Abandoning the long-standing belief that art was a reflection of visible reality, Abstract artists used line, shape and colour to depict forms that lie somewhere on the non-representational linear continuum in order to question not only what art could represent, but also how it could embody ideas and sensations independent of narrative or figuration. As one of the most transformative developments in the history of art, many twentieth century art movements are encompassed by t

Flourishing from the early sixteenth century until the mid-eighteenth century, the Baroque movement extended beyond the visual arts to encompass music, poetry, architecture, literature and theatre. Through its dynamic compositions and dramatic intensity, art in this period sought to evoke awe and passion by engaging the viewer emotionally, transforming artistic expression into a vivid experience of power and spirituality. Elisabetta Sirani, Baptism of Christ (1658). San Gerol

(United States of America, 12/12/1928 - 27/12/2011) One of the most influential figures in postwar art, Frankenthaler’s innovations reshaped the possibilities of Abstraction and permanently altered the course of artistic expression. Born in New York City, Frankenthaler grew up in an intellectually vibrant environment that encouraged independent thinking and artistic exploration. In 1945, she began studying art at Bennington College where she was exposed to both Modernist theo

(United States of America, 1885 - 26/12/1968) Born in Philadelphia in 1885, Sparhawk-Jones came of age during a period of profound transformation for American art, when traditional realism was giving way to Impressionist experimentation with colour, form and psychological depth which reconceptualising the meaning and purpose of art itself. Emerging as a distinctive voice within this shifting landscape, her work bridges the technical assurance of academic training with the emo

(France-United States of America, 25/12/1911 - 31/05/2010) One of the most influential and psychologically resonant artists of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Bourgeois’s career spanned more than seven decades, throughout which time, she produced a profoundly personal body of work that explored memory, sexuality, fear, intimacy and the complexities of family relationships. Working across sculpture, drawing, printmaking, installation and textile, Bourgeois tran

(Algeria, 12/12/1931 - 09/11/1998) Fatma Haddad, known as Baya Mahieddine, or simply Baya, was born in Bordj el Kiffan in 1931 and grew up impoverished after being orphaned at five years old. Receiving no formal education, it was through her innate creativity that she blended elements of Modernism and North African visual culture into a body of work that defied conventional artistic categorisation and reshaped twentieth-century conversations around Modernism, gender and cultu

(Canada-United States of America, 22/03/1912 - 16/12/2004) Born on a farm in rural Canada, Martin spent her childhood on the Canadian prairies before immigrating with her family to the United States in 1931 when she was 19 years old. Initially intending to become an art teacher, she received a degree in teaching from Western Washington University before moving to Taos, New Mexico. Here, she began making Abstract paintings with organic forms and eventually developed her distin

(France, 29/08/1884 - 23/11/1980) Juliette Roche was a French painter and writer whose work bridged several of the most transformative currents of early twentieth-century Modernism. Born into an influential Parisian family, her father, Jules Roche, was a prominent politician and her mother came from a distinguished lineage of art patrons and collectors. Growing up in this environment, Roche was immersed in a cultural milieu that encouraged intellectual independence and artist

(Argentina-England, 01/12/1899 - 17/11/1991) Born in Buenos Aires to a prosperous Anglo-Argentine family, Agar moved to England at the age of six where she quickly found herself drawn to art. During the First World War, she studied oil painting at the Byam Shaw School of Art but found the medium too academic and so, beginning in 1920, started taking classes at the more progressive Slade School of Fine Art. Here, she not only expanded her technical skills into a Modernist sens

(France, 22/11/1907 - 16/07/1997) Born Henriette Markovitch, Maar was raised in Argentina where her father was working as an architect. From this early introduction to artistic principles, she developed an instinct for observation and visual form that would define her career spanning photography, painting, sculpture and poetry. At the age of 19, she and her family returned to her mother’s home town of Paris where she started taking classes at the Académie Julian and later stu

( United States of America, 28/03/1922 - 15/11/2008) Born in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in a family that didn’t view her femininity as a limitation, from a young age Hartigan was determined to create greatness and refused to make herself small or compromise on her desires to make that happen. Throughout WW2, Hartigan worked as a mechanical draftsman in an aerorplane factory while taking night courses at the local engineering college. It was during this time that she first

(Canada, 15/11/1923 - 20/06/2015) As a pioneering force in contemporary art, Schapiro’s work reshaped the boundaries of painting, feminist art and collaborative practice and forged a radical visual language that united Modernist Abstraction with materials and techniques traditionally associated with women’s domestic labour. Born in Toronto and raised in New York City, Schapiro demonstrated early artistic promise and studied at Hunter College in New York City beginning in 1943

(Ukraine-France, 14/11/1885 - 05/12/1979) Born Sarah Stern in what is now Odessa, Ukraine, she was adopted by her affluent uncle following her parents’ death in 1890 and moved to St. Petersburg, where she received a private education and early exposure to the arts. At the age of 16, she began taking formal drawing classes where her notable talent was first noticed and led to her enrollment at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1905, Delaunay moved to Paris whe

(Ukraine-United States of America, 31/05/1893 - 11/11/1968) Janet Sobel was a Ukrainian-born American painter whose pioneering approach to Abstraction positioned her as a vital yet long-overlooked figure in twentieth-century art. Born Jennie Lechovsky in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Ukraine, Sobel immigrated with her family to the United States in 1908, settling in Brooklyn, New York. For much of her early life, she devoted herself to family and domestic duties, only beginning

(Czechia, 21/09/1902 - 09/11/1980) Born Marie Čermínová in 1902 in Prague, Toyen was a founding member of Czech Surrealism and a radical innovator within both the avant-garde and feminist traditions, she forged a visual language that defied conventions of gender, sexuality and politics. Adopting the gender-neutral pseudonym ‘Toyen’ (believed to derive from the French ‘citoyen’, or ‘citizen’) and using masculine grammatical forms in Czech, she fashioned her own identity in a c

(England, 09/11/1881 - 1937) Often overlooked by the canon of art history, Layng’s luminous compositions and quiet psychological depth place her among the most intriguing artists of early twentieth-century Britain. Working at the intersection of classical training and modern sensibility, Layng brought a distinctive sensitivity to the representation of women’s lives, balancing intimacy and restraint with a subtle modernity that reflected the shifting roles of women in her era.

(Switzerland, 30/10/1741 - 05/11/1807) Born in Switzerland in 1741, Kauffman’s father, the Austrian painter Johann Joseph Kauffman, recognised her gifts early and became her first teacher, providing rigorous instruction in drawing and painting. The family’s frequent travels through Switzerland, Austria and Italy exposed her to a breadth of artistic traditions and developed her prodigious talent, and, by her teenage years, she had already began receiving commissions from membe