Thames & Hudson World of Art – Abstract Art

Published by Thames & Hudson, Abstract Art offers an insightful overview of Western abstract art and its history from Kandinsky to Bauhaus and on to the revival of the style in the modern day. The book is written by art critic Anna Moszynska, and it is part of Thames & Hudson’s acclaimed World of Art series.

Since the early years of the 20th century, Western abstract art has fascinated, outraged and bewildered audiences. Its path to acceptance within the artistic mainstream was slow. Anna Moszynska traces the origins and evolution of abstract art, placing it in broad cultural context. She examines the pioneering work of Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian alongside the Russian Constructivists, the De Stijl group and the Bauhaus artists, contrasting European geometric abstraction in the 1930s and 40s with the emphasis on personal expression after the Second World War. Op, Kinetic and Minimal art of the postwar period is discussed and illustrated in detail, and new chapters bring the account up to date, exploring the crisis in abstraction of the 1980s and its revival – in paint, fabric, sculpture and installation – in recent decades. The first edition of this book, published in 1990, was acclaimed by reviewers; now in full color and comprehensively revised, it will serve as the best introduction to abstract art for a new generation.