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An art form that occurs in most cultures, abstract art developed in North America and Europe during the early to mid-twentieth century. Europe and Russia became well-known for their wide range of abstract variations, as the artists of this period became more and more inspired by an unheard of freedom in artistic form and content. Prior to this, art had consisted of the idea that art should imitate nature, with realistic and accurate representations of forms and objects predominately done by the most successful artists of the times.

There are two main types of abstract artwork that came out of this period. They consisted of artwork with no reference to reality, referred to as nonobjective abstract, and artwork with no reflection of conventional reality. Many forms of art occasionally will "blend over" onto one another, with the representational artwork slightly more abstract or the abstract filled with "less abstraction." This blending is seen in other earlier periods of abstract works, yet are part of other art movements. Not as accurate looking in its representation, an abstract artistic form or object can differ with usage of artistic color, shape, or form of the work itself-until it appears as an impersonal or simplified style of abstraction.

Sometimes referred to as "abstract expressionism" in the 40s and on, abstract art refers to that which is non-specific or non-recognizable as a natural physical object. This is in comparison to art that has a natural and recognizable appearance that is considered representational of reality-regardless to what degree. In fact, any type of art that is considered as nonrepresentational is actually considered as being abstract.

Most art lovers get an immediate response to representational artwork as whether they like it or not. Yet, abstract artwork is entirely different and invokes another level of creativity response. Labeled as an artist of nothing but smears, splotches, and lines, the abstract artist is just as skilled and artistic as any other artist but with their own type of style. Originally, the abstract movement began as an evolutionary process to get away from centuries of "Old World realism" and archaic ideas of what an artist actually was. Using non-traditional methods to achieve this, Abstract Art and Abstract Expressionism began as not so much as "socially acceptable" artwork for money or sales, but as a revolutionary way to approach and experience new ideas of creativity. The purpose of abstract was to get

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