Abstraction in Art

Key Art Terms

• Abstraction: Reduction or simplification of visual elements.

• Figurative: Representational work.

• Non-representational: Non-mimetic or non-narrative visual art.

• Metonym: A part symbolizing the whole.

• Formalism: Emphasis on form over content.

• Modernism: Art/design period (approx. $1913$-$1960$s) characterized by visual experiment and decorative reduction.

• Photo Montage: Image development process using photographic techniques.

Paul Cezanne

• Painted Mont Saint-Victoire from diverse angles, seasons, and times of day.

Wassily Kandinsky

• Compositions were spontaneous rhythms of color and form, painted purely from emotion.

• Key Works: Composition VIII ($1923$), Blue Painting ($1924$), Red, Blue, Yellow ($1925$).

Pablo Picasso

• Influenced by African art.

• Key Works: Les Demoiselles D'Avignon ($1907$) - represented "ladies of the night with a twist"; Girl Before a Mirror (Marie Thérese Walther) ($1932$); Portrait of Francoise ($1946$); Jacqueline With Flowers ($1956$).

Georges Braque & Cubism

• Cubism: Attempted to interpret reality in $2$-dimensions without perspectival illusion, emphasizing multi-angle, multi-depth, and multi-dimensional views.

• Key Works: Violin and Candlestick ($1910$), Still Life With Grapes ($1912$), Still Life With Violin ($1912$), Still life ($1913$).

Marcel Duchamp

• Nude Descending a Stairway ($1913$): Oil on canvas.

• The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, even (La mariée mise à nu par ses célebataires, meme) ($1915$-$1923$): An experiment in "playful physics" and mechano-morphic representation of human desire, created on glass panels.

  • Original shattered in shipment ($1926$), Duchamp preserved cracks as an element of chance.

  • Incorporated dust from his studio into the varnish.

  • Upper half: Bride.

  • Lower half: Bachelors, including Nine Malic Molds, Glider, Water Wheel, Sieves, Chocolate Grinder, Scissors, Oculist Witnesses.

Willem DeKooning

• Abstracted from the human figure, particularly women.

• Also abstracted studio objects, e.g., Abstraction ($1949$-$1950$).

Jackson Pollack

• No. 1 (Lavender Mist) ($1950$): Abstractions were physical representations of arm movements; non-representational.

• Vic Muniz recreated Pollack painting as Action Photo 1 ($1997$) using chocolate syrup, then rephotographed.

Other Abstract Artists

• Clyfford Still ($1904$-$1980$)

• Franz Kline ($1910$-$1962$): Turin ($1960$).

• Morris Louis ($1912$-$1962$).

Abstraction in Sculpture

• Henry Moore ($1898$-$1986$): Abstracted forms.

• David Smith ($1906$-$1965$): Noted similarity between his sculptures and ink drawings.

Robert Rauschenberg

• Utilized collage, incorporating photos and found objects, in both $2$-D and $3$-D works.

• Key Works: Monogram ($1955$-$1959$), Small Rebus, combine painting ($1956$), Retroactive I ($1963$), The 1/4 Mile ($1981$-$1998$) - a quarter-mile long photo montage.

Richard Diebenkorn

• Practiced Formalism, focusing on landscapes, often from above.

• Used color to represent form, e.g., Ocean Park #43 ($1971$).

Gerhard Richter

• Explores various forms of abstraction and challenging subjects.

• Key Works: Strip (CR 927/7) ($2012$), Strip (CR930/1) ($2013$), Birkenau Cycle ($2014$) - based on concentration camp photos; Flow (P15)(P16) ($2016$).