It's popular to cite Kandinsky as the originator of abstraction, but it's quite easy to argue for others, even if Mr. K was the most influential innovator of the idea. Around 1912, when he was doing his first pure abstractions, there were others working in a similar vein, including Delaunay and Kupka. Curators at the Tate posit that Hilna Klint predated Kandinsky. Here's one of hers from 1907:
When it comes to abstraction inching its way into painting, you have to look back to the Romantics (Whistler, etc.).
And of course we're just talking about Western art here. Islamic art has had a tradition of abstraction for hundreds of years.
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