Abstract art was closely tied to mysticism and religion. After the First World War, these artists had the utopian idea that abstract art helped creating a better world. With abstract art came the use of more unrealistic and vivid colors.
Kandinsky, who from the beginning was a Russian lawyer, went to see Monet's 'hay stack' and thought color and composition was more important than the motive. Kandinsky was also fed up with materialism and real objects. With these convictions he started to paint abstract paintings.
Kandinsky loved music and he wanted art to be equally abstract. Can you see the music and vibrations in Kandinsky's 'swinging'?
The Deutch painter Mondrian is known for his simplicity, black lines and primary colors. The lines were carefully placed on the canvas and he thought a lot about opposites (horisontal vs vertical) and different ranges (small, smaller, smallest) when he painted. Mondrian thought that a painting didn't have to be complicated to be beautiful.
British Ben Nicholson was obsessed with painting everything white. Even so, you can see the geometrical figures by the shadows. The abstract artists during the 20-30's like Nicholson, Hepworth and Brancusi to name some, influenced each other a lot.