Having studied at art college years ago, I had to examine all of this kind of stuff, and I have very mixed opinions about it. Some modern abstract stuff like that can be really great. One painting I really love for example, was done by my mother (who normally paints fine art stuff fired onto china plates and the odd watercolour landscape, so this is unusual for her). It is oil on canvas, and I have it hung on my wall downstairs in my house because I demanded she give me the painting. Here it is:
It is based on a top down photograph of the markings that some construction guys had sprayed on the pavement prior to digging the road up, the black line is the shadow of the kerb and the yellow line is a no parking road marking! Couldn't even begin to explain why I like it, but I do think it is a goddam masterpiece and I don't even know why I think that, it is perhaps that she could even find art at her feet, on the street.
Back with more well known stuff, I can appreciate that Mondrian, Kandinsky and a few others were pushing things and moving the art world forwards by deconstructing long held views, but it's often hard to really love stuff like that even if you can appreciate what the intent is. If the painting at the start of this thread is supposed to indicate the impression of form at speed, then I contest that JMW Turner's beautiful 1844 painting, Rain Steam and Speed, frankly craps all over it in conveying that feeling:
File:Rain Steam and Speed the Great Western Railway.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Al