My Opera
Towards the Abstract
Tuesday, July 3, 2007 7:21:11 PM
This article is a little contribution towards understanding abstract art in general. I was actually thinking to write about cubism and Picasso, but that shuld wait for the next time. I believe this comes first. People often visit modern galleries and watch modern art with no understanding, because they expect to recognize parts of their physical reality. I think there is much more to human life than that. What about our passion and love, fears and demons, what about our phylosophy? Isn't that worth expressing? And how could you do it if not by complex "rebuses"? How did it come t that?
On the left: Le guitariste by Pablo Picasso (1910)
If you read the article about decontstructivism, then you remember how me mentioned, that two major views on creativity were shifting from time to time trough the past. One emphasizes realistic aproach, with no emotion expressed, and the other pursues romantic aproach, with little or no interest for factual reality. However we look uppon these, we must understand both; realism comes from the need of "freezing things in time" and romanticism is about releasing one's feelings and frustrations.
But at a beggining of 20th century, after the major industrial revolution there was a huge wave of new inventions, such as photography, film, sound recording (etc), which really improved our way of recording history in a realistic way. With good photography, there is acutally very little need for realistic painting, which can not compete by the measures of realism, speed, accuracy and even price. Realistic painters were doomed. But, some of them were smart enough to realize, that there are advantages in painting that no photography can have. As much as a photograph can be realistic, it is also limited by it's own devices when it comes to abstract reality.
For example: a photography can hardly surpass laws of gravity or given light. On the other hand, with painting everything is possible. Objects can float, they can be streched or resized and be manipulated beyond any definition! That is one hell of the advantage! Avant-garde of that time knew that and started pursuing this idea because it is much more convenient for portraying inner emotions and abstract thoughts. Even words can not do that without complex metaphores. We can say words like "love", "anger", or "mathematics" and somehow we understand eachother, because we assume we all experienced it in (more or less) the same way, but when it comes to complex experiences or ideas (even the most extreme ones, induced by drugs or mental illnes), simple words are powerless. You can only use abstract metaphores in order to reach your viewer/listener/reader...
However; there is a trap. Because abstract art often looks very simple or even random, it is a perfect hiding place for phoneys who have really nothing to tell to the world and just spill paint on canvas or randomly mix words in a poem. Sometimes it is hard to separate those pricks from real artists... How should you do it? This is where I would like leave you for today.
Thanks for reading.
Filippo Albertinphilweblog # Friday, July 6, 2007 8:30:55 AM