Abstract Illusionism

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Abstract illusionism coined by Louis K. Meisel is an artistic movement that came into prominence in the Unites States during the mid 1970s. Works consisted of both hard-edge and expressionistic abstract painting styles that employed the use of perspective, artificial light sources and cast shadows to achieve the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Abstract Illusionism differed from traditional Trompe L’oeil (illusionistic) art, in that the pictorial space seemed to project in front of, or away from the canvas surface as opposed to receding into the picture plane as in traditional painting. Primarily though these were abstract paintings as apposed to the realism of Trompe L'oeil.

Pre 1970 fore runners and practioners of the style include, Ronald Davis, Alan D'arcangelo, and Al Held. Documented artists associated with the 1970s Abstract Illusionism movement include James Havard, Jack Lembeck, Tony King, George D. Green, Michael Gallagher, Jack Reilly .

The first major museum exhibitions to survey Abstract Illusionism were "Abstract Illusionism," Paul Mellon Arts Center, Wallingford, CT, 1977 "Seven New York Artists (Abstract Illusionism)", Sewall Art Gallery, Rice University, Houston, TX, 1977 "Breaking the Picture Plane," Tomasulo Gallery, Union College, Cranford, NJ and "The Reality of Illusion" which originated in 1979 at the Denver Art Museum and traveled to the Oakland Museum, Herbert Johnson Museum at Cornell University, University of Southern California, and Honolulu Academy of Art.