Abstract art, also called nonobjective art or nonrepresentational art, painting, sculpture, or graphic art in which the portrayal of things from the visible world plays no part.
All art consists largely of elements that can be called abstract - ments of form, color, line, tone, and texture.
Prior to the 20th century these abstract elements were employed by artists to describe, illustrate, or reproduce the world of nature and of human civilization - and exposition dominated over expressive function.
Abstract art has its origins in the 19th century.
The period characterized by so vast a body of elaborately representational art produced for the sake of illustrating anecdote also produced a number of painters who examined the mechanism of light and visual perception.

Robert Delaunay 1885-1941 - Le Premier Disque, 1912-1913