| If you think abstract paintings are a phenomenon of | | | | Georges Braque was another cubist. He used to |
| the 20th century, you can't be further from the | | | | shade his cubes in a way that made them look both |
| truth. Islamic and Jewish religions have from their | | | | flat and three-dimensional at the same time. His |
| very beginnings prohibited the depiction of human | | | | famous paintings include The Fruit Dish and Violin and |
| forms. As a result, these religions developed a high | | | | Pitcher. |
| skill in decorative art. And artists as early as James | | | | Abstract paintings thrived with artists such as Piet |
| McNeill Whistler had begun talking of art as a | | | | Mondrain, who took cubism a step further and |
| depiction of visually appealing colors, just as music | | | | established what came to be called neoplasticism. The |
| was a presentation of appealing sound. Perhaps, Pablo | | | | underlying belief of this art form was that art should |
| Picasso and his style of painting, known as cubism | | | | not reproduce real forms, but express the absolutes |
| (which used geometric figures to simplify or | | | | of life, which, according to them, were only vertical |
| exaggerate complex structures such as the human | | | | and horizontal lines and primary colors. |
| form), firmly established and set in motion a trend of | | | | After neoplasticism came abstract expressionism, an |
| what came to be known as abstract painting. | | | | art form that celebrated not forms, objects or |
| Synonymous with abstract painting, cubism | | | | images, but colors and brush strokes. Mark Rothko's |
| developed as a backlash to the impressionist era, | | | | painting Red, Orange, Tan and Purple is one of the |
| which emphasized light and color. Painters of abstract | | | | best abstract paintings in this from. |
| art believed they could show, through the use of | | | | Abstract paintings, in essence, moved away from |
| geometric figures, views of an image that cannot | | | | depicting life forms as they appeared, toward |
| actually be seen in real life. Famous among the many | | | | depicting them as interpretations, and showing |
| abstract paintings, are Pablo Picasso's Guernica and | | | | emotions through colors. |
| The Guitar Player. | | | | |