ABSTRACT
Impressionism was both the culmination of nineteenth century effort to paint truthful imitations of natural appearances and the first step toward abstraction. Impressionism was, however, too boneless and too casual in its method to serve as more than a technical basis for the artists who transformed or abandoned its tradition. In Gauguin theories and in his art, Gauguin cleared the path which led to Matisse and Fauvisme and beyond Matisse to Kandinsky and Abstract Expressionism. Seurat’s theory of art was as abstract as that of the later Cubists, Suprematists or Neo-plasticists. At the end of the century the Synthetists and the Neo-Impressionists were disputing the allegiance of the younger generation. Matisse, in his work of 1906, had gone further towards an abstract art of line and color than any of his own generation. Cezanne influenced the pioneers of Cubism both through his art and his theory.
