A New Book Traces the Global Origins of Abstract Art

Marley Marius | Vogue | 13th November 2020

In the 1950’s, abstraction was seen not just as another art movement, but art’s most perfect expression. That view is now discredited. So, how do we make sense of abstract art? A new book argues that it is based on our experience of the real world – bodies, landscapes, the cosmos. If we are truthful, we should admit there is no such thing as pure form: “abstraction is a form of representation.”