~HARD-EDGE~

My brief summary of hard-edge: Hard-edge painting is painting in which abrupt transitions are found between color areas. Color areas are often of one unvarying color. The Hard-edge painting style is related to Geometric abstraction, Op Art, Post-painterly Abstraction, and Color Field painting.

Hard-Edge: A type of abstract painting in which forms, although not necessarily geometrical, have sharp contours and are executed in flat colours. It was one of the types of painting that developed as a reaction against the spontaneity and painterly handling of Abstract Expressionism. The term was coined by the American critic Jules Langsner in 1958 and was popularized by Lawrence Alloway, who in 1966 wrote that it was meant ‘to refer to the new development that combined economy of form and neatness of surface with fullness of colour, without continually raising memories of earlier geometric art'. Major exponents of Hard-Edge Painting have included Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth Noland. The four West Coast painters to whom Langsner originally applied the term were Karl Benjamin (1925– ), Lorser Feitelson (1898–1978), Frederick Hammersley (1919– ), and John McLaughlin (1898–1976); they preferred the term ‘Abstract Classicism'.

IAN CHILVERS. "Hard-Edge Painting." A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (June 6, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O5-HardEdgePainting.html

Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg as Sergeant Küpper. c 1915.
Birth name	Christian Emil Marie Küpper
Born	30 August 1883 Utrecht, Netherlands
Died	7 April 1931 (aged 47) Davos, Switzerland
Nationality	Dutch
Field	painting, architecture, poetry
Movement	Neo-Plasticism, Elementarism, Concrete art, Dadaism

Theo van Doesburg: (30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practised painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl