Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
What is abstract art about?
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2
Message
Posted
Hi!
I live in Austria, have no artistic background, but am studying psychology, and very interested in the psychological study of aesthetics. It deals with questions like: What kind of visual stimuli cause the experience of beauty? What are the underlying mechanisms? What does the human brain when a person is viewing art?
In general it is believed that art appreciation happens on two levels: the experience of perceptual beauty on the one side, and cognitive understanding or mastering of the meaning of an artwork on the other.
Since a longer period of time, I'm struggling with questions regarding abstract forms of art. As far as I understand, some abstract artworks have a deeper meaning. In this case the artist may want the viewer to gain insight by figuring out what the deeper meaning is.
But could anyone please tell me, if there are abstract pieces of art that aren't produced to convey deeper meaning, but are produced only because of the pure perceptual effect - I mean the effect of color and form or the harmony of colors? E.g. the squares of Piet Mondrian.
If yes, could I say that what a painter of such artworks does, is to figure out which composition of colors (&shapes) creates the best perceptual effect in the viewer? If the artwork shouldn't convey meaning like representative art, is it just about figuring out which colors and forms go best with each other?
Edited
by Philipp Kirchmayr
Posted
You ask rather deep questions there. I don't have a ready-made answer - all I know is that I am, as yet at least, totally incapable of producing abstract paintings, and have no wish to do so. But given all painting is an illusion, and if you look closely enough and long enough at a 'realistic' painting you're likely to find abstract elements, I don't believe that distinctions between genres are tightly defined.
Why people paint as they do is complicated, and really comes down to the human desire to make a mark - whether that mark is represented by the cave paintings of Neolithic artists - if the word 'artist' made any sense to them or rather the concept did - or the highly-wrought paintings of Salvador Dalí. Meaning, in painting, may not be at all obvious - what I 'mean' by a painting is not necessarily that meaning which a viewer might get from it - to that extent, we impose our own meanings on paintings, modified by our own experience, emotions, wishes, and more. It's a participatory process - we put on canvas what we want to say; we may have many reasons for saying it, not all of which or any of which we've necessarily thought about in any rational way; and then the viewer will impose their meaning on whatever WE may have meant. Do those interpretations coincide, or do they matter?
I think not - I don't know what Piet Mondrian intended by his rectangle paintings (it's interesting though to follow his progress as an artist, since he plainly didn't always paint in geometric shapes) and I don't really care, because I simply find them beautiful. I know what Goya intended by his war drawings and paintings, and what Picasso meant by his - both wished to convey the disgusting horror of war, and to show to what vile manifestations of human wickedness it led.
If any artist really wishes to make their meaning explicit, they have the means to achieve this. Others use allegory. Still others may be entirely unaware of any meaning, but simply tap into their sub-conscious. I doubt that seeking meanings is productive - generally speaking, if the 'meaning' of paintings could be expressed in words, they probably would have been.
Posted
Hi, I am an art teacher and a graphic designer. To answer your question you can join my lessons on composition which I advertise in Art Tuition section on this web site. If you would like to read some books on composition theory , I suggest the following books-
Itten, Johannes (1975). Design and form: the basic course at the Bauhaus. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Itten, Johannes (1973). The Art of Color: the subjective experience and objective rationale of color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Itten, Johannes, and Birren, Faber (1970).
The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten Based on His Book The Art of Color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Edited
by Natalia M.
Posted
If any artist really wishes to make their meaning explicit, they have the means to achieve this. Others use allegory. Still others may be entirely unaware of any meaning, but simply tap into their sub-conscious. I doubt that seeking meanings is productive - generally speaking, if the 'meaning' of paintings could be expressed in words, they probably would have been.Thanks for your answer. You wrote: "we put on canvas what we want to say". Does this mean that each time when an artist creates a painting he wants "to say" something? Or are some painters just out to create beautiful color-combinations - without any further meaning? I watched a documentary that showed Collings' triangle paintings (see here). His wife mixes the color and he arranges triangles on canvas. As I understood it, they just try to create an impression of beauty.
Posted
Hi, I am an art teacher and a graphic designer. To answer your question you can join my lessons on composition which I advertise in Art Tuition section on this web site. If you would like to read some books on composition theory , I suggest the following books- Itten, Johannes (1975). Design and form: the basic course at the Bauhaus. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Itten, Johannes (1973). The Art of Color: the subjective experience and objective rationale of color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Itten, Johannes, and Birren, Faber (1970). The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten Based on His Book The Art of Color. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Thanks for your recommendations. I consider to read them.
Edited
by Philipp na
Posted
I think it must vary from artist to artist, I don’t do abstract, but thought a view might help. When I paint , I paint the scene I’m looking at. If this is a rusty old car what in try to show is how the rust in its different colours made it look quite unique. Artists painting the same scene would use different colours, because they see it differently. I suppose there is a hidden message if your looking for one, people could interpret a painting of a rusting old ship as displaying the wastefulness of man, abandonment etc , but I don’t think of that when painting.
When you look at a painting you use your own experiences, believe, biases etc, they are most likely to be different from the artist, it your interpretation no his/ hers . As I do quite a lot of old ships, car, truck I suppose in years to come if any are still around , some so called expert will say that I was anti waste and protesting through my art, wrong I love the shapes and colours.
Posted
Perhaps the problem here is the question, that seems to seek to categorise 'art' into simple boxes, when in truth it is a continuum.....be it photorealistic, representational, painted, drawn,
abstract patterns with deeper meaning, or just abstract patterns. If it triggers an emotional response, even just a 'like' or even a 'don't like', does it matter how? Surely it varies from viewer to viewer, as much as it does artist to artist? I wonder if the people who seek deeper meaning in all abstract art choose their curtains because they like the colour/pattern, or do they seek a deeper meaning?
Posted
“In this case the artist may want the viewer to gain insight by figuring out what the deeper meaning is.”
This may or may not be true but I think, in many many cases, where this statement does have some truth, it almost certainly comes after the action of painting. Piet Mondrian has been mentioned here. Search for and study the series of drawings and paintings in his ‘Tree’ series. There is a gradual refining of what he is seeing, an attempt, I would suggest, to reduce the marks to their minimum and to investigate the visual nature and qualities of the subject. Look at these tree paintings and you can very easily understand how the same artist would arrive at the geometric colour rectangle works or Broadway Boogie-Woogie or Pier and Ocean; it’s a natural process I would suggest.
I have also read of a Japanese artist (whose name I can’t recall unfortunately) who lived within sight of Mount Fuji. Each day, it is said, he would make a painting of the mountain. His objective was to capture the essence of the sacred mountain in one flowing brush stroke.
It is clear from stories such as these that the beauty arises out of the very clear intent. Are these works then, only beautiful if the intent is understood and appreciated? I would say not, but that understanding does add greatly to the appreciation.
What, on the other hand was the intent of something like Kazimir Malevich’s Eight Red Rectangles? Might it not be simply to explore visual relationships and how they can be manipulated? To seek an answer to the very questions that you ask in fact. Place a black, circular shape in the centre of a white square and you have changed the white space. Move the circle to the edge of the square and the whole image is changed both visually and emotionally. It’s no coincidence that many of these abstract art movements had their origins in the years during and after the Great War, and after the invention of photography.
What of the abstract expressionists then? The clue's in the name. Is there a deep meaning? Meaning?; yes I'd suggest. Deep?; no. It seems to me that much of this work is simply about the act of painting in a similar way to the black circle/white square—what happens to the space when you make a mark? Simple shapes can be used to explore complex relationships.
Posted
Thanks for your answers! They all are very informative.
I wonder if the people who seek deeper meaning in all abstract art choose their curtains because they like the colour/pattern, or do they seek a deeper meaning?
As I do quite a lot of old ships, car, truck I suppose in years to come if any are still around , some so called expert will say that I was anti waste and protesting through my art, wrong I love the shapes and colours.
What of the abstract expressionists then? The clue's in the name. Is there a deep meaning? Meaning?; yes I'd suggest. Deep?; no. It seems to me that much of this work is simply about the act of painting in a similar way to the black circle/white square—what happens to the space when you make a mark? Simple shapes can be used to explore complex relationships.This confirms my former assumption that Meaning might be overestimated to some extend by some. In many cases it might be just the arrangement of form and color what is the artist's intend and what makes a picture beautiful.
Edited
by Philipp na
Posted
Two things I have learned in my eighty years; 1-don't be afraid to say, "I was wrong"and 2- "I don't know" both apply to art of which as much nonsense is spouted (and painted) as any other topic. Art is just a pictorial form of opinion and makes even less sense when the artist can't be honest with themselves and see all their work as masterpieces. Would you want something on your wall than for any other reason than its value or just because it pleases you to look at, be it classed as photographic, impressionist, abstract or whatever? I wouldn't want a Mona Lisa on my wall at any price, or indeed many other paintings regarded as priceless art. In short, one man's/woman's meat etc, or we'd all have Flatford Mill or the Fighting Temeraire on our living room walls. Hope this makes sense.
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2