Abstract art is a form of art that does not represent an accurate depiction of visual reality, communicating instead through lines, shapes, colors, forms, and gestural marks. It uses visual language of shape, form, color, and line to create a composition that may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. The term "abstract" can be applied to art that is based on an object, figure, or landscape, where forms have been simplified or schematized, as well as to art that uses forms, such as geometric shapes or gestural marks, which have no source at all in an external visual reality.
The origin of abstract art has been a subject of debate, but Wassily Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art. He famously said, "back then not one single painter was painting in an abstract style". His first abstract painting that propelled abstract art into the public eye was Komposition V, created in 1911.
Abstract art is often seen as carrying a moral dimension, in that it can be seen to stand for virtues such as order, purity, simplicity, and spirituality. Since the early 1900s, abstract art has formed a central stream of modern art.
