Types

• Throughout the history of abstract art, three main styles have developed as the major forms of the medium: cubism (example: Picasso), abstract expressionism (example: Jackson Pollock) and neoplasticism (example: Piet Modrian).
  
  

Features

• Modern abstract art is considered to have been started in the early 1900s. The form became highly popular during the period following World War I and before the Depression. It influenced everything from film to architecture to interior design.
  
  

1930s to 1950s

• The majority of abstract art from this period falls into the framework of neoplasticism and abstract expressionism. A variety of artists worked with many mediums, most commonly paintings, to illustrate issues and concepts in a different way than their predecessors.
  
  

Mid-20th Century

• During the late 1950s through the 1970s, conceptual art, photorealism, hyper-realism and contemporary realism grew more popular with artists and art collectors. During this period, a number of abstract art museums were opened all over the world.
  
  

Modern Abstract Art

• Post-modernism began in 1975 and became the dominant form of abstract art. This was filtered beyond the art gallery and into popular culture. Record covers and a variety of posters began to feature the concepts, ultimately becoming a marketing style as well as a fine art.