Famous Abstract Artists

Abstract artists use colors and lines to create pictures without representing real properties of the world in the way we see it. Abstract art dates back to 1910, with the invention of cubism by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Other famous abstract artists include Piet Mondrian and Jackson Pollock.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor. He was a co-founder of the cubist movement, along with Georges Braque. Picasso's work can be divided into the Blue Period, the Rose Period, the African-Influenced Period, Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. With Analytic Cubism, Picasso took apart objects and looked at them in terms of shape. Synthetic Cubism involved cutting paper fragments and pasting them onto compositions, introducing collage to the art world. Picasso depicted human figures using many different viewpoints, as seen in his piece Les Demoiselles d' Avignon. Other pieces include Reservoir at Horta, The Guitar Player and The Dream.

Georges Braque

Georges Braque was a 20th century French Painter and sculptor and the co-founder of Cubism. Braque used browns and other monochromatic colors, which can be seen in the piece Violin and Candlestick. He used the technique of faceting, in which the subject is dissected and reconstructed. This technique shows the essence of the subject rather than the appearance, and can be seen in his piece Mandola.

Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter who used a non-representational form called Neo-Plasticism. Neo-Plasticism consisted of a white background, topped with a grid of lines in black and three primary colors. Mondrian was influenced by Cubism, as seen in his paintings Gray Tree and The Sea, which consisted primarily of geometric shapes. Mondrian's painting Broadway Boogie-Woogie replaced solid lines with small rectangles of color, creating a number of shimmering squares to draw the viewer in.

Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock was an American painter and great figure in abstract expressionism. Pollock developed the drip technique, where he used hardened brushes or sticks to pour, drip and splatter paint onto his canvas. His paintings include Eyes in The Heat, Shimmering Substance, The Key and Teacup.