Abstract Art – A Brief Look Into the History of This Popular Art Form
What is abstract art? It is an artwork that contains no subject matter but has created an optical illusion by appealing to the senses. Abstract art uses creative visual language of form, shape, color and line combined with ingenuity to produce a composition that can exist without a basis in actual visual references. Unlike formal, realistic art, abstract art invites the viewer to participate in the creation of the artwork and interpret its meaning.
To better understand abstract art, one must gain an understanding of how artists choose the colors and other elements that constitute a painting. Though there are no absolute rules dictating the selection of colors and other elements in abstract art, an artist relies on their understanding of human psychology to guide them in their endeavors. Abstract artists use colors and objects in compositions that evoke a response from the viewer based on their understanding of how humans see things. Through their understanding of how the human eye reacts to color, a painter can then utilize that reaction in painting to produce an abstract image.
Before abstract art, the only way an artist could create an abstract image was to paint pictures of ordinary things and then use those items as a base for the more complex paintings of the 19th century. painter such as Boucher, Cezanne and Madoff painted pictures of ordinary objects but added depth and dimension by using objects that do not actually exist in real life such as gears fixed to wheels and pipes or circles formed in blacklight. Though abstract art has its roots in the 19th century artist’s attempt to make more visible to the public the inner workings of their mind, modern abstract artists have broadened their interpretations of what it means to be seen. Boucher painted a picture of a tree without any leaves and a bird in a cage as a symbolic analogy for abstract thoughts and feelings, while Cezanne broke away from reality by painting himself in the same poses he used in his famous painting, The Night Cafe.
Though abstract art and representational art share many common characteristics, they differ primarily in their purpose. While abstract artists use paint to paint images on a canvas, they also often use tools such as mirrors and light bulbs in order to bring their objects of art to life on the canvas. On the other hand, representational artists use images, words and colors to visually communicate ideas or reveal the truth through pictures.
Although there are similarities between both types of art, they also come with a number of differences as well. Traditional art uses paint and a brush to paint a picture and then applies it to a canvas in order to achieve the desired results. With abstract art, an artist paints an image using a variety of different techniques in order to form an image that is uniquely his or her own. Furthermore, traditional art usually relies on the effects of light on the canvas in order to form a visible and sometimes even audible image, while abstract art relies solely on the paints used to form an image.
With all the comparisons between painting and poetry, it is no surprise that the two forms of art are often misunderstood by people of different cultures and generations. While abstract painting and poetry may seem to rely solely on the power of the mind to create an image, both are actually rooted in the human imagination. In other words, both of these painting forms are more about expressing ideas and emotions through the means of the senses rather than directly reaching the subconscious level of the imagination.
