Painters and sculptors do not always strive to depict persons and objects realistically. Rather than imitate their ubjects natural appearance, some artists deliberately change it. They stretch or bend forms, break up shapes, and give objects unlikely textures or colors. Artists make these transformations in an effort to communicate something they cannot convey through realistic treatment. Works of art that reframe nature for expressive effect are called bstract. Art that derives from, but does not represent, a recognizable subject is called nonrepresentational or nobjective abstraction. During the first decades of the twentieth century, artistic direction in Europe moved toward totally abstract visual expression. This trend coincided with revolutionary advances in science and technology, such as Sigmund Freuds development of psychoanalytic theory and explication of the role of the unconscious, and Albert Einsteins theory of relativity. City life was changing too, with the pervasive presence of electric lights, automobiles, and skyscrapers. Sparked by these dramatic changes, American artists working in Europe were among those who experimented with unconventional techniques and materials. Alexander Calders mobiles incorporated movement and chance in delicate, whimsical works that respond to changes in their environment. Marsden Hartley used bstract techniques to express darker influences. The Aero is part of his War Motif series, begun in response to the death of a friend in the early years of World War I. The pivotal event that brought modernism to America was the International Exhibition of Modern Art of 1913, today better known as the Armory Show. The exhibition exposed American audiences to abstract art for the first time. Many ridiculed the fragmentation of cubism and rejected the charged colors of fauvism and expressionism. A few, however, embraced abstraction, and

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