Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif (1932-1936)

Between 1932 and 1936, five editions of the cahier Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif were published in Paris by the eponymous association, uniting all art movements who worked in and advocated abstraction. The magazine not only formalized a new tendency for language in visual art, but also became a form of explicit self-promotion and opposition against the growing force of figurative Surrealism. Two minimal yet clearly articulated criteria needed to be fulfilled in order to become a member of the association: one had to be an artist and one had to work non-figuratively. This resulted in a list of members that included long-forgotten artists as well as names such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, Calder, Delaunay, Van Doesburg, and Brancusi.

One year after the establishment of the association, the first issue of the cahier Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif was published. Most of the members submitted documentation of work along with self-written texts. Those writings were visions on their own work, detailed explanations of the documentation, short viewing instructions, epistles about the true meaning of abstract art, essays on the relation between abstract art and evolution, straightforward explanations why a locomotive is not a work of art, and a poem about God being a copycat.
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