Abstract art reflects a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. Artistic independence for artists was advanced during the 19th century, resulting in the creation of a new art form by the likes of James McNeill Whistler who was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". He placed greater emphasis on visual sensation than the depiction of objects, as did John Constable, J M W Turner, and Camille Corot. Spanish painter Pablo Picasso was a major proponent of the abstract art form and contributed immensely to the development of the genre. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky is credited with painting one of the first purely abstract works. Dutch painter Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan evolved a non-representational form which he termed neoplasticism, and became a major contributor to the De Stijl art movement. Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne also had an enormous impact on the development of the genre and led to the advent of 20th-century abstraction. This section provides you information about the life and works of famous abstract painters.
