Abstraction after 1945

In the art world too, the end of World War II marked a new era, and this was reflected in abstract painting, to name one example. An important aspect here was its shift to the United States, where many impulses from Europe were incorporated and interpreted in new ways. For this reason, many new directions in art appeared in the US, such as abstract expressionism for example. But in Europe as well, movements already in place were developed further. In this way, from Dutch constructivism, "Op Art" emerged, which lined up geometric figures in light and dark versions and in this manner played with the optical perceptions of the observer. In this field, Vasarely in particular stood out. Malewitsch’s method of painting found a new formulation in Frank Stella: now it was no longer the canvas that decided the format, but rather the color field itself. After 1945, abstraction found new means of expression in tachism and art informel; the more spatial concept was also accorded a new status. Yves Klein integrated sponges into his blue works so that they appeared as reliefs; Fontana understood his pictures from the outset as conceptualizations of space. The canvas no longer served the latter as a conveyor of a picture in the classic sense, but rather was slashed open so that it achieved a three-dimensional aspect. As in earlier abstraction, the common denominator in abstraction after 1945 was the absence of connection to the outer world.

Related artists:  Ackermann, Max  |  Afro  |  Albers, Josef  |  Alechinsky, Pierre  |  Alt, Otmar  |  Altenbourg, Gerhard  |  Antes, Horst  |  Appel, Karel  |  Arman, Fernandez  |  Armando  |  Arp, Jean  |  Atlan, Jean-Michel  |  Baj, Enrico  |  Bargheer, Eduard  |  Baselitz, Georg  |  Basquiat, Jean-Michel  |  Baumeister, Willi  |  Bayer, Herbert  |  Beckman, Ford  |  Berke, Hubert  |  Beuys, Joseph  |  Bill, Max  |  Birkle, Albert  |  Bissier, Julius Heinrich  |  Boetti, Alighiero E.  |  Bott, Francis  |  Brandl, Herbert  |  Braque, Georges  |  Brauer, Arik  |  Brodwolf, Jürgen  |  Brown, James  |  Brüning, Peter  |  Buchheister, Carl  |  Büttner, Werner  |  Calder, Alexander  |  Calderara, Antonio  |  Campendonk, Heinrich  |  Capogrossi, Giuseppe  |  Castellani, Enrico  |  Cavael, Rolf  |  César, (d.i. César Baldaccini)  |  Chadwick, Lynn  |  Chagall, Marc  |  Chia, Sandro  |  Chillida, Eduardo  |  Cimiotti, Emil  |  Clavé, Antoni  |  Corpora, Antonio  |  Cragg, Tony  |  Croissant, Michael  |  Cucchi, Enzo  |  Dahmen, Karl Fred  |  Dalí, Salvador  |  Davringhausen, Heinrich Maria  |  Delaunay-Terk, Sonia  |  Dexel, Walter  |  Dorazio, Piero  |  Droese, Felix  |  Dubuffet, Jean  |  Eliasberg, Paul  |  Ernst, Max  |  Estève, Maurice  |  Fautrier, Jean  |  Feininger, Lyonel  |  Fetting, Rainer  |  Fietz, Gerhard  |  Fischer, Lothar  |  Fleischmann, Adolf Richard  |  Fontana, Lucio  |  Francis, Sam  |  Frankenthaler, Helen  |  Friedlaender, Johnny  |  Fruhtrunk, Günter  |  Fuhr, Franz Xaver  |  Förg, Günther  |  Gaul, Winfred  |  Geccelli, Johannes  |  Geiger, Rupprecht  |  Geitlinger, Ernst  |  Genkinger, Fritz  |  Girke, Raimund  |  Gleizes, Albert  |  Gotsch, Friedrich Karl  |  Graubner, Gotthard  |  Grieshaber, HAP  |  Grützke, Johannes  |  Götz, Karl Otto  |  Hartung, Hans  |  Hartung, Karl  |  Hauser, Erich  |  Hausmann, Raoul  |  Heiliger, Bernhard  |  Hennig, Albert  |  Hepworth, Barbara  |  Herbin, Auguste  |  Hirst, Damien  |  Hitzler, Franz  |  Hodgkin, Howard  |  Hoehme, Gerhard  |  Hundertwasser, Friedensreich  |  Höch, Hannah  |  Hölzel, Adolf  |  Imai, Toshimitsu  |  Immendorff, Jörg  |  Iseli, Rolf  |  Jacobsen, Robert  |  Jaenisch, Hans  |  Janssen, Horst  |  Jenkins, Paul  |  Jensen, Alfred  |  Johns, Jasper  |  Jones, Allen  |  Jorn, Asger  |  Kandinsky, Wassily  |  Kerkovius, Ida  |  Kiefer, Anselm  |  Kippenberger, Martin  |  Kirkeby, Per  |  Klee, Paul  |  Knoebel, Imi  |  Koenig, Fritz  |  Kolár, Jirí  |  Kooning, Willem de  |  Kricke, Norbert  |  Lakner, László  |  Lanskoy, André  |  Lapicque, Charles  |  Laurens, Henri  |  Le Corbusier  |  Lichtenstein, Roy  |  Luther, Adolf  |  Lüpertz, Markus  |  Mack, Heinz  |  Macke, August  |  Magnelli, Alberto  |  Man Ray  |  Marini, Marino  |  Masson, André  |  Mataré, Ewald  |  Mathieu, Georges  |  Matisse, Henri  |  Matschinsky-Denninghoff, Martin und Brigitte  |  Mavignier, Almir da Silva  |  Merz, Gerhard  |  Merz, Mario  |  Michaux, Henri  |  Middendorf, Helmut  |  Miró, Joan  |  Moore, Henry  |  Morellet, François  |  Music, Zoran  |  Nauman, Bruce  |  Nay, Ernst Wilhelm  |  Nesch, Rolf  |  Nitsch, Hermann  |  Oehlen, Albert  |  Paeffgen, C.O.  |  Palermo, Blinky  |  Paolozzi, Eduardo  |  Penck, A.R. (d.i. Ralf Winkler)  |  Perilli, Achille  |  Pfahler, Georg Karl  |  Picabia, Francis  |  Picasso, Pablo  |  Piene, Otto  |  Piper, John  |  Poliakoff, Serge  |  Polke, Sigmar  |  Prachensky, Markus  |  Prem, Heimrad  |  Rainer, Arnulf  |  Rauch, Neo  |  Rauschenberg, Robert  |  Reggiani, Mauro  |  Reichel, Hans  |  Richter, Gerhard  |  Rickey, George  |  Ritschl, Otto  |  Roth, Dieter  |  Rückriem, Ulrich  |  Saint Phalle, Niki de  |  Santomaso, Giuseppe  |  Sarmento, Juliao  |  Schanz, Heinz  |  Schmalix, Hubert  |  Schnabel, Julian  |  Schultze, Bernard  |  Schumacher, Emil  |  Scott, William  |  Scully, Sean  |  Severini, Gino  |  Sonderborg, K.R.H. (d.i. Kurt R. Hoffmann)  |  Soulages, Pierre  |  Sprotte, Siegward  |  Spyropoulos, Jannis  |  Staudacher, Hans  |  Stella, Frank  |  Sturm, Helmut  |  Stöhrer, Walter  |  Sutherland, Graham  |  Tàpies, Antoni  |  Thieler, Fred  |  Tinguely, Jean  |  Tobey, Mark  |  Trier, Hann  |  Twombly, Cy  |  Uecker, Günther  |  Uhlig, Max  |  Uhlmann, Hans  |  Vasarely, Victor  |  Vedova, Emilio  |  Vostell, Wolf  |  Werner, Theodor  |  Wessel, Wilhelm  |  West, Franz  |  Westpfahl, Conrad  |  Winter, Fritz  |  Wintersberger, Lambert Maria  |  Wols, (d.i. Wolfgang Schulze)  |  Wotruba, Fritz  |  Wou-Ki, Zao  |  Yavlensky, Alexei Georgiyevich  |  Zimmer, Bernd  |  Zimmer, HP (Hans Peter)