Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
I hate abstract art ! Why ? What if all you had to listen to was Classical Music would you miss out? What if all you had to look at was Realistic art - would you miss out? Can you relate art and music ?
Realistic Abstract Classical Music Rap
Composition
What are some parts to music?
Chorus Verse Beat, rhythm Tone, notes etc.
Since abstract art first appeared, many people had difficulty understanding and struggled to accept it as art. If you are one of these people dont worry. This is an attempt to explain how to understand and appreciate abstract art.
Have you ever looked at the clouds and found recognizable images?
Understanding abstract art is in the eye and spirit of the beholder YOU
Most people say that no matter what mood youre in, you can look at a piece of abstract art and still be able to relate to it in some way
Abstract art is all about what the artist feels and what mood they might want to portray.
Impact
A note from an abstract artist.
I just wanted to drop a line again and let you know how much my patients and I are enjoying your painting. I am a clinical psychologist. Your painting has become a spontaneous marvelous ink blot with people trying to see as many different things as possible in it. Ive been impressed with the playfulness and creativity. Thank you again for this wonderful addition to my practice. Its taken on more meaning than a painting on the wall. What a wonderful testimony to the power of abstract art. This is precisely where the beauty of abstract art lies. The color, the texture, and the form do not resemble anything the viewers are familiar with, but instead prompt the audience to create a meaning in their imagination. The responses to the same painting will be as varied as the individual internal worlds creating them. Therefore the question of understanding of abstract art is pointless. It is not intellectual or objective. It is purely emotional, subjective, and personal.
Part 1
What is Abstract
Any art that is not Realistic
George Bingham, The Fir Traders Descending the Missouri, 1845
It is..
an exaggeration of one or more compositional elements: Li n e Value Shape Texture
Space
Color
Form
Types of Abstraction
1. Objective artwork with recognizable images.
We are in such a period now with the advent and growing popularity of academies. Others stand by modernism in all forms of abstraction, from the absurd to the popular, pledging never to return to those staid disciplines of yesteryear. Real abstract art ( somewhat of an oxymoron ) flourishes somewhere in between. Understanding abstract art is not complicated. Once you get past the void of decorative arts and the volume of voices who claim everyone is an artist, you will discover a rich tapestry of emotion and thought that comprises abstract art.
Realism presents the viewer an artists interpretation or representation of the world in its complexity and simplicity. Abstraction presents the viewer an artists reaction to the world in its complexity and simplicity. Realism expresses the outer world and abstract expresses the inner world. Realism mimics the outer world in a variety of styles and techniques whereas abstraction expresses the inner world in a variety of styles and techniques. Realism hopes to answer what is it? whereas abstraction hopes to answer what is it saying?
Part 3
Lets go deeper Philosophies of Abstract Art
Before we begin
Think of the two different kinds of rap music.
Rehearsed Free Style
Philosophies
There are two main concepts of abstract art.
Abstract Formalism - Relies on the formal qualities of composition and is produced with much thought and preplanning. Classical / Intellectual What is important is the product, end result. Often resulted in art theories.
Picasso (Cubism), Cezanne, Mondrian, Op Art
Abstract Expressionism Relies heavily on emotional impact, intuition and is often spontaneous. The artists often starts with just a concept or idea and improvises as he produces the art. Romantic / Emotional What is important is the process.
Jackson Pollack, Jane Frank, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell
Abstract Formalism
Picasso, Mondrian,
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red, 1921, oil on canvas, 72.5 x 69 cm, Tate Gallery. London.
Abstract Expressionism
Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 70, 1961 Robert Motherwell (American, 19151991)
Noun vs Verb
Noun
Abstract Expressionism style developed by certain artist (see roots of Abstraction). Mainly nonobjective, improvisational work.
Verb
Art work can be abstract, objective and have more emphasis on expression.
Part 4
In the late 19th century the traditional European concept of art was the imitation of nature which was abandoned in favor of imagination and the unconscious.
Others say the movement began in New York when people stopped tolerating the social realism art, produced after the WWII (1947) and instead switched to abstraction.
Part 5
Abstract Expressionism
Significant Artists
Significant People
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
He is considered one of the inventors of abstract painting. He began painting realistic but evolved into abstract art. He believed in what he called the psychological and spiritual effects of color, developing an art form in which shapes and colors alone became the important quality. Painting should represent a mood not illustrate an object.
Significant People
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Moved to New York to study at the Art Students League
Worked for the Federal Art Project from 1938-1942 Invented the drip technique Artist of the most expensive painting in the world in 2006, No. 5 (1948), that sold for $140,000,000
Part 6
Abstract Formalism
Using one style of abstract formalism Cubism - and two examples of work inspired by Cubism.
Significant People
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Pablo Picasso, born in Spain, was a child prodigy who was recognized as such by his art-teacher father. Recognized as the leader of Cubism. Influenced by Einsteins Theory of Relativity Wanted to truly represent 3 dimension on a 2 dimensional surface. Periods: Rose, Blue, Analytical, Synthetic
Pablos Picasso Dora Maar Au Chat (1941)
Other People
Alexandra Nechita (1910-1990)
She was born in Communist Romania. Considered a child prodigy by art critics, she has created a visual language of her own in a modern abstract expressionist and cubist manner and creates unique, masterful, dynamic compositions. Whit her innate sense of color, she transfers images of what she sees, what she imagines, and what she dreams, to large canvases with sensitivity, boldness, and a totally uninhibited freedom. She is completely comfortable with all media.
Other People
Noel Cole (b.1957)
Art teacher since 1980 Inspired by Alexandra Nechita developed this piece for lesson/
Result/Conclusion
What happened in the end?
There really is no specific starting date of abstract art, much less an ending date
The movement, in all, has been over, but abstraction is now looked upon as just another equally beautiful form of art
There are many artists that still create abstract art today, and now they have taken the ideas of it and applied it to other things, such as architecture
Result/Conclusion (contd.)
What were the lasting effects?
Abstract paintings and art have influenced many people to not feel like they just have to paint portraits and landscapes, but that they can just paint what they feel and make their work actually mean something to them
There are now tons of buildings, bridges, stairs, monuments, etc. that have been created with an abstract theme. Architecture as a whole has changed incredibly since abstract art was introduced.
Result/Conclusion (contd.)
Abstract Architecture
Links
http://drawsketch.about.com/od/drawinglessonsandtips/a/abstract.htm
(more on music and getting started with abstraction) http://www.artchive.com/artchive/abex.html http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/abstractexpr.html http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/tl/20th/abs-expr.html http://www.biddingtons.com/content/pedigreeabstract.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_expressionism