1. Wassily Kandinsky’s Squares with Concentric Rings
- About the creator:
- Style: Constructivism, Expressionism
- Lived: 4th December, 1866 till 13th December, 1944
- Nationality: Russia
He was an art-theorist & painter who originated from Russia. Wassily is considered as one of the finest & most influential & important artists from the 20th century in terms of art. Along with other painters like Henri Matisse & Pablo Picasso, Kandinsky also defined start of what we call abstract art.
2. Joan Miro’s Blue II
- About the creator:
- Style: Fauvism, Surrealism, Cubism
- Lived: 20th April, 1893 till 25th December, 1983
- Nationality: Spain
Blue II happens to be a segment of a series that had 3 other creations. The color blue used by Miro in this painting is a very spiritual color – it symbolizes the inner & cosmic night, artistic creation & spiritual purity… shade of blue that’s also color of our dreams.
Miró was a sculptor, ceramist & painter born in Spain (Barcelona, Catalonia). He was drawn to artistic communities & gathering held in Montparnasse, & in 1920 moved to the city of Paris, where, he was influenced by Surrealist poets as well as writers & that helped him develop his beautiful, unique style. Today, Miro’s paintings sell somewhere b/w US 250,000 & 8 million dollars! Several of his creations are exhibited at Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona).
3. Pablo Picasso’s Violin & Guitar
- About the creator:
- Style: Expressionism, Cubism
- Lived: 25th October, 1881 till 8th April, 1973
- Nationality: Spain
José Ruiz y Blasco, Picasso’s father happened to be a great painter himself & for majority years he worked as the art professor at Spanish colleges. Picasso’s father taught him all basics of the formal academic & art training – including figure drawing, painting with oil, etc. Under his dad’s tutelage, he created numerous examples of detailed & precise figure studies that evidently demonstrate the firm grounding he learned in classical skills.
4. Mark Rothko’s Orange & Yellow
- About the creator:
- Style is Abstract Expressionism
- He lived from 25th September, 1903 till 25th February, 1970
- Nationality: Russia
He was born in Russia in a place called Dvinsk. In 1913, Mark left Russia & rejoined his family in Portland (in Oregon). Mark studied at Yale University, “Liberal Arts” from the year 1921 till 1923; however left without obtaining a degree. Rothko shifted to NY in 1925, where he began studying under the guidance of Max Weber @ Art Students League. The 1st solo exhibition of this creator @ Portland’s Art Museum (1933).
5. Mark Rothko’s Violet, Green & Red
6. Jackson Pollock’s Convergence
- About the creator:
- Style was Abstract Expressionism
- He lived from 28th January, 1912 till 11th August, 1956
- Nationality: USA
He spent his early years in California & Arizona & began studying painting at Manual Arts High School in L.A. in the year 1928. Jackson left for NY in 1930 where he then began to study under the guidance of Thomas Hart Benton @ Art Students League. Pollock was influenced mainly by numerous Mexican muralists all the years, such as Diego Rivera & José Clemente Orozco. By mid 1940s, Pollock was painting completely in abstract manner, `drip & splash’ style that he was best known for later. During 1950s, he continued to make figurative/quasi-figurative B & W (black & white) creations & gracefully modulated paintings done in very rich impasto.
7. Willem De Kooning’s in the Sky
- About the creator:
- Style: Abstract expressionist
- He lived from 24th April, 1904 till 19th March, 1997. Kooning was Dutch American artist born in Netherlands (in Rotterdam).
During post-World War II, Kooning’s painting style was called Action painting or Abstract expressionism & was a segment of an artist group that was known as New York School. Some other creators in the group were Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still & Philip Guston. In 2011 (September), the work of de Kooning was honored at a retrospective exhibition on a large-scale & was called de Kooning: A Retrospective. This was the 1st grand museum exhibition organized by a man named John Elderfield &contained nearly 200 works of de Kooning.
8. Robert Delaunay’s Rhytme Sans Fin
- About the creator:
- Style: Cubism
- He lived from 12th April, 1885 till 25th October, 1941
- Nationality: France
Robert was born into this prominent aristocratic family in France. Robert was not too interested in studies, therefore in 1903 Robert signed up as apprentice at a studio in Belleville for acting/theatre sets. Delaunay’s painting style was neo-impressionistic, until he got in touch with cubist art groups in Paris (1908). From here he adopted his personal style, which was orphic cubism. nd rhythm.
9. Paul Klee’s Blaue Nacht
- About the creator:
- Style: Expressionism
- He lived from 18th December, 1879 till 29th June, 1940
- Nationality: Germany
Paul dreamed of being a musician, a dream that came because his father was a music teacher. However, in his teens, Paul decided to pursue visual arts & studied art with Franz von Stuck & Heinrich Knirr in Munich. He’s been associated with cubism, surrealism & expressionism, but his creations are tough to classify. Often they have some fragile, child-like quality, frequently allude music, dreams, poetry & sometimes embrace musical words & notations.
10. Hans Hofmann’s Song of the Nightingale
- About the creator:
- Style: Abstract Expressionism
- He lived from 1880 till 1966
- Media: Painting
- Nationality: German
He was German, born in a place called Weissenburg. He studied at Munich (his home land). He was influenced by Impressionists, the Cubists and Fauves in Paris (early 1900s). Hofmann started his very own school (1915) in Munich & later moved this school to NY in the year 1931. He taught all the techniques he used of improvisation here. His work’s insistent upon form, color & texture & his experimentations with all aspects helped in developing in the U.S. Abstract Expressionism.
Tags: abstract paintings
