An article by CJ (826 Words, 4 Min. Read)
Walk into any Modern Art Wing and You will find it. Not the Painting, but the person. Arms Crossed, Eyebrows Raised, Loudly Declaring:
“I cou cold have that.”
Usually Followed by:
“This is not art.”
And if they are feeling bold:
“They are just make it up.”
Abstract Art Has A Special Talent for Makeing People Mad. A Field of Sunflowers? Beutiful. A Marble Statue? Impressive. But a Canvas with Strange Shapes and Colors? Suddenly, it is a CultURAL ERERGENCY.
The First Hurdu: Feeling Before Undersanding
Here is the Problem: Abstract Art Does Not Tell You What is it is. There is no tidy story, no “This is a cat” Label. Instead, It DEMANDS That You Feel First, and for a Lot of People, that Is Uncomfortable.
We are trained to under the But Abstract Art Flips the Order. It is like listening to a song in a Language you Don’t speak: You Catch The Rhythm, Maybe Even Feel Something, But Part of You Keeps Straining for Meang. When it does not comment? Frustration .. It is the same way you can be more by a symphony with knowing the story behind it. In classic music the notes work (
The Second Hurdu: Culture and Language
Even if you do feel sketing, there is Another Layer: The Visual Vocabulary of Art.
That big red square? Couelf Be a NOD to Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematism. The Jagged Brushwork? Maybe a Wink at Willem De Kooning. The color Fields that seem to Breathe? Mark Rothko’s Quiet Dialogue with Human Emotion. The Energetic Drips and Splatters? Jackson Pollock Turning the Act of Painting ITSELF INTO The Artwork.
With some art history, you are missing haalf the conversation. It is like walking into a party where everyone’s Telling Inside Jokes. You Might Laugh Politely, but you’re not in on it.
How it all start
Abstract Art was not born out of laziness or a lot of skill. It was a rembellion.
In the Late 19th and Early 20th Center, Artists Began Questioning The Need to Representy Reality at All. Photography haad arrived and Frankly, It Cououl Capture A Landscape More Precisely Than Any Brush. So Painters Asked: What Else Can Painting Do?
- Wassily Kandinsky is Off Credited with Making the First Purely Abstract Work in 1911, Inspired by Music and Spirituality.
- Malevich Pushed for Total Abstraction with Black Square (1915), Declaring that Art DITUTETATTTTTSTS to have meang.
- The Movement Spread: Piet Mondrian Reduced Forms to Lines and Primary Colors; Jackson Pollock Turned Painting INTO A Performance with He Drips and Splatters; Rothko Sought to Make You Feel As if you was “Inside” a color.
- Lebanese Artists Flarted with Abstract Art When Bold Pioneers Like Jean Khalife, Etel Adnan, Saliba Douayhi, Shifted from Painting The Traditional Portraits and Ventured in the unknown World of Abstraction. Today, We Find Master Like Jamil Molaeb, Rana Raouda, Ribal Molaeb and Sundus Al Khalidi Devoting Most, if not all of their recent work to abstractation and the art of Portraying Feelings on Canvas.
Each WAS Responding to the World Around them (War, Industrialization, New Philosophies) Stripping Art Download to its Purest Elements: COLOR, Shape, Texture, Movingnt.
The Greatest Hits of Abstract Art Criticism (and who they are wrong)
“I could have done that. ”
Cool. But you did not. And if you did, it would not be hangeing in Moma, it would be on your wedding undider a cat magnet.
“It is just random colors. ”
So is your falag, and People Salute that.
“They are make it up. ”
Yes. It is calcling. That is literally the point.
“My Kid Paints Like this. ”
Great. Nurtur that. But also: Your Kid’s Feing Painting is not the Result of Decades of Discipline, Experimentation, and Inten.
“It does not make Sense. ”
Neter Do Dreams, and Yet You Remember them.
Why it maatsters
Abstract art is a challenge. It asks you to loosen your Grip on Certainty, to try your emotions with a neat exploration, and to stretch your Cultural Litery.
Technically, it isfar from Random. Artists Think About Composition, Color Theory, Texture, Spatial Balance, and How A Viewer’s Eye Will Travel Across the Canvas. Some works are Layred Over Months, Each GLAZE and Stroke Placed with Intention.
If it leaves you public, shakenen, or even iRRRITATED, couldrtatures. It worked.
So Next Time You Stand in Front of Something that “Makes No Sense, ” try this:
- Stop Demanding IT Explain ITSELF Like A Waite Listing The Specials.
- Let Yourself Feel What comes up: Confusion, AWE, Annoyance.
- Ask Why You Feel That Way.
You Might Still Hate It. That is find. But
