Abstract
Art What is it?
A key to
understanding abstract art is to look at the word abstract itself.
It is used in a myriad of ways. It is used as an adjective, noun or
verb. As a noun it can summarize a text, as a verb it can remove or
steal, as an adjective it is “difficult to understand.”(9) The
adjective form of the word is the key that unlocks the beginning of
the journey through the labyrinth that is abstract art.
Describing
abstract art is akin to taking a journey through a labyrinth. Not the
kind of labyrinth with an easy path to follow. The kind of labyrinth
that has long slopping corridors, with twist and turns that double
back on themselves. The artist have aligned the corridors with bright
vivid color. The twist and turns are drenched in various forms of art
expression. Yet there is a path here worn by countless artist and art
followers, who have dared to enter the universe of abstract art.
“Abstract art
uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a
composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual
references in the world.”(1) Abstract art is a broad term that
encompasses many different styles of art abstract or not. Abstract
art began to flourish at the end of the 19th century when
artist were looking for a different way of expression.
Impressionism, fauvism,surrealism, and cubism laid the foundation, by
breaking the rules. Also included are expressionism,
post-impressionism, and by the 20th century we have
abstract expressionism. Other terms that define modern abstract art
are minimalism, post-painterly abstraction, and 21st
century pluralism.
Fauvism began in the 1900, it was all
about color in it's pure form. It came forth from a group of French
painters. The fauves created vivid paintings with globs of paint. It
was more about the journey and emotion than painting a scene. The
imprint of the brush became part of the painting. “The paintings of
the fauves were characterized by seemingly wild brush work and
strident colors, while their subject matter had a high degree of
simplification and abstraction.”(6) They were inspired by the
likes of Van Gogh and Gauguin. Fauvism paved the way for
expressionism and cubism. Matisse became the leading artist of
fauvsim. Matisse's Olive Trees, Collioure (1905) resulted
from his collaboration with Andre Derain. This composition was
created with daubs of pure color that is considered abstract.
Germany in 1905 sprouted expressionism, during an era of
discontent with the world and angst against impressionism and
academic art. “Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor
proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging
the distortion of form and the deployment of strong colors to convey
a variety of anxieties and yearnings.”(3) Art was moving away from
analytical composition, now it was more about the inner depth of the
artist. Art was becoming internalized. Social criticisms influenced
expressionist art, as more of the world became urbanized.
Urbanization produced separateness among it dwellers and the art
world responded with figural drawings and bold colors.
“Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and
exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes in the depiction of their
subjects. These techniques were meant to convey the turgid emotional
state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern
world.”(3)
“In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up
and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects
from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude
of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.” (4)
Pablo Picasso is know well beyond the scope of the art world. His
artwork titled , Les Demoiselles d'Avignon done in 1907,presented
the foundation of cubism. “The movement has been described as
having two stages: 'Analytic' Cubism, in which forms seem to be
'analyzed' and fragmented; and 'Synthetic' Cubism, in which newspaper
and other foreign materials such as chair caning and wood veneer, are
collaged to the surface of the canvas as 'synthetic' signs for
depicted objects”(4) Cubism is the style of the art, with it
geometric shapes and distorted prospective that coined the word
cubism. Braque another well know cubist was a close associates of
Picasso they often collaborated and there art can be hard to
differentiate. Other artist would start subtracting and simplifying
there work. This is when the term abstract art came into being.
“Apollinaire supported these early developments of abstract Cubism
in Les Peintres cubistes (1913), writing of a new "pure"
painting in which the subject was vacated” (4)
Surrealism another corner stone of modern abstract art. Founded in
Paris in 1924, by a small group of writers and artist who believe the
power of imagination laid in the subconscious mind.“Initially a
literary movement, many Surrealists were ambivalent about the
possibilities of painting, however, the group's leader, André
Breton, later embraced and promoted painting.”(2) They believed in
Freud's teaching that the conscious mind was a block to the
imagination. It was more of a movement than an art style, yet it laid
the foundation for different kind of expression. The surrealist were
intent on exposing repressed parts of the conscious mind. They used
dream imagery and archetypical symbols in the form of collage, which
they believed came from the subconscious mind. With the advent of
WWII surrealism found it way to America. “The American painters
were uneasy with the overt Freudian symbolism of the European
movement, but they were inspired by its interests in the unconscious,
as well as its strain of primitivism and preoccupation with
mythology.” (2) Today the modern art world owes much gratitude to
the surrealists. “Peggy Guggenheim's 1942 exhibition of
Surrealist-influenced artists (Rothko, Gottlieb, Motherwell,
Baziotes, Hoffman, Still, and Pollock) alongside European artists
Miró, Klee, and Masson, underscores the speed with which Surrealist
concepts spread through the New York art community.” (2)
After surrealism found it's way to New York, abstract
expressionism gained a foot hold in the ample Museums and art
gallery’s of the city. Following the war many European modernist
artist found there way to New York. They brought with them the love
of cubism and fauvism. Many artist were fascinated by the work of
Carl Jung, who believed that the collect subconscious was represented
by archetypical symbols. “In, 1947 Jackson Pollock found his way
to the drip technique. The following year, de Kooning had an
influential show at the Charles Egan Gallery; Barnett Newman arrived
at his breakthrough picture Onement I; and Mark Rothko began
painting the "multi-form" paintings that would soon lead to
the signature works of his mature period.” (8) Eventually
abstract expressionism itself became academic and the reductionism
theme left little to be further explore. Yet it's legacy like Pollock
left a lasting impression on the art world. It would help foster
Japaneses Gutai and Vietnamese Actionist. It's themes and concepts
supported Neo-Expressionism in the 1980's and left a standard against
which to be measured.
Abstract
themes continue to weave a thread through many of the art styles. One
term can not begin to describe what abstract art is. To some scholars
of the art world it is a picture reduced to it's simple form. So
reduced that it doesn't even resemble it original shape or colors. To
other scholars abstract is the well of the subconscious brought to
the surface in vivid colors, dripping across the canvas like Jackson
Pollock pieces. Yet most will argue that is not paint thrown or
brushed upon the canvas without thought. It is claimed that one must
be a fervent student of art itself, before one can even begin to
attempt the abstract.
The scholars of art history have given an end date to
the different movements of art. How could there be a defined end? Art
is constantly changing and evolving. Styles merger and change into
what at the moment is modern art. Only the master can be dated, the
images they leave behind go on to inspire generations to explore
their own inner labyrinth, reaching into the primal depths of
creation. It is more than the sums of it parts of color, stroke and
composition. It is the very core of who we are, our expression of
our inner universe.
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