The main difference between abstract painting and abstract sculpture is the artistic medium. Painting a canvas abstractly and creating an abstract sculpture are both inherently different because in painting you use a canvas as a medium and in sculpture you are creating an object, therefore using whatever you choose to sculpt as a medium. The ideas behind abstract sculpture and abstract painting are similar; both styles choose to focus on lines and expression more than any singular focus or portrait, and both styles of abstraction try to separate from the norms of their medium through art.
Abstract painting has its roots in the 19th and 20th centuries, as artists of that time began to drift away from the standard painting practices of Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism. Nineteenth-century artists like Edvard Munch and James Ensor, who are classified as Expressionists, helped change the emphasis in their art from the subject matter to the portrayal of psychological states of mind. Twentieth century artists like Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne helped further push the artistic boundaries and started the very beginning of abstraction.
With the inspiration of these artists, art began to drastically change in the early 1900s as artists began to experiment with the idea of painting with wild kinds of colors and lines. Movements like cubism, which focused on capturing things from multiple perspectives, and Fauvism, which focused on color, landscapes, figure paintings, and expression, opened the door for the abstract movement. Highly influential artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Brauque helped popularize these movements and ways of painting.
Between the 1930s and the early 1950s, abstraction began to rise in popularity in the United States with groups of artists like the New York School. American abstract artists like Jackson Pollack and Franz Kline grew in popularity for their abstract works that focused on the act of painting itself. By this time, New York City emerged as the epicenter for the abstract movement, as the freedom of the city was infectious for artists.
Abstract painting is still popular today, and is heavily influenced by the idea of pluralism in art. Pluralism is when there is no consensus, nor need of, a representative style of the age; an "anything goes" mentality. Contemporary abstract artists include Frank Stella, Agnes Martin, and Barnett Newman.
The history of abstract sculpture is directly tied into abstract painting because sculptors were paying attention to the works of popular artists in their day. Theo van Doesburg founded a Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl, or "the style," for a new, plastic art movement that sought to express the idea of spiritual harmony and order through paintings and design. De Stijl is an abstraction movement because it sought to only use straight horizontal and vertical lines with rectangular forms, and only used the three primary colors and three primary values of color. Architect Gerrit Rietveld build the Rietveld Schroder House in the Netherlands in 1924; it is the only house built with true De Stijl style architecture in the world.
In 1930, Theo Van Doesburg wrote that lines and color are concrete by themselves, and is credited for being the influence behind concretism, or concrete art. Concretism is an abstract form of sculpture in which the artist tries to have the abstraction be free of any symbolical association of reality.
Modern sculptors are still making abstract work, including Bruce Beasley, George Hart, and Carlo Sequin.
Abstract painting and abstract sculpture are two different art forms that share a similar philosophy and approach. The abstract movement has helped redefine modern art, and has helped create some of the most imaginative and unique artworks available. Abstract painters and sculptors have both given the world incredible works, works that defy logical description that truly need to be seen to be believed.