
Geometric forms, minimal layouts, and bold colors are all hallmark traits. Many significant graphic design movements, such as the Swiss Style of the 1950s, the 1980s Memphis Style, and 1990s Minimalism, took their cues from the world of abstract art. Why Are Abstract Images Useful for Design Projects?

Generally, however, all aspire to represent creativity, visuality, and artistic expression in a non-realist way. Artists like Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Barbara Hepworth, and many others invented and refined their own versions of abstraction, resulting in paintings and sculptures considered masterpieces today.įor designers today, abstract art is a term that encompasses a huge range of different styles and artistic approaches. Over the course of the 20th Century, a number of movements advocated and put forward interpretations of abstract art, including Surrealism, Dadaism, Cubism, and Fauvism. Image by Bumble Dee.Ībstract art went hand-in-hand with the evolution of Modernism and Post-Modernism, interdisciplinary movements that encouraged a break away from the traditional approaches, styles, and ways of thinking inherited from the Renaissance, Early Modern, and Victorian ages. Visitors to the Museum of Modern Art in New York look at a painting by abstract artist Jackson Pollock. Abstraction gave artists a new level of freedom to experiment with artistic methods and allowed these artists to reshape the traditional meaning of what “art” was. Early abstract artists working during the late 19th and early 20th centuries used color, form, shape, and line to create paintings, sculptures, and drawings that purposefully felt independent from identifiable objects, landscapes, and people. While realist art tries to put forward a depiction of actual reality, abstract art strives for the exact opposite.

Read on to learn more about different types of abstract art - from cubism to surrealism, marbling to abstract organic - and which styles are being reinterpreted for contemporary design, as well as how you can use abstract images in your own designs. Here are ten types of abstract art you should know and use in your designs.

Abstract art can seem eccentric, but it’s way more useful than you think.
