De Stijl

Abstract art is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead uses shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect

Neo-plasticism is a term adopted by the Dutch pioneer of abstract art, Piet Mondrian, for his own type of abstract painting which used only horizontal and vertical lines and primary colours

Non-objective art defines a type of abstract art that is usually, but not always, geometric and aims to convey a sense of simplicity and purity

Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life. Building on late nineteenth-century precedents, artists around the world used new imagery, materials and techniques to create artworks that they felt better reflected the realities and hopes of modern societies.

Abstraction-Création was an association of abstract artists set up in Paris in 1931 with the aim of promoting abstract art through group exhibitions

Concrete art is abstract art that is entirely free of any basis in observed reality and that has no symbolic meaning

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907–08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They brought different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) together in the same picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted

Cercle et Carré was an artist group formed in Paris in 1929 which strongly supported new developments in abstract art and in particular promoted mystical tendencies within it

Non-objective art defines a type of abstract art that is usually, but not always, geometric and aims to convey a sense of simplicity and purity

A painter, poet, art critic, typographer, designer and publisher who played a key role in the international exchange of ideas of the early twentieth-century avant-garde, van Doesburg (1883–1931) formed many fruitful alliances with some of the most important artists of the century, including Kurt Schwitters, László Moholy-Nagy, Piet Mondrian and El Lissitzky, many of which will be explored in Tate Modern’s exhibition Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde: Constructing a New World

Piet Mondrian is one of the best known of all modern artists - and also the most misunderstood. But we could all learn a thing or two from the real Mondrian, says the co-curator of Tate Liverpool's exhibition

We take a quick skip through colour theory, and how some of modern art's giants have put it into practice