Nowadays blacks are often in a bind: they're called derivative if they paint abstractions and pigeonholed by race if their work deals explicitly with black subjects.

When Mr. Pinette arrived in Belfast, he had been painting abstractions, and he was getting nowhere.

But there is another Siqueiros, who occasionally put aside politics to paint exquisite portraits and experimental abstractions.

Tania commented in her writings about the difficulty of being a woman artist who painted geometric abstractions.

They painted pictures that claimed to have the condition of music - pure abstractions with occasional shapes that resembled staves, musical notes or violins.

Thomas Nozkowski continues to paint small, idiosyncratic abstractions that reward extended viewing.

In the 1970s, he continued to paint abstractions but also reintroduced the landscape in his work.

The gifted 39-year-old Spanish-born artist used to paint moody abstractions that seemed to refer to landscape and the sea.

"I was painting mushy abstractions with tons of paint and tons of marks," she said.

"Zombies" are richly painted abstractions, upon or near each of which several real-looking flies have landed.