Abstract Art: A Global History

Now available in paperback, this is a radically new approach to the understanding of abstract art, expanded to include sixteen new contemporary artists from six continents, and an emphasis on textile as abstract. In his fresh take on abstract art, now available in paperback and expanded to include sixteen new contemporary artists from six continents, noted art historian Pepe Karmel chronicles the movement from a global perspective, while embedding abstraction in a recognizable reality. Moving beyond the canonical terrain of abstract art, the author demonstrates how artists from around the world have used abstract imagery to express social, cultural and spiritual experience.

Karmel builds this fresh approach to abstract art around five inclusive themes: body, landscape, cosmology, architecture and man-­made signs and patterns. In the process, this history develops a series of narratives that go far beyond the established figures and movements traditionally associated with abstract art. Each narrative is complemented by a number of featured abstract works, arranged in thought-­provoking pairings with accompanying extended captions that provide an in-­depth analysis.

This wide-­ranging examination incorporates work from Asia, Australia, Africa and South America, as well as Europe and North America, through artists ranging from Wu Guanzhong, Joan Miró and Jackson Pollock to Hilma af Klint and Odili Donald Odita. Breaking new ground, Karmel has forged a new history of this key art movement.