THE INCEPTION OF ABSTRACT ART
"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colours, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential." -- Wassily Kandinsky.
ONE DEFINITION
An abstract artwork is one without a recognisable subject, one which doesn't reflect anything representational in a realistic way. By this definition, most of what is described as abstract art is in fact, semi-abstract as many 'abstract' artists find impetus or inspiration in nature, geometry, numeracy and other known concepts, then they abstract them within their design, often allowing the elements of design to tell a new visual story, with very little relation to the inspirational subject.
“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterwards, you can remove all traces of reality.” Picasso
It is also often more correct to say a work is ‘abstracted’ ‘or semi-abstract’ when there is still a hint of the original inspiration as Picasso was alluding to.
HISTORY OF ABSTRACT ART
As with all artistic practices, there have been underlying issues influencing the works of art of this category, the majority of which are political and cultural causes. The after-effects of the First and Second World War, a disjointed Europe, meant that many of Europe’s leading artists had to flee their homelands for a new life in the Americas. Artists such as Arshile Gorky and Marcel Duchamp are examples who created artworks that represented their reactions to the massive shifts in their personal situations.
Wassily Kandinsky, however, more concerned with the spiritual qualities present in art, aimed to convey this within his artworks. Coming from a background in music he stated that like music visual art too could harbour emotion, and elements such as form and colour were capable of doing so. Accordingly, he created his first abstract artwork in 1911.
Take for example the work of Mondrian, relying heavily on colour relationships, lines and geometric shapes. Some people will be reminded of a map, others will see or feel something completely different.
“In past times when one lived in contact with nature, abstraction was easy; it was done unconsciously. Now in our denaturalized age abstraction becomes an effort.” Piet Mondrian
On the other hand, the fluid and rhythmic abstracts of Jackson Pollock(Abstract Expressionism) can engage some viewers on a very deep level and yet others declare ' my grandson could do better than that’.
"Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was."
NB. Please take the time to read the suggested further articles below, some of which cite several scientific studies which can explain the difference between the brain’s perception of representational art compared to abstract art
Figurative abstractions sometimes represent things that aren't visual, like emotion, music, or an individual primal or spiritual experience. Figurative abstractions are therefore abstracted representations of reality, where only the subjective essence is sought rather than a realistic, objective or recognisable perspective. Surrealism could be called figurative abstraction, as although the modelling and rendering of subjects is hyper-real, the context and setting is abstracted.
The beginnings of creative expression in western visual art heading into the abstract were around the end of the 1800s and early part of the 1900s when science, medicine, and literature were also pushing their boundaries and enthusiastically overlooking the traditional and seeking formerly unknown outcomes. (of course, symbolic abstractions had been around in other cultures for as long s history can trace back).
Abstract art truly had its initial birth in the 19th century. The period characterized by so vast a body of elaborately representational art produced for the sake of illustrating anecdotes also produced a number of painters who examined the mechanism of light and visual perception.
In the mid to late 1800s, IMPRESSIONISM was a movement in which the artists stepped away from the traditional and tried to interpret the essence, the light, and the ambience, without ‘finishing, refining or realistically modelling their subjects. They were given the name first by critics as an insult, but the name rang true for them as an impression of the subject and the light effects were exactly what they were trying to capture.
Read more about Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and you will see how the elements of design started to be utilised in art to achieve the broad principles without any of the previous expectations of creating a realistic representation of a physical subject. In fact, the colours, lines, values, textures, shapes, spaces and forms created by an artist become a new subject, unique and not directly reflecting the known physical world.
So there is a variable and sometimes subtle difference between an ABSTRACT concept and an ABSTRACTED concept in art.
As mentioned earlier, Abstraction started to become a thing in the late 19th century and it fully emerged in the early 20th century when a decline in the appreciation of Realism became more common among some of the Avant-garde artists of the period. Let’s face it…. in science, medicine, industry and even fashion, there were leaps and bounds being made and conventions were being flouted all around.
The whole abstract art movement which followed brought about artworks that allowed for lucid analysis and meaning via combinations of lines, colours and shapes that had not been previously incorporated into art.
Several artistic movements from the late 1800s had the foundations of abstraction already present in their works. Periods of experimentation in the new era include Cubism and Fauvism. These ‘non-naturalistic’ approaches reveal an underlying craving for more freedom in the manipulation of ideas and ideologies, mainly through the distortion of line, shape and form. Abstract art has early links to European art, Islamic art, and other cultures where non-figurative images and text are appreciated for their beauty eg. calligraphy.
In the new millennium, with the increase of abstract paintings that are almost identical in size, colour and texture, collectors are unsure what they should even be looking for in a new abstract art form. In recent years, the term “zombie formalism” has been used to describe abstract paintings with these similarities. Derivation abounds and many ‘artists’ have never studied the foundation subjects, nor do they work from the heart and aim to find their own true expression. A huge number seem to jump on the bandwagon of the latest commercial trends, the Pantone colour of the year and churn out decorative abstracts to reach a certain less informed diy decoring kind of client.
FURTHER READING
http://arthistoryresources.net/ARTHLinks.html
