Abstraction Video Summary
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At first art reflected the need to depict content: historical, religious, people were
familiar with content
Landscape painting for example focused on enjoyment and needed no
preknowledge
Rennaisance- depict content historic (form)
During Impressionism the focus was on capturing fleeting impressions and the
emotional qualities of line and colour – it was not necessary to imitate – just
express forcibly – colour was symbolic
Romantic-landscapes (move people without a story) emotions
Art as an abstraction focused upon how do we create
Think more of the creation itself than what it would look like realistically.
rejected imitation of nature and became independent of other styles
You don’t have to copy nature to show its beauty
greater moving force
Paul Cezanne was the father of abstraction – how does one classify one’s
sensations of colour? – then he dabbled with cubism – flattened space – art not
depicted as a unit – showed the inner mechanisms of things
The science of unknown things impacted art
Elements of art are to be found in the inner not outer part of nature
Momentum of inner life
Reorganized what they saw as shapes and lines i.e. cubism
Subject torn into basic shapes or motion and speed
art is an abstraction- think more of the creation
radical departure of representation
sensations of colour- feelings evoked
Cubism- breakthrough
new technology/science – see things that can't be seen by the eye
external to themselves
inner qualities of nature
essence of nature but with geometric rhythm
few liked it
1912 abstraction found all over the world
Kadinsky – scientific discoveries, war, revolution shook man’s foundations – he
studies the inner qualities of nature – momentum of the inner life
Paul Mondrain – concepts behind nature i.e growth and vitality behind a tree
Capca – essence of nature – speed of industrialization
Shomberg – vortesism
Malavich – suprematism
Lejey – modernism – dreams
VanNero – birth/death
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Essences of colour were considered important i.e. blue is a heavenly colour or like
a flute
New language of colour creating emotion
An attempt to classify sensations of colour
Convey a pure feeling or sensation of pictorial art
An attempt to approach truth by abstracting subject matter to find the fundamental
essence of an object
Abstractionsists were creating a new visual language
By 1912 abstraction appeared all over the world
England-Fortism
Suprematism-pure feeling or sensation in pictoral art (square) object-lessness
Fordentity- machine age
Newman – paint as if nothing had ever been painted before
Abstraction can express dreams and inner consciousness
Abstraction was inspired by organic life and geometry
Mondrain and Kuntz – reductionist approach – geometric and analytic and
inspired by the organic
1940- what could artists paint?
world was coming to an end-couldn't not paint organic forms
started painting as if nature/forms had never been invented
no subject matter outside themselves
discovered their own techniques
self reflection-no fixed version
intense alternative but became recognized
Most modern painters work from within
Pollack - worked from within – complete spontaneity yet controlled – selfreflection
How do you show “cosmos”? “loftiness”?
Rothenburg – work demands a decision – What do you make of it? – mirror of life
Abstract artists make paintings to move people without a story to tell
Abstract artists were looking for something more universal to express themselves,
something more complex and radical
Abstraction was the struggle to abandon existing representations – express
internal struggles
Frank Stella most productive and innovative – epic and heroic style – dramatic yet
pictorial – optical drama – new alternative to old conventions