Online Art Course: Abstraction in Painting since the Second World War

Learn about the scope and evolution of abstract painting from 1945 to the present with Manuel Fontán del Junco.

In 1945, after the fall of idealism in the modern world, the horrors of the war and the consequent dehumanization, a new generation of artists pondered how to tackle this situation without describing it, without including external references to the artistic medium itself. In this context, American Abstract Expressionism and European Informalism emerged as a reaction to the prevailing figuration in art of that time, integrating highly diverse forms and formal languages.

This online course seeks to build on other content offered by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao that has included the subject of abstraction, providing an expanded view of the scope and evolution of this style, as well as the work of its most prominent figures in the US and Western Europe from the Second World War to the present day.

Led by Manuel Fontán del Junco, PhD in Philosophy and Director of Museums and Exhibitions at Fundación Juan March.

Duration: 6 hours, self-paced
Audience: Adults interested in contemporary art
Language: Spanish
Access: Through the online platform
Certification: Automatic, after completion of the course.
4 modules, 16 video classes and additional materials

WHAT WILL WE LEARN?

1. The true scope and evolution of abstract painting, after briefly analyzing late 19th century art and the historical avant-gardes, from the Second World War to the present.
2. The work of selected prominent artists, as well as the social, political, and cultural driving forces behind new processes and forms of creation and representation.
3. Mediums and materials used to develop some of the painting styles and processes shown and which represented a new and innovative way of making art.
4. The idea of the “coexistence” of styles, abstraction, and figuration, in the evolution of the history of art regardless of fashions and trends.

PROGRAM [+info]

Helen Frankenthaler
Requiem, 1992
Acrylic on canvas
79.1 x 243.8 cm
Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa
© 2025 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation / VEGAP