Abstraction-Création

In February 1931 a group of Paris-based non-figurative artists led by Georges Vantongerloo, Jean Hélion and Auguste Herbin formed an association of international painters and sculptors that from 1931 to 1936 promoted the ideology of pure Abstraction in art. The movement was known as Abstraction-Création. In very little time it attracted a membership of around 400 practitioners who included such iconic figures as Naum Gabo, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.

The association was welcomed in Britain by members of the modernist movement known as the Seven and Five Society and Unit One chief amongst whom were Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash, John Piper, Marlow Moss and before he arrived in Britain Kurt Schwitters. Regular exhibitions were held throughout Europe until 1936 and five annual publications entitled Abstraction-Création: Art non-figuratif were printed. The association was all-inclusive in its outlook and embraced many kinds of non-figurative art, although the emphasis was increasingly on geometrical non-representational art and design.

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