How to Look at and Understand Great Art Lectures Episode 33 Abstraction/Modernism—New Visual Language ( Air Date 2011-01-01 ) Genre Documentary category. Overview "Abstraction and Modernism forged a daring new definition of art, breaking dramatically with the past. Discover the philosophical and experiential underpinnings of abstraction and nonrepresentational art, now radically freed from imitating nature. Encounter art's new language in visionary works by Kandinsky, Marc, Pollock, De Kooning, and others.".