Organic abstraction

Organic abstraction is an artistic style characterized by “the use of rounded or wavy abstract forms based on what one finds in nature.” Although another case of not constituting an actual art movement, the use of rounded or wavy abstract forms based on what one finds in nature is a feature of many mid-century artists’ works.

Organic abstraction and biomorphic abstraction, artistic style based on the use of the works of modern art abstract rounded (smooth, free-flowing) lines and shapes, such as those that can be found in nature. The outlines of sculptures created in this style are similar to the outlines of such natural objects as bones, shells, pebbles, flower elements; some of them admiredly called “drawings in space”. The philosophical basis of this style is connected with the ideas of the French thinker Henri Bergson (1859-1941), who wrote about a single source from artistic creation and natural evolutionary processes. A similar idea was expressed by the English sculptor Henry Moore, who believed that “there are universal forms to which everyone is subconsciously accustomed to and which they can respond if the control of consciousness does not prevent unconscious impulses”.

This style is characteristic of artists and sculptors who worked in various directions; among them – Jean Arp (sculptures; for example, “Pagoda Fruit”, 1949), Konstantin Brancusi (sculptures), Arshil Gorky (paintings, including “Artichoke leaf like an owl”, 1944), Vasily Kandinsky (paintings, for example, “Composition VII “, 1913), Alexander Calder (sculptures), Joan Miro (paintings and sculptures), Henry Moore (sculptures), Ben Nicholson (sculptures), Isamu Noguchi (sculptures, as well as works in the field of industrial design), Georgia O’Kiff (paintings, for example, “Black Abstraction”, 1927),Yves Tanguy (paintings), Barbara Hepworth (sculptures, for example, “Mother and Child”, 1934) .

In addition, the ideas of organic abstraction were the inspiration for a whole generation of designers from the USA, Italy and Scandinavia – such as Alvar Aalto and his wife Aino Aalto, Charles and Ray Imza, Eero Saarinen, Akille Castiglioni, Arne Jacobsen ]. Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen back in 1940 with their joint project for living room furniture won the first prize in the contest “Organic Design at Home,” and after World War IIWhen new plastic materials and processing technologies appeared, they developed many different design projects with pronounced organic features. Among Saarinen’s major projects is the Trans World Airlines terminal (now terminal number five) of the John F. Kennedy International Airport, nicknamed the “Winged Gull”, as well as the renowned and still in production Lono and ” armchairs.” Tulip “.