Art by Abstraction

The goal of abstract art is to communicate the intangible, that which eludes the photograph and normal seeing. Is Abstract Expressionism dead? Is Abstract Art as a whole past its prime? The title of my website, Art by Abstraction, and the content of my blog posts, voice my belief that a work is not art except that, by some means, we make it distinc... t from reality. As it diverges from reality, the image becomes abstracted. To the extent of that abstraction the artist has greater opportunity to better communicate his artistic and visual message. Often we forget what the term art really means, what it refers to. There is a strong tendency to generalize the meaning of art and many feel that art simply equates to a pretty picture and for most of us thats the extent of it. Or, on the other hand, if an artist is adept at faithfully copying an image from nature, he is considered an artist. He created art. But, the real artist, creating realart, identifies a core attribute or characteristic of a scene or the message they wish to convey and presents that to the viewer. This is the process of abstraction. This is true for all great art, from the cave paintings of Lascaux to the Byzantine era, from Rembrandt to da Vinci, from Bourguereau to Monet, from Constable to Warhol. If any of these artists simply painted only what they saw, we would never hear their name uttered, much less be viewed as a great artist. Art is not simply a pretty picture, nor is it skillfully painting what we see, but rather a creative communication of feelings and emotions unachievable by documents of fact nor by a faithful reproduction. I strongly contend that art is the means by which we communicate emotion and feeling, in contrast to the cold hard facts. I am unsatisfied with the definition of abstract that is offered by Webster, even the one as it pertains to art. However, Webster does give the origin of the word abstract: Medieval Latin abstractus, from Latin, past participle of abstrahere to drag away, from abs-, ab- + trahere to pull, draw ...Read More