What matters is how well it conveys the artist’s inner feelings. It’s not a mirror that reflects other objects, so it’s an art that finds its raison d’être within itself. At a time when Europe was suffering tremendously from extreme contradictions and conflicts, abstract painting turned its attention to the inner world and tried to capture the resonance of the human spirit.
In this process, abstract art did not just express individual emotions, but also reflected the suffering of society and the times. For example, although some of Picasso’s works are expressed in a non-figurative form, the emotions and messages contained in them directly reflect the war and social turmoil of the time. This shows that abstract art was more than just a formal experiment, but an important artistic vehicle to capture human emotions and social realities. As such, abstract art became an important trend in Western art in the 20th century, and has been constantly reinterpreted and developed ever since.
Eventually, abstract art, as a branch of modern art, went beyond mere aesthetic exploration to become a broader art that reflects both the inner life of human beings and social reality. Throughout this process, abstract art has been constantly changing and evolving, with many artists exploring their inner lives and finding different ways to express them. Today, abstract art continues to expand its possibilities and play an important role in exploring new forms of artistic expression.
