A Simple Guide to Choosing the Perfect Abstract Painting/Art for Your Home

Gallery walls are so past tense. While they serve a purpose and help give empty wall spaces character, they can border on the “too much going on here” interior styling spectrum. Enter statement art paintings that are currently in vogue.

When it comes to fine art paintings, there are 7 popular painting styles.

  • Realism (real art) 
  • Photorealism art
  • Painterly art
  • Impressionism art
  • Surrealism art
  • Pop art
  • Abstract art

The painting/art one chooses for your space tends to reveal a lot about one’s personality (unless it was picked for you by someone else). So it goes without saying that choosing artwork, especially for a space in your home will require a lot of thought. Besides, artwork is not something cheap that you will dispose of easily without feeling the pinch in your pockets.

Abstract Art

Abstract Art is artwork that looks like it was done by a two-year-old. It is easy and has no defined meaning. It seeks to break away from the traditional representation of physical objects in real life. More often than not, abstract art is a collection of meaningless shapes, textures, and colors thrown haphazardly onto a canvas. The viewer of the art should interpret its meaning for themselves.

The term ‘abstract art’ – also called non-objective art/ non-figurative/ non-representational/geometric abstraction/concrete art – is a rather vague umbrella term for any painting or sculpture which does not portray recognizable objects or scenes.

Types of Abstract Art

Abstract art can be further divided into six basic types:

• Curvilinear
• Colour-Related or Light-Related
• Geometric
• Emotional or Intuitional
• Gestural
• Minimalist

Minimalist Abstract Art
This type of abstraction was a back-to-basics sort of avant-garde art, stripped of all external references and associations. It is what you see – nothing else. It often takes a geometrical form and is dominated by sculptors, although it also includes some great painters.

Geometric Abstraction
This type of intellectual abstract art is also known as Concrete Art and Non-Objective Art and it is characterized by non-naturalistic imagery, typically geometrical shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and so forth. It is the purest form of abstraction.

Gestural Abstract Art
This is a form of abstract expressionism, where the process of making the painting becomes more important than usual. Paint may be applied in unusual ways, brushwork is often very loose, and rapid.

Colour-Related or Light-Related Abstract Art
This type uses color (or light) in such a way as to detach the work of art from reality, as the object dissolves in a swirl of pigment.

Curvilinear Abstract Art
This type of curvilinear abstraction is strongly associated with Celtic Art, which employs a range of abstract motifs including knots, interlace patterns, and spirals.

Emotional or Intuitional Abstract Art
This type of intuitional art embraces a mix of styles, whose common theme is a naturalistic tendency. This naturalism is visible in the type of shapes and colors employed. Unlike Geometric Abstraction, which is almost anti-nature, intuitional abstraction often evokes nature, but in less representational ways.

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