The term was introduced by artist Theo van Doesburg in his 1930 Manifesto of Concrete Art. The manifesto was published in the first and only issue of the magazine Art Concret. He stated that there was nothing more concrete or more real than a line, a colour, or a plane (a flat area of colour).

The Swiss artist Max Bill later became the flag bearer for concrete art organising the first international exhibition in Basle in 1944. He stated that the aim of concrete art is to create ‘in a visible and tangible form things which did not previously exist – to represent abstract thoughts in a sensuous and tangible form’.