Abstraction

What is abstraction?

Abstraction (from the Latin abstractus, drawn away) is a way of working that deliberately gives up the direct depiction of the visible world and builds instead on colour, shape, line and rhythm as a language of their own. The painter is not copying a landscape or a face, but composing tension, harmony or movement meant to act directly on our feelings. Wassily Kandinsky, one of its founders, was convinced that colours and shapes could affect a person much as music does. And isn't it a lovely thought that a painting might sound?

When and how did abstraction come about?

It was born at the beginning of the twentieth century as a radical break with the realistic depiction of the world. Kandinsky came to the conclusion that faithfully copying reality was no longer painting's task, since photography was there to do it. Artists were thus free to detach themselves from the object and to work purely with visual means. The movement then branched out into many forms, from geometric abstraction to the lyrical kind, where gesture and the elements rule.

Who are the most important abstract artists?

Its founders include Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich, whose suprematism (a movement reducing the painting to basic geometric shapes) culminated in the iconic Black Square. In the post-war period abstraction developed powerfully in the United States in the form of abstract expressionism, whose best-known face is Jackson Pollock, who splashed and poured paint onto canvases laid on the floor. The Czech contribution here is written above all by František Kupka, one of the pioneers of abstraction worldwide. After the war he was followed by Zdeněk Sýkora, who developed abstraction through structure and who, as early as the 1960s, was among the first in the world to use a computer in his work.

How does abstraction stand in the Czech context?

Czechs were not missing at the birth of abstraction — quite the opposite: František Kupka stood in its global vanguard, and his works are a success at auction at home and abroad today. After the war, abstraction developed here in spite of the officially promoted socialist realism, so it came about somewhat against the current. Zdeněk Sýkora worked with structure and later with the computer, which places him among internationally respected pioneers. Czech abstract art therefore has something to offer beyond our borders as well.

How does abstraction do on the art market?

On both the Czech and the global market, abstraction is one of the most sought-after categories and not infrequently reaches record prices. That comes with a charming paradox we also talk about in Art Part Club lectures: collectors often declare a fondness for abstraction, but when it comes to buying, many reach for the figure instead. The geography of taste is interesting too — on the American market, in Florida for instance, there is strong demand for large, colourful abstraction for spacious interiors. Anyone looking for a work to light up a big wall knows why that is.

— Anna Pulkertová, founder of Art Part Club