Abstract Art

Abstract art looks nothing like what you would normally see with the human eye. It doesn’t imitate the viewed world. Instead, it changes the position of images, moving them where you would not usually see them or, making them look completely different. Abstract art took a step forward during the beginning of the 19th century. Artists like Picasso and Cezanne were popular around this time. Abstract artists use soft, loose brush strokes to bring out the main object in a picture. Paul Cezanne’s pictures encourages other artists to use abstract shapes in their pictures.

Abstract art was first developed in Europe. It falls into two major categories. Abstract art, in one way, is starting as the same image seen, and then not changing the realistic features of the picture. The second category is changing the picture purposely, giving the picture a look that has no relationship to the actual image.

The artist’s paintings have irregular, cell-like shapes that represente what they are feeling. Many artists research the pictures they are going to draw. They want to make the picture look as realistic as possible. Their research can take weeks, months, or even years. Abstract artists would have a feeling inside them that would make them want to draw something. They don’t research it. They feel something, and draw it right then and there. You can’t research your own feelings. If you try to research the feeling, you might loose it. Abstract artists draw their pictures spontaneously.

Following World War ll, abstract expressionists including Jackson Pollok, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman, enlarged their canvases to a mural size painting. They thought that it would give the public a better idea of what they thought. Minimalists of the 1960’s such as Robert Morris and Donald Judd took abstract art to a different level, making the pictures seem more fufilled and had a different meaning that was made in the generation before. Artists in the later 1960’s and the 1970’s are often reffered to as postminimalsts. A postminimalist/minimalists is someone who draws with no purpose. They draw things that don’t exist. Usually, they will have bright colors and shapes that have sharp points.

Glossary

Irregular, cell like shapes: Shapes that don’t look normal or different than what it would usually look like.

Expressionists: Someone who expresses their feelings with their pictures.

Canvases: A canvas is like board that you draw on. The surface is slightly bumpy & rough.

Mural: A mural is a painting that is the size of a wall, or bigger.