Founders Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo started the group to foster abstract art after the trend turned to representation in the 1920s.
A non-prescriptive group of artists were involved, whose ideals and practices varied widely: Piet Mondrian, Jean Arp, Marlow Moss, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Kurt Schwitters, Wassily Kandinsky, Taro Okamoto, Paule Vézelay, Hans Erni, Bart van der Leck, Leon Tutundjian, John Wardell Power and Mary Cassat.
Five Cahiers (yearbooks) were published between 1932-36 entitled Abstraction-création: Art non-figuratif; a reprint edition of the Cahiers was published by the Arno Press, New York in 1968. Art exhibitions were also held throughout Europe.