Concrete vs. Abstract
What exactly is the difference between ‚concrete' and ‚abstract‘?
An important indicator of the concrete is that it is decidedly not based on the depiction of nature—no matter how abstracted—or, in most cases, is grounded in a formulated theory or system that is then illustrated in the works. On the other hand, abstraction is oriented toward observations of nature and tends to ask which painterly problem can be solved.
Walfried Pohl writes on this subject in Kunstforum International, Vol. 57, from 1983. Under the title “Trends in Constructive-Concrete Art in Contemporary Architectural Color Design,” he elaborates on the difference in relation to architecture and notes, for example: “In this regard, the constructive-concrete mural differs fundamentally from the abstract mural of traditional or modern character.” He thus makes precisely this distinction between the concrete and the abstract in relation to modern architecture.
Further clues for such a distinction can be found in publications such as Margit Staber’s annotated collection of manifestos and texts on Concrete Art. In a commentary on a text by Max Bill, she even defines the term ‚concrete‘ as the antonym of ‚abstract‘.
In this very text by Bill, he defines Concrete Art itself as that which “arose on the basis of its own inherent means and laws—without aesthetic reference to natural phenomena or their transformation; that is, not through abstraction.”
And as early as 1930, Theo van Doesburg defined in his manifesto “concrete and not abstract painting, for nothing is more concrete, more real than a line, a color, a surface.”
Thus, even in the early primary texts on Concrete Art, there are repeated discourses on the question of how this new art movement relates to Abstract Painting.
And even within the art scene of that era itself, this question was, so to speak, structurally embedded. In 2025, the Rolandseck Museum exhibited the artist group “Abstraction – Creation.” The name itself reflects this, as ‚Abstraction‘ encompasses all members who work in an abstract style, while ‚Creation‘ includes those who ‚create‘—that is, who work in a concrete style in the sense of van Doesburg.
Both movements have their origins in Russian Suprematism and, due to various historical circumstances, cannot be clearly distinguished from one another. When considering different positions within non-representational art, however, it is still worth occasionally engaging in the mental exercise of wondering whether one is currently viewing something ‚concrete‘ or something ‚abstract‘.
Alexandre Goffin, Mai 2026