Hilma af Klint (Sweden, 1862 - 1944) is a widely unknown pioneer of abstraction in modern art. She made competent impressionistic landscape paintings for public consumption at the turn of the 20th century, like many of her contemporaries (ck.. Kandinsky, Duchamp, Picabia, .. ). But by 1906, privately and outside the influence of any "school," she was painting completely abstractly-- at least 5 years ahead of Kandinsky and Mondrian, who are credited as the "fathers" of abst

"The Father of American Abstraction", so some call this early 20th century figure. It strikes me that should be a big deal, but it doesn't seem to be. I think maybe he doesn't get the respect he deserves. !~~~!~! Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keefe, John Marin (watercolor), Stuart Davis (more protopop in later work).. Georgraphically spread, largely unaffiliated except thru Stieglitz, all moved toward abstraction-- but especially Dove. Influenced by Cezanne, Matisse

My artist friend John says-- not always favorably-- that I have a "pop" sensibility. This is usually when I do some impulsive art act, or just describe an attention getting gambit that would further erode the boundary between art and play. Pop Art is often playful-- Warhol, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Wayne Thiebold, or Jasper Johns, all ranking members of the tribe-- sometimes make me smile. Tho I told Mark I'd hate to drive by a giant clothespin on my way to work every day. (

Kandinsky (Russian, working life, 1900-44) is called (by some) "the father of abstraction" and given credit for the first comepletely abstract (non-representational?, non-figurative?) painting. Composition VII (1913) features swirling soft organic shapes; by the time of Composition VIII (1923), K. had moved to hard-edged geometric shapes, later deemed "cold abstraction". Both types were highly influential on different and disparate groups of artists for the next two or three

12/7 Courbet and Manet (Olympia, 1863) were precursors to the clutch of French Impressionists hitting its high point in the 1870s, with Monet, Degas, Renoir and Rodin. Then, Post-Impressionists in the 1880s and 90s blew the door wide open-- Van Gogh and Gaugin, Seurat, Rouault, Munch (Scream, 1893), and especially influential on subsequent generations, Cezanne, "the father of us all", attributed to Matisse, who bathed with the Fauves early 1900s. Braques and Picasso start d

"Abstract" doesn't seem to mean the same thing in art as it does in common parlance or philosophy. Or it means many things, as an antonym of a family of terms: realistic, representational, figurative, objective... An abstract noun is opposed to a concrete one, but an abstract painting can be quite concrete, in some senses. Frank Stella began building painted structures protruding from the painted canvas in 195? Framing paintings went out of style at a time when art was pres