Generally, non-representational and non-objective are terms applied to abstract imagery that makes no reference to the world of people, places, physical objects or recognizable environments; art from which all identifiable subject matter has been eliminated.

An art form in which the idea or concept and the process by which it is achieved are more important than any touchable product.

Abstract works of art can be either non-representational, or can be derived from the real world. In the first case, the work of art is completely invented by the artist, and does not directly reproduce anything in the real world.

During the 1950s, painters Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman expanded from Abstract Expressionism's existential themes of self and the universe.  Rather than the emotive gestures Jackson Pollock employed, Rothko and Newman experimented with large expanses of color and the margins between them. They continue to be widely recognized as generative color field painters.