The artwork “Abstract Church,” created by Theo van Doesburg in 1915, is a pencil drawing on paper. It belongs to the Abstract Art movement and falls under the abstract genre. This piece is characterized by its minimalist approach, using simple lines and shapes to evoke the essence of a church.
In “Abstract Church,” the artist employs a series of precise, geometric lines and subtle contours to form an abstract interpretation of architectural elements. The use of pencil on paper provides a raw and unembellished medium, allowing the viewer to focus purely on the intricate composition. The abstraction reduces the church’s form to a skeletal structure of intersecting lines and fragmented shapes, invoking a sense of modernist simplicity and spatial exploration. This artwork exemplifies van Doesburg’s pursuit to distill subjects to their fundamental geometric forms and aligns with the core principles of Abstract Art, reflecting a departure from representational accuracy toward an emphasis on conceptual purity.