For most people, Modern art “means” Abstract art, and Abstract art “means” Modern art. Yet, for all its fame as the signature style of Modern art, abstraction remains almost impossible to understand for most who encounter it. This course provides a key to the world of Abstract art. Through close analysis of the images themselves, we will see that most abstract artworks have a specific, defined content that can be surprisingly accessible. In this respect, we will demonstrate how some of the most widely-held beliefs concerning Abstract art, such as, “it can mean anything you want it to,” are not true. As with almost all other art, whether representational or not, the images are proposing a close examination of whatever subject they are engaging with. Our task as viewers is to learn to follow abstraction into the world it creates.