Abstraction-Création was a loose association of artists formed in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1931 to counteract the influence of the
Surrealist
Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
group led by
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
.
Founders
Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg (; born Christian Emil Marie Küpper; 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch painter, writer, poet and architect. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He married three times.
Personal life
Theo van Do ...
,
Auguste Herbin,
Jean Hélion
Jean Hélion (April 21, 1904October 27, 1987) was a French painter whose abstract work of the 1930s established him as a leading modernist. His midcareer rejection of abstraction was followed by nearly five decades as a figurative painter. He w ...
and
Georges Vantongerloo started the group to foster abstract art after the trend turned to representation in the 1920s.
A non-prescriptive group of artists were involved, whose ideals and practices varied widely:
Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...
,
František Kupka
František Kupka (23 September 1871 – 24 June 1957), also known as ''Frank Kupka'' or ''François Kupka,'' was a Czech painter and graphic artist
A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, eit ...
,
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...
,
Jean Arp
Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (; ; 16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist.
Early life
Arp was born Hans Peter Wilhelm Ar ...
,
Marlow Moss,
Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo (born Naum Neemia Pevsner; Russian language, Russian: Наум Борисович Певзнер; Hebrew language, Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר) (23 August 1977) was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's ...
,
Alberto Magnelli
Alberto Magnelli (1 July 1888 – 20 April 1971) was an Italian modern painter who was a significant figure in the post war Concrete art movement.
Biography
Magnelli was born in Florence on July 1, 1888. In 1907 he started painting and, ...
,
Barbara Hepworth,
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscapes, and still-life. He was one of the leading promoters of abstract art in England.
Backg ...
,
Kurt Schwitters
Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist. He was born in Hanover, Germany, but lived in exile from 1937.
Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dadaism, Constructivism (a ...
,
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...
,
Wolfgang Paalen
Wolfgang Robert Paalen (July 22, 1905 in Vienna, Austria – September 24, 1959 in Taxco, Mexico) was an Austrian-Mexican painter, sculptor, and Aesthetics, art philosopher. A member of the Abstraction-Création group from 1934 to 1935, he joine ...
,
Théo Kerg Théo Kerg (2 June 1909 – 4 March 1993) was a Luxembourgish painter and sculptor who specialized in modern art.
Life
Kerg was born to a schoolmaster and his wife in Niederkorn, in south-western Luxembourg and attended school in Esch-sur-Alzette ...
,
Taro Okamoto,
Paule Vézelay,
Hans Erni,
Bart van der Leck,
Katarzyna Kobro
Katarzyna Kobro (26 January 1898 – 21 February 1951) was a Polish avant-garde sculptor and a prominent representative of the Constructivist movement in Poland. A pioneer of innovative multi-dimensional abstract sculpture, she rejected A ...
, Leon Tutundjian and John Wardell Power.
Five ''Cahiers'' (yearbooks) were published between 1932 and 1936 entitled ''Abstraction-création: Art non-figuratif''; a reprint edition of the ''Cahiers'' was published by the Arno Press, New York in 1968. Art exhibitions were also held throughout Europe.
References
Reading
* Alan Fowler. ''Constructivist Art in Britain 1913 - 2005''. University of Southampton. 2006. PhD Thesis.
External links
Abstraction-Création, Agence photographique de la réunion des Musées nationaux
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abstraction-Creation
1931 establishments in France
Arts organizations established in 1931
French artist groups and collectives
Abstract art
Cubism