The Rise Of Abstraction In Art

Abstraction can be defined as an art in which the subjects of a painting or sculpture are symbolic with the emphasis of specific elements including form, line, and color. The rise of abstraction varies according to each region around the world, as well as the impacts made on societies by local and global events. In my opinion, the catalyst for abstraction in art history was during the 1800’s when art became reactionary. This was during the time of industrialism and revolution. In response to this change in society, artists were more and more influenced to produce art that coursed intense emotion through the veins of the viewer’s body. Right before the 20th century, the period of Early Expressionism, art contained symbolism, where subjects …show more content…
World War I, the assembly line, invention of photography, and rejection of the past influenced this abstraction movement. It is my belief that the invention of photography was vital for push toward abstraction in art. Images of events in history did not need to be painted anymore, as photography could be used. It took less time to take a photograph of a scene than to paint one. This technological innovation allowed artists to focus on matters other that portrayal of a moment in history. This innovation led to the overall switch toward abstraction, as many of the art movements in Modernism included symbolic art that embodied ideas or emotions of the …show more content…
Prior to researching the influence for creation of this collage, one may see it as a collage composed of random colors filling non-symmetric shapes, pencil lines, and an oddly placed circular wad of human hair. The focal point appears to be the hair, as the complementary colors of blue and orange are used around it. It is also evident that every color and non-symmetric shape surrounds the hair in layers, as if the hair were placed down first, and every component was penciled or painted in afterward. Brush strokes are more than visible, and the pencil lines either outline the watercolor or appear painted over. Although, happiness does radiate from this collage with the red paint used in the middleground. The foreground contains a light brown hill shape, while the background contains the colors blue, red, and crème brown. Personally, I find it very abnormal to emphasize hair in art, or even include it in art! Did Arthur Dove utilize the hair of a random female? By doing so, he literally included someone’s DNA in the