What Art Means

What’s The Difference Between What it Means and How it Looks?

 
"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential." -- Wassily Kandinsky.

How to Interpret Abstract Art

As we have discussed in this class, one of the most common reactions to abstraction is often "My six-year-old could've done that", or worse, “A monkey could’ve done that". And the usual response by artist is to say the person lacks the mental ability to appreciate abstract art. But if a piece of abstract art is to have significance for anyone other than the artist, it needs to have something that'll retain the viewer's attention, draw them in, keep them looking, and generate an emotional response.

As a viewer of this and other abstract paintings, ask yourself the following questions:
  • Am I trying to figure out what it looks like or represents rather than allowing something to emerge from what I see in front of me?
  • What are the elements, colors, and textures of the painting?
  • How do these interact with each other?
  • What emotions does the painting evoke?
  • What is the title of the painting and how is this influencing what I see?
  • Have I allowed enough time to make a connection with painting?
  • Did the artist simply want the abstract painting to be beautiful?
  • Did the artist want people to extract their own meaning from it?

Cubism :Cubism introduced the idea of painting an object from more than one view point.

According to Artlex, the art dictionary Abstract or Abstraction is : Imagery which departs from representational accuracy, to a variable range of possible degrees, for some reason other than appearing to be real. Abstract artists select and then exaggerate or simplify the forms suggested by the world around them.

However, its purest form abstract art is one without a recognizable subject, one which doesn't relate to anything external or try to "look like" something. This is also known as nonobjective art. Instead the color /form / materials are the subject of the abstract painting. It's completely non-objective or non-representational.

A further distinction tends to be made between abstract art which is geometric, such as the work of Mondrian, and abstract art that is more fluid (and where the apparent spontaneity often belies careful planning and execution), such as the abstract art of Kandinsky or Pollock. Also generally classified with abstract art are figurative abstractions and paintings which represent things that aren't visual, such an emotion, sound, or spiritual experience.


Matisse: The Fauvists used color in a non-realistic way.

In Western art history, the break from the notion that a painting had to represent something happened in the early 20th century. Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and other art movements of the time all contributed by breaking the "rules" of art followed since The Renaissance. Impressionism saw painters not "finishing" their paintings.

Cubism introduced the idea of painting an object from more than one view point. From all of these the idea developed that color, line, form, and texture could be the "subject" of the painting.


Expressionistic DeKooning Painting

Abstract Expressionism, which emerged in the 1940s, applied the principles of Expressionism to abstract painting. The action painting of Jackson Pollock, in which paint was dripped, dropped, smeared, spattered, or thrown on the canvas, is a good example.


What Are The Purposes Of Art?


"no artists are part of a movement. Unless they are followers. And then they are unnecessary and doing unnecessary art. If they are exploring in an 'individual way' with 'different ideas' the idea of another individual, they are making a worthy contribution, but as soon as they call themselves followers or accept the truths they have not explored as truths, they are defeating the purpose of art as an individual expression -- art as art." keith haring, in his journal, October 14, 1978, nyc

UNDERSTAND WHY ARTISTS CREATE WHAT THEY CREATE


Erased Dekooning

Reasons for Creating Art

  • Visual Delight - The Arts of Daily Life
  • Art for daily life can bridge art and community, stressing connections. Many cultures view art and craft as inseparable concepts.
  • The Sacred Realm
  • Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual.
  • Politics and The Social Order
  • History provides abundant examples of how social relations impact art. Traditionally the church, state, and wealthy patrons have funded the arts in order to increase their political power and prestige.
  • Stories and Histories
  • Artists have often been called upon to illustrate deeds of heroes, folktales passed on through generations, and famous writings. Art can provide a record that is often more insightful than history books.
  • Looking Outward: the Here and Now
  • Art is a distinctly human production, and many people consider it the ultimate form of culture because it can have the quality of pure expression. What could be a more universal aspect of humanity than experiencing the arts?
  • Looking Inward: the Human Experience
  • If an artist describes the process of creation as painful or exhilarating or challenging or joyful then we can assume they have some emotional involvements as a part of the reasons for creating.
  • Invention and Fantasy
  • This is Art that depicts magical or other supernatural themes, ideas, creatures or settings.
  • Art and Nature
  • This is Art that celebrates, depicts and explores nature.
  • Art and Art
  • Many artists are inspired by other artists work

Why Do Artists Create - My Personal Philosophy

It is an important question and one that has been asked many times. Each artist has many reasons for creating art. There are no wrong reasons, but some are more important than others. I believe artists have acquired a wonderful love, attachment, maybe addiction for complete control within some boundaries that they themselves have accepted as a field of creativity. Within this small field they have the power and the responsibilities of a god.

On a canvas, or piece of marble, or a lump of clay - the artist can express his or herself without the interference of any one or any thing unless they themselves decide. In this situation the artist is a sovereign, a king/queen, without peer. If an artist wishes to follow or parallel some other doctrine or discipline, it is completely up to them.

For myself it goes beyond this it is a chance to create a perfect world. I then have aligned my aesthetic philosophy with Plato. Reality is not enough, so why make art that is reality based. I want to create art that is beyond reality that is Utopia based. I want to create the perfect world that does not exist, and if I cannot create it, the very act of attempting to create it is an emotional act in itself that brings on self-fulfillment; (I think this is very similar to fairy tales and mythology.) I find a similar reason for any music making or creative writing that I do.
Links:

What Is Important About The Artists’ Philosophy Or Aesthetics?


"I felt beauty was very important to me, so I made as many ugly things as I could -- not because I set out to, but rather to figure out what beauty was. It seemed so abstract." Jim Hodges Interviewed by Judith Dobrzynski in The New York Times, 3/24/1999
  • Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that asks questions such as “What is art?” The concept of art in older theories defined art in terms of how artists combined the real (what is seen) with the ideal (what is imagined.)
  • Aesthetics is the realization of a concept of one's humanness as manifest in expressive form. -Dik Munson

Aesthetic Theories

Aristotle: expounded the idea of mimesis, the imitation of nature or reality.

re•al•i•ty (r - l -t )
n. pl. re•al•i•ties
1. The quality or state of being actual or true.
Plato: an artist helps to combine the real and the ideal- the idea itself is what lies in absolute perfection.
All art is an illusion, even art that reproduces an object’s physical appearance.

So if art is depicting reality, what reality is it? Is it mere representation? Or can the mental state or the emotional response of a person be a form of reality? It is often assumed that artists who distort the physical appearance of things do not have the ability to depict the accurate appearance.

Modern Aesthetic Philosophies

  • Kant: Beautiful does not involve personal interests or needs.
  • Hegal: Art, religion, and philosophy are the bases of the highest spiritual development. Beauty in nature is everything that the human spirit finds pleasing to the exercise of spiritual and intellectual freedom.
  • Nietzsche: Art Confronts the Horrible- the Wrong. Art confronts the terrors of the universe and is therefore only for the strong. Art can transform any experience into beauty, and by so doing transforms its horrors in such a way that they may be contemplated with enjoyment.
  • Richards: Claimed that art is a language. He asserted that two types of language exist: the symbolic, which conveys ideas and information; and the emotive, which expresses, evokes, and excites feelings and attitudes.
  • Avante Garde: is innovative and challenges commonly accepted forms of expression.
As illustrated in Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, art resides in the intentions of the artist and viewer to see an object as art.

These artists are out of the box as far as the art world is concerned. However, would you put them under Avante Gaurde, or in another branch of philosophy?

Thinking about Art: Aesthetics
For more information about aesthetic philosophy, look at the following websites, which offer explanations and articles.

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