Concrete art
Description
Concrete art was an art movement with a strong emphasis on geometrical abstraction. The term was first formulated by Theo van Doesburg and was then used by him in 1930 to define the difference between his vision of art and that of other abstract artists of the time. After his death in 1931, the term was further defined and popularized by Max Bill, who organized the first international exhibition in 1944 and went on to help promote the style in Latin America. The term was taken up widely after World War 2 and promoted through a number of international exhibitions and art movements. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Theo van Doesburg
Founder and principal theorist of Concrete art who issued the seminal 1930 manifesto defining art that is free of symbolic or observed reality and constructed purely from planes and colors.
Max Bill
Swiss polymath and flag bearer of Concrete art who organized the first international exhibition in 1944 and championed mathematical precision and geometric abstraction across Europe and Latin America.
Georges Vantongerloo
Belgian sculptor and painter who co-founded the Art Concret and Abstraction-Création groups, applying algebraic formulas and geometric spatial relations to non-referential compositions.
Jean Hélion
Founding member of the Art Concret collective who co-published the group's 1930 review and developed monumental, pristine geometric equilibrium before later returning to figuration.
Otto Gustaf Carlsund
Swedish painter and co-founder of the Art Concret group in Paris who promoted strict geometric harmony and non-figurative mural painting throughout Scandinavia.
Geraldo de Barros
Pioneering Brazilian Concretist and co-founder of Grupo Ruptura in São Paulo who applied Concrete art principles to industrial design, painting, and experimental photography.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
The term 'Concrete art' was coined by Theo van Doesburg in his 1930 Manifesto of Concrete Art to explicitly reject the word 'abstract'; he argued that a painted line or color square is concrete reality itself, making it far more real than any painted landscape.
↗ Source: tate.org.uk
Following Max Bill's retrospective in São Paulo in 1951, Concrete art became a dominant cultural movement across Latin America, inspiring Brazilian artist groups like Grupo Ruptura and later giving birth to the participatory Neo-concrete movement led by Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica.
↗ Source: tate.org.uk