Biomorphic abstraction using ink on paper. Biomorphism comes from the Greek words bio, meaning life, and morphe, meaning form. It does not, however, mean life form. Rather, it means the tendency to exhibit the appearance or qualities of a living thing. Though it sounds scientific, the earliest use of the term was to describe biomorphic art in the Cubism and Abstract Art exhibition of 1936 at MoMA. Written by Alfred H. Barr, the catalogue for that exhibition defined biomorphism as, “Curvilinear rather than rectilinear, decorative rather than structural and romantic rather than classical in its exaltation of mystical, the spontaneous and the irrational.” Barr coined the term to explain to viewers the nature of a certain type of abstraction that had been showing up in modern art since the early part of the 20th Century. Biomorphic abstraction incorporates a visual language based on biomorphic shapes—bulbous, lush, sumptuous looking forms—that are neither representative nor geometric, but that are uncannily familiar; people recognize them and connect with them on a primal level, though they have never seen them before.