astratto

Astratto is the masculine singular Italian adjective meaning "abstract." It describes things that are not concrete, do not depict recognizable reality, or arise from abstract reasoning rather than sensory detail. The feminine form is astratta, the plural masculine astratti, and the plural feminine astratte. The word comes from Latin abstractus, the past participle of abstrahere, "to pull away" or "to draw away."

In the visual arts, arte astratta or pittura astratta designates non-representational work that emphasizes formal elements such as color, line, shape and texture over direct depiction of the natural world. Abstract art emerged in the early 20th century as artists sought to express ideas, emotions or spiritual states without relying on recognizable subjects. Key movements include abstract expressionism, De Stijl, Constructivism and Suprematism, with figures such as Kandinsky, Mondrian and Malevich among its early proponents.

In philosophy and various theoretical domains, abstraction refers to the cognitive or methodological process of isolating essential features of an object or concept while omitting incidental details. This allows the formation of general ideas, models and categories. The Italian usage parallels the broader English term "abstract" and is common in discourse on science, mathematics and linguistics as well as art.