Abstractionism In art, a movement away from representation and mimesis towards a kind of imagery that aims to provoke a response for what it is rather than what it looks like. For this reason, it is also known as non-figurative art. Abstractionism can take a variety of forms---in the twentieth century, the major forms of Abstractionism (to a greater or lesser degree) were: avant-garde, Dada, Expressionism, Futurism and Surrealism. Artistic movements such as socialist realism rejected Abstractionism as unworthy of the goal of celebrating the achievements of socialism. Outside the visual arts there were attempts at Abstractionism in writing (e.g. Gertrude Stein) and music (e.g. Anton Webern).