Concrete art

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Scope note
Term coined in 1930 by Theo van Doesburg to characterize a form of non-figurative painting in which the pictorial elements, planes and colors, have no significance other than themselves. He meant to distinguish between other forms of abstraction, indebted to illusionism mimicing the visible or natural world, and paintings that are products of the human mind. The definition was elaborated upon by Max Bill in 1936 in a catalog for the exhibition Zeitprobleme in der Schweizer Malerei und Plastik. In 1960 Bill organized an exhibition of work that fit his definition, and that established Concrete art as an international movement.
Concrete art
Accepted term: 18-Nov-2024