Abstract art is understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural world, but instead uses color and form in a non-representational way. Abstract art is not an invention of the 20th century – humans have made abstract drawings since they first drew pictures in dirt.
Abstract art as we know it can be both decorative art and fine art, in which a painting is an object of thoughtful contemplation in its own right. Some of the American Abstract expressionists are purely abstract and include: Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Hans Hofmann.