Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 2: Modern Era (1850–1949)
1930
Concrete Art Coined by Theo van Doesburg

One of the foundational movements in the history generative art, the Dutch artist and architect’s term describes abstract art based on mathematic or scientific principles with an emphasis on planes and color. Concrete art to van Doesburg was not abstraction based on reality but was reality itself with a focus on the immediate materiality of art.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
concrete art
Filed under
- Ideas
- abstraction, color, concrete art, generative art history, materiality, mathematics, science
- People
- Theo van Doesburg
- Places
- Netherlands
Echoes across time
- 1960 · Konkrete Kunst: 50 Jahre Entwicklung, Helmhaus Zürich
- 1972 · Important Early Publications Including Computer Art
- 2024 · Generative Art Summit Berlin
Le Random editorials
- Concrete to Generative: “Real Space” Explorations in South America, Virginia Valenzuela, October 24, 2023
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 2—Modern Era with Kate Vass — listen with transcript on Le Random (20 Jul 2023, 58 min). Chapter 2’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify