An abstract piece lives on surface and texture. The satin-matte canvas removes the reflections that otherwise break up large fields of color, and the 3.8 cm deep frame lets the image continue around the edge instead of stopping short. The same genre on paper lives in abstract wall art.

Easy to Live With
Because the image depicts nothing, it rarely competes with the rest of your interior, which makes abstract a safe choice for a room you don't want to lock down. Muted tones suit bedroom canvas, stronger palettes carry a large wall in the living room. For adjacent territory, see surreal art.

How do I know if an abstract piece suits my home?
Start from the colors already in the room rather than from the image. If an abstract canvas shares its palette with your textiles, furniture and floor, it almost always lands, even when the visual language differs from everything else you own. The image doesn't need to match, but the palette should.

Which way up should it hang?
Abstract works usually have an intended orientation, and it ships with the piece via the hanging hardware on the back. Hung the other way, the composition loses its balance, because the artist built the weight toward a particular edge. If you're unsure, hold the piece up both ways before you drill.

Do I need a frame for an abstract canvas?
No, the canvas is hand-stretched over a hardwood frame and arrives ready to hang. On abstract work that's an extra advantage, since the color fields continue around the edge instead of being cut off against a molding.

How many abstract pieces should hang together?
One large piece usually works better than several small ones, since abstract images already contain plenty of movement. If you do want a grouping, choose works that share a palette and keep the spacing identical between all of them, so the wall holds together.

What's the difference between abstract art and modern art?
Abstract art depicts nothing and works with form, color and movement in themselves. Modern art is a broader term covering both representational and non-representational work from the past century. An abstract piece is almost always modern, but far from all modern art is abstract.