Understanding abstract art pp

Understanding Abstract Art

"Abstract Expressionism“ and the
goals of abstract art

Let’s differentiate between two types of paintings:

- Representational
and

- Abstract

We call a painting "representational" if it
portrays specific, recognizable physical
objects. In some cases, the representational
paintings look true to life, almost like a
photograph.
For example, consider the following painting by
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669). This
painting is called "The Anatomy Lecture of Dr.
Nicolaes Tulp", and was painted in 1632.

When you look at this painting, it is easy to recognize what you are
looking at. There are eight men wearing funny-looking clothing
(actually, the style of clothing worn in 17th century Holland), and on
a table in front of the men lies a dead man, whose arm is being
dissected. It is easy to identify all the objects in the painting, as
well as the overall meaning of the painting. (You are looking at an
anatomy demonstration.)

Not all representational paintings are so realistic. For example,
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906) created some beautiful
paintings of fruit. Take a look at this one, "Apples, Peaches, Pears, and
Grapes", which Cézanne painted from 1879-1880
Obviously, this painting
is more abstract than
the previous one. Still,
what you are looking at is
representational. The
objects in the Cézanne
painting may not be as
realistic as the ones in
the Rembrandt — there
is no way you would
mistake the Cézanne
painting for a photograph
— but it is easy to
recognize that you are
looking at various types
of fruit in a bowl.

Abstract paintings are different. They
have designs, shapes or colors that
do not look like specific physical
objects. As such, abstract paintings
are a lot harder to understand than
representational paintings. Indeed,
when you look at an abstract painting,
you often have no idea what it is you
are actually seeing. Let's see if we
can make sense out of this.

In general, there are two types of abstract paintings:

The first type of abstract painting portrays objects that have been
"abstracted" (taken) from nature. Although what you see may not
look realistic, it is close enough that you can, at least, get an idea of
what you are looking at.

If you have ever seen any of the paintings
of Claude Monet (French, 1840-
1926), you will know what I mean. In
1899, Monet began to paint a series of
paintings called "Water Lilies". These
paintings depict the garden at his house
in Giverny, Normandy (in France).
Although the objects in the paintings don't
really look like lilies, or water, or clouds,
they are close enough that you can get a
feeling for what you are seeing.

"Water Lilies (The Clouds)" [1903] by Claude Monet.

A second type of abstract painting, sometimes
referred to as "pure" abstract art, is even more
obtuse. Such paintings do not reflect any form of
conventional reality: all you see are shapes,
colors, lines, patterns, and so on. Here, for
example, is a painting of the Spanish painter
Joan Miro:

As you can see, nothing in
this painting is recognizable.
There are no people, fruit or
even water lilies.

When you look at such art, it is natural to
wonder why anyone would bother to create
such paintings in the first place. What could the
artist possibly have in mind?
In some cases, the design itself might be
pleasing to the eye, and we might look upon the
painting as nothing more than a decoration.
Most of the time, however, this is not the case.
Indeed, a great deal of abstract art is not
particularly pleasing to the eye. Moreover, why
would an artist spend so much time creating a
mere decoration? There must be something
more to it.

The truth is, yes, there is a lot more to abstract art
than what meets the eye, and to see why, we have to
consider the basic purpose of art.
To truly appreciate a work of art, you need to see it as
more than a single, isolated creation: there must be
context. This is because art is not timeless. Every
painting is created within a particular environment, and
if you do not understand that environment, you will
never be able to appreciate what the artist has to
offer you. This is why, when you study the work of a
particular artist, it makes sense to learn something
about his life and the culture in which he lived.

Although the qualities of a painting
depend on the skill and desires of
the artist, a great deal of what
you see on the canvas reflects the
environment in which the art was
created. As an example, take a
look at the following two paintings:

"Princess Diana" "Mona Lisa" (1503-1508)
[1982] by Andy by Leonardo da Vinci
Warhol.

If you study the lives of da Vinci and Warhol, you will find that there
were — as you might well imagine — significant personal differences
between the two men. These differences, however, do not account for
the vast dissimilarity in painting styles. When you compare these two
paintings, what you are seeing, more than anything else, are cultural
differences. When an artist creates, he is strongly influenced by the
times in which he lives and, no matter how innovative he might be as a
person, he cannot completely escape the boundaries of his culture.

As you study the history of art, you see that,
at any particular place and time, there is
always a dominant "school" of art that defines
the prevailing artistic culture. Most artists of
the time work within the norms of that culture.
A few artists, however — the visionaries and
the experimenters — break new ground and, as
they do, they encounter tremendous resistance
from people who don't understand the "new"
style of art. However, it is from the work of
these innovators that art evolves.

So how does this pertain to abstract art?

Until the end of the 19th century, virtually all painting
was representational. Artists painted pictures that
were straightforward, and people looked at those
paintings for one reason: to see the particular images
that were depicted.
At first, this idea sounds so obvious as to hardly be
worth stating. Why else would you look at paintings, if
not to see the images? However, there are other, more
compelling reasons to look at a painting. Indeed, it is
possible to experience a painting in such a way that you
go beyond what you see, in order to find out what you
might feel.

In the early 1870s, a movement
arose in France that began to
introduce abstraction into serious
art. This movement, called

Impressionism,
produced works of art that, for the
first time, did not consist wholly of
realistic images.

The original goal of the Impressionists was
conceptually simple: they wanted to depict
nature as it really existed. In particular,
they labored to capture the ever-changing
effects of light, as it changed throughout
the day and from season to season.
For example, the French painter Monet,
which was mentioned above, spent a lot of
time creating series of paintings in which he
painted the same subject at different times
of the day. His goal was to show how the
color and form of the subject changed from
one hour to the next.

Take a look at this
painting of haystacks,
created by Monet in
1890-1891. His goal was
not to paint a simple
image of a stack of hay,
but rather to show the
color and form of the
haystacks at a particular
time of day at the end of
the summer. From
Monet's point of view
(I imagine), the painting
was more of an exercise
than a work of art.
"Wheat-stacks (End of Summer)"
1890-1891] by Claude Monet.

Around the same time, another school of art,
Neo-Impressionism, arose from the influence of
Impressionism. The Neo-Impressionists used many
small side-by-side dots to build up various
shapes and colors. You can see this technique —
which is known as “Pointillism“ in this painting:

by Georges Seurat
(French, 1859-1891).

"A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" [1884-1886]
by Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891).

Finally, in the 1880s and 1890s, a disparate group of
artists sought to move beyond Impressionism and its
obsession with the changing effects of light. These
artists, collectively known as the
Post-Impressionists,
created a wide range of striking and innovative paintings.

Among the most important Post-Impressionists were:

 Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906) mentioned earlier

 Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) and

 Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890).

When you look at Impressionist paintings, you will notice
that, although they are generally soothing to the eye and
calming to the spirit, they are, as a whole, quite boring.
This is not the case with the Post-Impressionsts, as you
can see by looking at the following two paintings.

Here is "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are
We Going?",
painted in 1897 by Paul Gauguin (French) .

Next, take a look at "Irises", painted in 1889 by

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch) :

The last three decades of the 19th
century were a time of two important
— and distinct — transitions.
First, there was a gradual change from
representational art to abstract art.
You can see this in the work of the
Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists.
The second change was more subtle,
but far more important. With the work
of the Post- Impressionists, the purpose
of art itself had begun to change.

For most of history, the primary purpose of
painting had been to portray images, rather
than to evoke feelings and emotions.
Starting with the Post-Impressionists,
however, the emphasis began to shift. For
the first time, unconscious feelings began
to find their way into mainstream art.
What allowed this to happen was that the
Impressionists had loosened the bonds,
giving permission for painters to stray from
their representational roots and become
more abstract.

To be sure, the Post-Impressionists were still
quite literal in their work: when you look at
the work of Cézanne or Gauguin or van Gogh,
you do know what you are looking at.
We have looked at one of Cézanne's paintings
("Apples, Peaches, Pears, and Grapes") as an
example of representational work. Still, the
gradual shift to abstraction and the capturing
of deep-seated emotion was real and far-
reaching.

Until the 20th century, artists had to be content
with merely grazing the surface of consciousness.
Try as they might, their ability to penetrate to the
heart of what it means to be human was limited by
their tools. When the brain processes a recognizable
image, a mental barrier is erected that prevents
significant entry into the processes of the
unconscious. Thus, representational art, by its very
nature, imposes limits on how deeply an artist is able
to insinuate him- or herself into the unconscious
processes of the observer.

With the coming of abstraction, artists
had, for the first time, a powerful tool
that would allow them to reach into the
world of
unconscious emotion.

In the hands of a skillful practitioner,
abstract art can be an extremely powerful
tool. However, such tools require more
than the skill of the artist, they require
the cooperation of the observer.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the move
towards abstraction had generated enormous
possibility. Previously, painters — restricted by
the conventions of representational art — had
confined themselves to either imitating nature or
telling stories.

Now, for the first time, artists were able to
enter a realm in which unbounded imagination
was, not only possible, but desirable. Between
1910 and 1920, a new movement towards
abstract art, both in painting and sculpture,
arose in Europe and in North America.

The first important abstract artist was
Wassily Kandinsky
(Russian, 1866-1944).

During the years 1910 to 1914,
Kandinsky created a series of paintings
which he called "Improvisations and
Compositions". Even today, a century
later, Kandinsky's work is striking in its
ability to bypass our consciousness and
stir our inner feelings.

Take a look, for example,
at "Improvisation 7",
which Kandinsky painted in 1910.

The work of Kandinsky was
extremely influential, and
helped to usher in an age in
which a number of abstract
movements were established,
one after another: Cubism,
Futurism, Dadaism,
Surrealism, Pop Art, etc,
- up to the defining point of
20th century art:

Abstract Expressionism

What we now call Abstract Expressionism
emerged in New York in the early 1940s.
It was not so much a well-defined school
of art, as a way of thinking. The Abstract
Expressionists made the final break from
the rigid conventions of the past, by
redefining what it meant to be an artist.
In essence, they rebelled against what the
rest of the art world judged to be
acceptable.

Although the idea of abstraction had been
around for some time, the Abstract
Expressionists went a lot further. They
began to emphasize, not only the finished
product, but the actual process of
painting. They experimented in how they
interacted with the paint, the canvas, and
their tools; and they paid attention to the
physical qualities of the paint itself, its
texture, color and shape.

This painting was created in 1950 by Jackson Pollock
(American, 1912-1956), a pioneer of what came to be
called “Action painting".

The painting was
originally called
"Number 1, 1950", but
at the suggestion of
an art critic named
Clement Greenberg,
the painting was
renamed "Lavender
Mist" (although, there
is actually no
lavender in it).

The name “Action painting" was coined to describe the
techniques used by Pollock. He would fasten large canvases
to the floor of his studio, and then drip, fling, and spill
paint on them. He often used regular house paint, because
he preferred the way it flowed.

Now, the first time you look at a picture like "Lavender
Mist" you may see nothing more than a confusing array of
disorganized lines and spots. "What," I hear you say, "is
this supposed to mean? How could anything so primitive and
crude be considered to be great art? It looks like something
a bored kid would do if he was left alone in an art studio
with no supervision."

To discuss this, we have to consider the question:

Why do we create art?

There are a number of straightforward reasons why
human beings create art:
to make a decoration,
to tell a story,
to capture or preserve an image,
or to illustrate an idea.

However, there is another, more subtle, but far
more important reason why art is important to us.
The need to reach inside ourselves and manipulate
our unconscious feelings is universal. We all do it to
some degree, although most of the time we are
blind to what we are doing.

In this sense, the role of the artist is to create
something that, when viewed by an observer, evokes
unconscious feelings and emotions.
The reason abstract art has the potential to be so
powerful is that it keeps the conscious distractions to
a minimum. When you look at, say, the apples and pears
of Cézanne, your mental energy mostly goes to
processing the images: the fruit, the plate, the table,
and the background. However, when you look at
"Lavender Mist", you are not distracted by meaningful
images, so virtually all of your brain power is devoted
to feeling.

Of course, this only works if you cooperate with the
artist. His job is to create a painting that is rendered
so skillfully that, when you look at it, what you see
actually changes what you feel at an unconscious level.
Your job is to clear your conscious mind of thoughts
and preconceptions in order to allow yourself to be
influenced by what you are seeing.

If you are to truly appreciate a work of art, you must
be willing to let yourself go, to put yourself in the
hands of the artist, so to speak, and let him take you
wherever he wants.

Much of the time, this partnership fails, sometimes
because the artist is simply not skillful enough; often
because the person looking at the painting does
not know how to truly appreciate it.

Can you see why the advent of Abstract Expressionism
was so important?
For the first time in history, artists were creating
abstract art so skillfully that it was able to penetrate
quickly and powerfully into people's subconscious (at
least some people, some of the time).

We must view the history of painting as a long
evolutionary process, starting with the slow, labored
development of tools and techniques. Eventually, after
centuries of representational painting, the
Impressionists began to shake off the long- standing
restrictions, which led to the development of various
schools of abstract art, culminating, in the 1940s, with
Abstract Expressionism, the beginning of a new age of
creation and human achievement.

Let me introduce to you a few of the Abstract Expressionists, painters whose
work was important to the evolutionary process that redefined what it meant to
be an artist. One thing that you will see is that work of these painters varies
greatly. This is because Abstract Expressionism is not so much a school of
painting as a way of approaching and experiencing the act of creation.

This is a painting by Arshile Gorky
Here is one of Pollock's (Armenian-American, 1904-1948), whose
earlier paintings, "The Key", work had significant influence at the time
which he created in 1946. that Abstract Expressionism was emerging.
This painting, called "One Year the
Milkweed", was created in 1944.

When you are just getting used to abstract art, you might
wonder, just how good are these artists anyway? It doesn't
look all that hard to fill a canvas with lines, and smears, and
splotches. In fact, it looks like ‘Child’s Pay”.

I can assure you that
the best abstract
painters are all highly
skilled artists in their
own right. For example,
here is a charcoal sketch
done by Gorky in 1938,
called "The Artist's
Mother". (It is actually
an idealization of his
mother, inspired by an
old photograph.)

This painting was created in 1954 by Franz Kline
(American, 1910-1962).
It is called "Painting Number 2".

Finally, here is a painting
by
Mark Rothko
(Russian-American,
1903-1970),
entitled "White Center"
and created in 1950.

This painting is an
example of what is called
"Color Field" painting:
an abstract image with
large areas of undiluted
color.

"White Center" [1950] by Mark Rothko.

Now: it is up to YOU
- how you look at Abstract Art,
- and what you may think or feel about it!

Most important thing, when looking at art, is to

always keep an open mind !
(Remember the Learner Profile: We are “open minded”
people, aren’t we? )
And one day,You yourself,
might be the inventor of a
total new art movement!

Understanding abstract art pp

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Understanding abstract art pp