A Blob of Color or a Work of Art?
Impressionism was just one of the first purposeful departures from realism, which had held sway in the art world for hundreds of years. While impressionists added rich color and strong emotional responses to realistic objects and settings, abstract artists took a different, more radical approach.
Abstract art was born out of the idea that art needed to bear only a slight resemblance to its source material – or perhaps none at all. When one views a work of total abstraction, it’s impossible to get a frame of reference based in reality. Mark Rothko is one of the best known painters in the abstract expressionist school. Although his most famous paintings could be accurately described as horizontal bands of color, they do the job that all unique abstract paintings strives toward. They evoke a certain feeling.