Abstract
Photography & Art
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Representational and Abstract art
Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, 1601
Piet Mondrian, Composition in red
yellow and blue, 1921
The Caravaggio composition consists of the arrangement of
people and recognizable objects.
The painting clearly represents people sitting around a table –
things that we could find in the ‘real’ world.
Works like this are called representational or figurative.
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The Mondrian painting also involves a
composition process, but in this case it
is a composition of shapes, lines and
colours (the visual elements).
The picture does not seems to directly
represent anything which we would
find in the ‘real’ world.
Artworks like this are often described
as abstract
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Pattern
Pattern can appear abstract or give an abstract quality to an artwork.
Do you want there to be a center of interest in your photograph or
painting, or would you prefer the image itself to become a pattern?
Jackson Pollock, Painting, 1948
How would you describe Pollock’s work, abstract or representational?
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Photogram by Lazolo Maholy-Nagy (1895-1946)
Abstract or representational?
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Abstract or Representational?
Franz Hals, Laughing Cavalier, 1624
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Whilst some works are clearly
representational and others
clearly abstract, many
photographs or artworks seem
to be representational and yet
at the same time have an
abstract quality
Photo by Paul Strand
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Photo by Andreas
Gursky
This is a photograph of a
motor race track in
Bahrain.
The pattern created by the
track produces an abstract
quality to the image.
Do you agree?
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As a general guide:
Artworks where the subject is something that we
would find in the ‘real’ world and which can easily
be identified are usually Representational.
Artworks where it is difficult to identify the subject,
or when the subject appears to be the visual
elements themselves (lines, colour, shapes etc) are
usually Abstract.
Because abstract images do not have a
recogniseable subject (other than the visual
elements themselves) they can make the viewer
look and think, sometimes generating emotions or
feelings.
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When you view a completely abstract image it is usually
meaningless to ask “what is it of?”
Many people today still believe that to qualify as ‘Art’, an
image or artwork must be representational – it must be of
something found in the physical world.
In the second half of the 19th century many artists began to
break free of this constraint, attempting to produce art which
was less of, and more about the subject.
This was due in no small part to the rapid development and
popularity of photography – the perfect representational
medium.
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JMW Turner, Rain, steam and speed, 1844
Early Impressionism (before the more famous French impressionists!) 12
Claude Monet, Water Lillies, 1915-26
Impressionism
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Van Gogh, Saint-Rémy, France, 1889.
(Starry Night)
‘Expressionism’
Expressionists painted in a way that
suggested the artist’s emotions and feelings.
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Photographers in the early 20th
century (1900 onwards) started
experimenting with the camera’s
ability to ‘see’ in new and exciting
ways; they began using startling
viewpoints, close-ups, radical
framing & cropping and unusual
camera angles.
They allowed the photography to
revel in those aspects of the
medium which made it different
to other artistic media, rather
than trying to make their
photographs appear like other
forms of art, such as painting.
Stretch : research ‘Medium
Specificity’.
Steichen, The Maypole, Empire State
Building, 1932
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John Baldessari
Abstract or representational,
or a bit of both?
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Photographs by Edward Weston, 1886-1958
Representational, abstract or abstract quality?
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Tomatsu Shomei
How would you describe
this image …
Is it ‘of’ anything?
Is it representational or
abstract or
representational with an
abstract quality?
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Photographs by Wolfgang Tillmans
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Test your Learning
1. What are the essential differences between
representational and abstract art/photography?
2. What might abstract photographs be good for?
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