3. What is Abstract Painting?

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Looking at an abstract painting, some people would scratch their heads and say, "My 5-year old could do that!" 

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This kind of reaction comes from the fact that Abstract art is not representation. It is not about making perfect copies of real life. In abstract, an artist does not draw what he sees, he draws how he feels. He does't portray a picture, he creates an atmosphere. He expresses his creativity by creating a visual experience that is more free and unencumbered by the weight of objects.

 

The formal qualities of an artwork lie in its form, color, line, texture, pattern, composition and process. These qualities describe what the art looks like and how it is created. Abstract art too is an exploration of these formal qualities. Here the meaning is derived from how these formal qualities are used to create a visual (and/or visceral, cerebral, emotional, etc) experience.

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Abstract art can also make people uneasy because they don't automatically know what the art is "about" just by a cursory glance. Or they assume that because it doesn't look like anything, then it is not "about" anything.

 

Abstract art doesn't contain recognizeable objects, so there is nothing to grasp or hold onto. This can be very confusing, even threatening, to some who are not used to assigning their own meaning to what they see before them.

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