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Abstract art: art that has its effect purely by use of color, line, and texture without reference to real things. Abstract art means different things to each individual. Understanding abstract art requires some effort on the part of the viewer. Some people are indifferent to abstract art and may walk right past it and move on to art that "shows something." Others may gravitate to the abstract art to wonder and explore.

Understanding abstract art requires you look to its beginning. It has its beginnings in early 20th century art but there was still some representation in cubist paintings by Picasso or Braque. You can still see objects or portions of objects. Some would argue that they are abstract. Possibly as compared to a realistic still life but they do have elements of real things we recognize: corners of buildings, faces, stairways, architectural components.

Abstract art in its purest form began, one could argue, with Mondrian. His compositons relied solely upon color, angle, and shape with no references to real objects in reality or in your imagination. They played with balance and color and ushered in a new way of seeing painting as more than just expressing emotion or distorting figures. Mondrian used pure color to mimic standardization that occurred with an industrialized world.

Another artist of the early 20th century that used abstraction in its pure form was William de Kooning. His energetic paintings had very few figurative forms at all but focused on the energy of the paint and the energy of colors against one another. He did many paintings in which human forms could be recognized but he also produced many abstract works with truly electric energy.

Franz Kline was fascinated with his calligraphic marks on paper with only black, so he enlarged these and created full sized compositions from them. He proved that a lyrical composition could be created with a very limited color palette, indeed of only black and white. He wanted them to be reminiscent of Oriental art but not directly recognizeable as coming from such. His artwork implies bodily action but remains abstract.

The height of the abstract movement in painting came about with Jackson Pollock. He was fascinated with the action of paint and the action in the act of painting. He painted on unprimed canvas on the floor and used his actions of dripping or flinging paint into his compositions. At first the colors may seem random but upon closer inspection, you can see his effort to watch the color as

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