1) hard to define ("any art that does not present the world in straightforward, representational form")

2) born and raised in Europe - struggle to be "modern" but not copycat.

 An abstract artist feels free to abstract shapes or ideas from surroundings or own thoughts, then arrange them as he/she sees fit to achieve the effect he wants.

From 1900 to 1914 many American artists traveled to Paris, where they  formed the New Society of American Artists (1908).   But when they returned to America, they were aliens in a hostile land. Their only santuary was "The Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession" ("291") of Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen.

sample quiz for Unit 6

Quiz for non-frame browsers

Abstract artists where influenced by recently-encountered art from:
Africa
National Museum of African Art

Asia

Some of the information for this part of the unit came from the lecture notes for LIFE filmstrip "American Painting Part IV  The Eight and the Moderninsts."  Here is the bibliography for that work.