Abstract Abstract Prints
Beginning in the early 20th century, abstract art became a leading style of modernism. Rather than portray the world in a way that represented reality, as had been the dominating style of Western art in the previous centuries, abstract paintings, prints and sculptures are marked by a shift to geometric forms, gestural shapes and experimentation with color to express ideas, subject matter and scenes.
Although abstract art flourished in the early 1900s, propelled by movements like Fauvism and Cubism, it was rooted in the 19th century. In the 1840s, J.M.W. Turner emphasized light and motion for atmospheric paintings in which concrete details were blurred, and Paul Cézanne challenged traditional expectations of perspective in the 1890s.
Some of the earliest abstract artists — Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint — expanded on these breakthroughs while using vivid colors and forms to channel spiritual concepts. Painter Piet Mondrian, a Dutch pioneer of the art movement, explored geometric abstraction partly owing to his belief in Theosophy, which is grounded in a search for higher spiritual truths and embraces philosophers of the Renaissance period and medieval mystics. Black Square, a daringly simple 1913 work by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich, was a watershed statement on creating art that was free “from the dead weight of the real world,” as he later wrote.
Surrealism in the 1920s, led by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Meret Oppenheim and others, saw painters creating abstract pieces in order to connect to the subconscious. When Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York during the mid-20th century, it similarly centered on the process of creation, in which Helen Frankenthaler’s expressive “soak-stain” technique, Jackson Pollock’s drips of paint, and Mark Rothko’s planes of color were a radical new type of abstraction.
Conceptual art, Pop art, Hard-Edge painting and many other movements offered fresh approaches to abstraction that continued into the 21st century, with major contemporary artists now exploring it, including Anish Kapoor, Mark Bradford, El Anatsui and Julie Mehretu.
Find original abstract paintings, sculptures, prints and other art on 1stDibs.
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Gouache, Rag Paper, Monotype
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Gouache, Rag Paper, Monotype
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Gouache, Rag Paper, Monotype
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Gouache, Rag Paper, Monotype
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Gouache, Rag Paper, Monotype
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Rag Paper, Monotype, Gouache
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Pigment, Archival Pigment
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Paper, Screen
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Rag Paper, Color, Monotype
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Ink, Rag Paper, Monotype
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Rag Paper, Monotype, Handmade Paper, Ink
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Rag Paper, Monotype, Handmade Paper, Ink
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Rag Paper, Monotype, Handmade Paper, Ink
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Rag Paper, Monotype, Ink
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Rag Paper, Monotype, Ink
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Rag Paper, Monotype, Handmade Paper
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph, Color
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Color, Lithograph
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
Screen
Late 20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints
Woodcut
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment, Giclée
Mid-20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints
Color, Lithograph
20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Color, Screen
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment, Giclée
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Prints
Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment, Archival Paper, Giclée
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Paper, Giclée
1950s Abstract Abstract Prints
Drypoint
Early 2000s Abstract Abstract Prints
Etching
20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph
1990s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph, Offset
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Paper, Etching, Aquatint
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Screen
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Screen
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Paper, Lithograph
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Screen
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph, Offset
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Pigment
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Pigment
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Pigment
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Prints
Photographic Paper, Color, Archival Pigment
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Pigment
2010s Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Pigment
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph, Offset
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Screen
20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints
Archival Paper, Monotype
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Etching, Screen
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Screen, Plexiglass
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Handmade Paper, Lithograph
Late 20th Century Abstract Abstract Prints
Screen
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Prints
Cotton Canvas
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
Aquatint
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Lithograph