Often times when I ask people what they think of abstract art, they have this strange stigma about it. Abstract art is much too often seen as a lazy art form that requires little effort. It amazes people how such “ugly” pieces of art could ever make it into prestigious museums all around the globe. I used to agree with this idea about abstract art as well for a long time, I will admit. In all of my art course, I looked at abstract art as something that was easy to create and was something anyone could really do. It was only until I was assigned to create an abstract painting that I realized I was entirely wrong.
Abstract art is not easy to make.
Green Yellow Seascape by Linda Donohue
In fact, it requires a lot of time and effort to be put into the process of creating it. Take for example this painting by Linda Donohue. Overall it doesn’t look like a very complicated piece at all. It only has a few sets of colors with varying shades that overlap on one another in a linear pattern. Yet with only this simple painting, months of work likely went into the process to create this piece.
In order to create an abstract landscape painting like this, you first need to find the landscape you want to capture. Then you need to simplify it into the base components that make the image. To do this, you take away the base details and only focus on the shapes of the colors as well as the shadows. The water in the painting would turn into different shades of blue and green. Trees would be turned into varying shades of colors. the sky would be blue slate. You need to also mix the correct paint colors to form a color scheme that matches well with one another. After this, you begin to paint, but this is the hardest part. Where abstract painting lacks in details, it makes up for in texture. You have to really layer the paint on top of the other colors to create thickness. While this paint is drying you need to quickly add more paint to blend it on the canvas. Then on top of this entire process, the painter is also changing the entirety of what the landscape originally looked like.
With abstract art, the main point is interpretation. The artist takes something from the real world and then puts their own view on it. Although there is a base process of art, each individual artist something that is unique to their style. This could include geometric shapes or lines, textures, or even just minimalize a piece to only be a few brush strokes of color. In the end, abstract is less about looking like a “beautiful” piece of art and is more about taking something and making it completely up for interpretation. That is why the piece you see in museums may confuse you. They may not be a pretty painting, but they aren’t meant to be. Some art is not made to look pleasing. It is meant to be a statement.
So please, next time you see an abstract piece of artwork, do not label it lazy or ugly. The concept and process of art are just as, if not more, important to a piece than just looking pleasing to the eye.
Art Featured in the header:
Composition 8 by Vasily Kandinsky
I was definitely one of the people that did not see the work that went into abstract art. I always saw it as just a bunch of random lines or patterns, and could never really understand the concept. I did not know before about how the artist took an image and cut it down to just its basic form. It is really interesting that they do that and my perspective on abstract art has changed.
Megan, first, I LOVE Kandinsky and his pieces, so automatically, I knew that I was going to love this post. Second, I completely agree with all of the points that you made. I, too, thought that abstract was a genre of art for the lazy and uncreative “artists,” but after taking an AP Art History course, I learned that it’s possibly one of the hardest types of art to create. To simply paint what you see requires technique such as simple mechanics of knowing how to skillfully paint reality. However, painting in an abstract way requires an artist to look past reality while also possessing the proper techniques of knowing how to paint in a skillful way. I also love how you mentioned the layering process because it made me think of this piece created by Willem de Kooning titled, “Woman I.” (The link to Kooning’s piece: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/willem-de-kooning-woman-i-1950-52-2)
Kooning’s piece perfectly exhibits the layering process that is sometimes involved with abstract art and art in general. Kooning actually painted a very different image on the same canvas as “Woman I” before scraping off a majority of the paint on the canvas and restarting. He layered paint over top of paint until he got his desired image which I just find so interesting about art. I just love how an image can change at any moment’s notice while the artist is still in the creative process. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your post!
“Why these all-white paintings are in museums and mine aren’t”
https://youtu.be/9aGRHOpMRUg
I watched this video and it really made me laugh. It does a great job explaining the sentiment people have about white canvas art and correcting it!