From its roots, abstraction should mean basically "something pulled or drawn away". So abstract art is art that has moved away from painting objects of the ordinary physical world in order to show something beyond it. Theories are often abstractions; so a theory about economics, for instance, may "pull back" to take a broad view that somehow explains all of economics (but maybe doesn't end up explaining any of it very successfully). An abstract of a medical or scientific article is a one-paragraph summary of its contents—that is, the basic findings "pulled out" of the article.
abstraction of data from hospital records “Beauty” and “truth” are abstractions. She gazed out the window in abstraction.
Recent Examples on the WebMany of the pictures have a heightened contrast that emphasizes their abstraction. William Meyers, WSJ, 7 Sep. 2022 Even the most representational paintings here approach landscape via abstraction. Cate Mcquaid, BostonGlobe.com, 23 Aug. 2022 The art world was moving toward abstraction, yet Catlett in the 1940s was set on diving deeper into social realism, to portray Black experiences in America— especially the experiences of Black women. Kovie Biakolo, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Aug. 2022 But to find the candidates to meet the challenges might just come down to a shift inside STEM education that better integrates the importance of spatial reasoning and abstraction to the overall learning process. Rod Berger, Forbes, 17 Aug. 2022 To a former female debater, however, there was something uncanny, even comical, about Lerner’s abstraction. Tess Mcnulty, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022 An image, fixed in time and space, offers an abstract view of our four-dimensional world; as one’s vision deteriorates, abstraction increases.The New Yorker, 20 June 2022 Her work, a blend of imagery and abstraction, has stemmed from her eye condition strabismus. Sofia Krusmark, The Arizona Republic, 17 June 2022 Nashville artist Charlotte Terrell creates custom murals for her clients that reference traditional scenics but veer more towards abstraction. Hadley Keller, House Beautiful, 25 May 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French, "abduction (of a woman), removal, extraction (of a foreign body from a wound), (in philosophy) process by which the mind is able to form universal representations of the properties of distinct objects," borrowed from Late Latin abstractiōn-, abstractiō, from Latin abstrac- (variant stem of abstrahere "to remove forcibly") + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns — more at abstract entry 1