decomposition

I've always heard of composition in art, especially photography.  However how often do you hear about decomposition in art?  I'm sure in some circles it's quite well known, however I recently ran across the term in a terrific book.  I often take-out art books from the library and enjoy leafing through them at leisure while at home.  This week I was looking through "Modern Art, 1900-1945: The Age of Avant-Gardes" by Gabriele and Crepaldi.  It's a great book with large prints and very readable and informative information about the work and artists.  Very little artspeak is used and the sections are broken into genres that really assist in understanding the many styles of art.  While reading a passage concerning a stunning painting by Georgia O'Keefe entitled "Street, New York, I" the authors used the term "decompositions". In this sense, decomposition means the artists ability to break down the subject into its basic elements.  And of course O'Keefe did this so well in the above referenced painting.  

I love abstraction and often use abstraction in my art and compositions.  However I never understood exactly what I was trying to do until I ran across this term "decomposition" used in such a context.  As soon as I read it my eyes and mind opened up.  I mentioned it to my wife who is a painter and music composer and she had a similar experience.  Much of the fun in art is taking a subject matter and presenting it in such a way that one can see its essence, using rudimentary shapes and design; namely decomposing.  Many artists use this technique including myself.  However I never had it so succinctly crystalized.