Line, Form, and Color

A broad category for non-figurative artworks that foreground line, form, and color, elements that can be considered the principal building blocks of abstract art since the beginning of the 20th century. Iconic artists associated with these components of abstraction include Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich, and Vladimir Tatlin. In 1951, the American artist Ellsworth Kelly conceived a book of artworks concerned with the subject—aptly titled Line Form Color—that proved foundational for his work over the next sixty years. Kelly also set the stage for the emergence of Hard-edge Abstraction and Minimalism, both of which distilled art to the elements of line, form, and color.