Abstract Painting; How to Read It

Crazy Crazy!! 

If there was anything in art people find so incomprehensive and unconvincing, that would be abstract art. Abstract paintings, to those that find it hard to stretch their intellects, seemed meaningless. And in a country like Nigeria where art appreciation is at minimum, abstraction was madness.

 

On an exhibition, I saw an outrageous comment written by a medical student about an abstract paintings. He suggested that artists should undergo a ‘psych’ evaluation; and why? Simply because most of the paintings  were ‘meaningless’. I thought at first the individual was been unfair and unkind, but then I carried out a simple test; I chose a painting from the exhibits and placed it side by side with the word ‘meaningless’. Then I asked some onlookers whether they could make a meaning out of it. To my amusement, most of them looked at it for a moment and simply said ’you tell me’. So I rested my case

 

The Idea: bstract art is just a play of shapes.

In abstraction, nature is expressed by pictoral absolutes such as cubes, spheres, spirals, and triangles etc, achieved by composing those absolutes into a harmonious whole. To simplify it further, it is concerned with the essence of outer appearance of things and their rearrangement into forms and planes so as to fit in some general pattern. Understanding abstract art, assessment of its qualities as well as appreciating it thereby deriving pleasure from it have some mechanisms.

 

There are indeed some difficulties in understanding abstract art. But here is a list of some tips I’d like you to consider:

1. Abstract art has a subject; you should know that.
2. Know that A balance of form and colour makes abstactions pleasing to look at. 
3. Participate with the artist helps a lot.

Now lets take a look at these points in turn.

Abstract art has a subject; No?

Just like representational art, abstract art also has a subject, but it is one that is not representational i.e. it may not take the pretext of object familiar to us, such as a tree, a human face or an animal. However, the abstract subject is the balance between these absolutes that exists only in our intellect; because the artist have eliminated the first line of contact between his artistic personality and the onlooker i.e. a representational element. So it is important to understand that the subject in an abstract painting is only a means for display of colour and form.

 

So what’s the next thing to consider after the Subject? Mind you, it’s still difficult to read it since the initial stage of contact (a representational element) is disposed off in abstract painting. we’ll talk about that next week. 

 

See ya