Abstract illusionism

movement 1970s-early 1980s United States

Abstract illusionism is abstract painting that borrows the tools of illusionism - perspective, artificial light, simulated cast shadows - and points them the wrong way. Instead of a picture receding into depth, painted shapes appear to float in front of the canvas or sink behind it, each casting a hard, faux shadow. The term was used by the critic Barbara Rose as early as 1967 and independently coined by the dealer Louis K. Meisel for the American movement that surfaced in the mid-1970s, whose painters answered the flatness doctrine of critics like Clement Greenberg with a deliberate flirtation with trompe-l'oeil. Forerunners include Ronald Davis, Allan D'Arcangelo and Al Held; key surveys included 'Abstract Illusionism' (Paul Mellon Arts Center, 1977) and 'The Reality of Illusion' (Denver Art Museum, 1979). By the mid-1980s the look had been absorbed by commercial graphics and the movement dissolved.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Simulated cast shadows beneath abstract shapes, faking a light source that does not exist
  • Pictorial space projecting in front of or behind the canvas rather than receding into it
  • Hard-edge and expressionist abstraction combined with perspective illusion
  • Saturated, often gradient color with airbrush-smooth transitions
  • Playful tension between flat abstract design and depth illusion

Key figures

  • Barbara Rose (1936-2020) — Critic who used the term 'abstract illusionism' in Artforum in 1967
  • Ronald Davis (b. 1937) — Pre-1970 forerunner whose shaped panels cast painted shadows
  • Allan D'Arcangelo (1930-1998) — Forerunner who brought trompe-l'oeil devices into hard-edge abstraction
  • Al Held (1928-2004) — Forerunner of illusionistic abstract space

Sources

← Back to the catalog