Abstraction, Formal and Expressive
It has been said, by me, at any rate, that even so-called realism in visual art can be analyzed for its abstract dynamics. Some analytical diagrams of strong realist compositions could stand alone as profound abstract art. Just this weekend, I saw some early works of one of my favorite painters, Guy Anderson (1906-98), wherein he had playfully improvised a variety of compositions through abstraction and distortion based on Byzantine icons and early Renaissance paintings of saints and martyrs. These originals, it should be remembered, were themselves abstractions and distortions based on concepts of nature and religious symbolism. Anderson later developed his own almost purely abstract visual language, far simpler and more fluid, to convey much the same emotion as I felt in these early works, although devoid of the laborious particulars. Through further abstraction the message became more clear.
Theories abound concerning the meanings, philosophical underpinnings, and the basic approach to abstract art. Although it has been with us now for a hundred years or more, much of the public remains perplexed, and even many painters are still at a loss as to its purpose and its process. The contemporary art world is now comprised of every conceivable stripe of painter, from the perfect realist to the emotional abstractionist to the minimalist.
I have recently been asked to teach a class on abstract painting and process. The following is an attempt to organize some of my thoughts on how I would go about teaching such a slippery subject.
It seems to me that we can, right out of the gate, classify abstract art into two broad categories: Classical (or Formalist), and Romantic (or Expressionist). These two poles didn’t appear with abstraction. They have their roots with existing lineages within the history of European art, going back for centuries. The formalist values order, reason, intellect, and balance above all else in painting. The expressionist tendency is toward abandon, intuition, gut feeling, and upheaval. One is cool and distant, while the other is hot and urgent.
Two common examples from the dawn of Modernism are Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-90). In Cézanne’s works, one can see a purposeful distortion of the motif toward a more sound and stable composition, and his color is a logical conclusion of his studies of light. On the other hand, van Gogh’s distortion of form is toward an emotional turmoil and his color does not describe reality so much as it symbolizes psychological states.
Every school of abstract art, I believe, traces their roots to these two opposing geniuses. Beginning with Cubism, those schools that hold structure and balance as their primary motivators can look to Cézanne as their progenitor. These movements also include Constructivism, Futurism, De Stijl, Minimalism, and others, typified by such well-known artists as Picasso, Fernand Leger, Ben Nicholson, and Piet Mondrian. In the van Gogh camp we find German Expressionism, Automatism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, L’Art Informel, Action Painting, and plenty more. In the 1920s, the Bauhaus in Germany formalized many of the lessons learned from modern art to that point. The Bauhaus faculty were among the most advanced creative minds in Europe. Though a few of these could be thought of as expressionists, I would say they leaned rather heavily in the direction of formalist ideals, probably because formalism always involves the adherence to at least a few rules, and is, therefore, easier to teach. Instructions on how to paint with your emotions will always be vague in comparison. Reviewing the great wealth of painting that has come down to us since they opened the Pandora’s Box of Abstract Colors, one notes that very few are purely formalist or expressionist, but rather everyone lines up somewhere on the continuum.
And so, to summarize and delve into the particulars:
The Roots of Abstraction:
Artists of either stripe must make use of the basic visual elements available to any painter. The expressive possibilities are found in the way in which a painter handles them. My own extended list of the visual elements follows, with another, parallel list that elucidates these choices.
The Formal Visual Elements:
The Expressive Visual Elements:
In all painting these visual elements are employed to bring about the Principles of Art, which are:
The Principles of Art:
Once one is somewhat familiar with the rules of the game, it becomes fairly easy to play toward purposeful distortion of observed reality, to improvise on the principles by manipulating the visual elements. But, just how does one choose a format, the shape and scale of a work, and then go on to employ line, shape, and color in a way that conveys content, without recourse to a recognizable object?
I once heard a fascinating documentary on the life and work of Miles Davis, one of the greatest innovators in music in the 20th century. The typical pattern of even the most avant gard jazz music was to begin with a chart, and allow the various players to cut loose over it through improvisation. In the mid-1960s, some jazz artists were experimenting with a sort of art-without-a-plan. Davis, after finishing his own gigs, would drop over to clubs where this sort of “Free Jazz” was going on and ask in his raspy voice, “How do you do that?”
To start, you pay attention to your personally experienced interests. What interests you? What catches your eye? Or your ear? More importantly, what catches your internal eye or ear? Do you sense a difference? You could lead with line, or with shape. A particular color could open the game, one that simply appeals to you, makes you feel a certain way. You may have a feeling, or a memory, that you want to convey, without referencing it too directly. How would you paint a sound? For instance, the warbling of a loon over a moonlit lake, or the hoarse voice of someone used to whisky and smoke. How would you paint that?
You may want to give visual expression to an intellectual or spiritual idea. Advertising is living proof that line quality, shape, and color carry powerful meaning. Note any very successful corporate logo and see if the abstract figure associated with it does or does not symbolize the company’s ideals or services. How would you put that kind of power to use to get across a personal meaning? Without explicit representation or subject matter, what carries meaning in visual art? What does a particular shape or color signify? To know this you must pay very close attention to your own responses to the visual elements themselves. Only then can you manipulate them to bring about the desired meaning through intuitively perceived visual metaphor. In the case of someone like Piet Mondrian, his even, heavy black lines, describing perfect, clean grids, sparingly balanced with only pure primary color, could be said to signify order, equilibrium, and purity. Mondrian had a very specific philosophical rationale for his formal abstractions. Mark Rothko’s huge canvases of soft rectangles of color that reflect and expand on each other by color resonance have an overwhelming sense of the sublime. Richard Diebenkorn’s work flows freely between representation and abstraction as though he feels no difference, and after looking at his work long enough, one comes to feel comfortable with abstraction as reality, reality as abstraction. When you expand your senses, and look into their associative meanings, you can experience them as communicating with one another. The human mind is amazing.
Here’s an interesting story from 10th Century China that opens up another way to look at all this:
When the old sage meets the young painter in the forest he asks: “Do you know the method of painting?” To which he (I) answered: “You seem to be an old uncouth rustic; how could you know anything about brush-work.” But the old man said: “How can you know what I carry in my bosom?” Then I listened and felt ashamed and astonished; he spoke to me as follows: “Young people like to study in order to accomplish something; they should know that there are six essentials in painting. The first is called ch’I (spirit or vitality), the second is called yün (resonance or harmony), the third is called ssu (thought or plan), the fourth is called ching (effect of scenery or motif), the fifth is called pi (brush) and the sixth is called mo (ink).” --I remarked: “Painting is to make beautiful things; and the important point is to obtain their true likeness; is it not?” He answered: “It is not. Painting is to paint, to estimate the shapes of things, to really obtain them; to estimate the beauty of things, to reach it; to estimate the reality (significance) of things and to grasp it. One should not take outward beauty for reality. He who does not understand this mystery will not obtain truth, even though his pictures may contain likeness.” I asked: “What is likeness and what is truth?” The old man said: “Likeness can be obtained by shapes without spirit, but when truth is reached, both spirit and substance are fully expressed. He who tries to express spirit through ornamental beauty will make dead things.”(Sirén 39)
The old man’s six points sound remarkably modern to me, though he was speaking a thousand years ago. As a matter of fact, in 1947, Matisse made much the same point in an article entitled “Exactitude is not Truth” (Flam 117). I think, with little modification, these six essentials can be applied quite fluidly to modern representational and abstract work alike. In the fourth point, we must simply allow that the motif may be something seen or unseen, something sensed by another faculty, or by the mind. Then we can give it all the meaning we are able, based on intuitive association, with all the skill at our disposal.
Vitality in modern art can be carried in brushwork, in color, format, or shapes. Resonance or Harmony is the effective juxtaposition of like or unlike line, shape, or color. Thought or Plan, what we would now call Composition, is the art of balancing all of the elements together. The Motif, as I said above, can include the unseen. And Brush and Ink refer to all of the tools and materials at our disposal, and, in modern work especially, to the materiality of the work.
Personally, I find this way of looking at the problem of abstraction more complete and satisfying. In it the essentials are listed from the most ephemeral to the most concrete. The workshop I offer will involve a close look at both the Chinese and the Euro-American ways of working with abstraction, and plenty of time for hands-on experimentation.
Flam, Jack. Matisse On Art. New York: E.P.Dutton, 1978.
Hunter, Sam. Modern Art. New York: The Vendome Press, 2000.
Sirén, Oswald. The Chinese on the Art of Painting. New York: Schocken Books, 1963.
To Dye or Not to Dye?
Let’s face it. As we grow older, our bodies start to change. In fact, so many parts of our physical appearance change, there are far too many to list. This being said, let’s focus only on hair color.
When I was a child, I saw many adults leave our neighborhood in their cars with shiny, silvery hair, only to return a few short hours later looking as if their hair had been dipped in used oil. They looked utterly ridiculous! I couldn’t understand why they felt the need to deny themselves of a well-earned head of beautiful silver hair. After witnessing this more times than I’m able to recall, I remember telling myself that when my gorgeous blond hair started to turn gray, I would never alter it by having it artificially colored. Besides, the color of used oil was not appealing to me in the least, especially for a hair color.
As my young mind examined this topic further, I came to the realization that the people doing this were being dishonest to themselves and to society. Dishonesty flew in the face of the way I was raised, so I couldn’t help but wonder what else these neighbors of ours were lying about. I had always thought of them as honest, law-abiding citizens. They watched me when my parents were out, and were the first to offer a hand when the need arose. Until I really examined this phenomenon, I was convinced that our neighbors had earned the same level of respect as my parents. My parents were as honest as they come, and the fact that neither of them ever dyed their hair solidified my opinion on the matter. Our neighbors no longer had my blind respect.
I didn’t have to worry about my own hair turning gray until I was in my late twenties. My friend and I were sitting by a window enjoying the sun, when to my surprise, I caught a glimpse of a shimmering, single gray hair coming from my head. I was horrified and quickly plucked it out. I placed it in my wallet as a keepsake and convincing myself it was a fluke, went on with my life, believing that each remaining strand of my hair was blond. Even though I was upset at finding my own gray hair, I continued to believe that coloring your hair was dishonest, and I wanted nothing to do with it.
Being the vocal individual I am, I don’t usually hesitate to share my opinions with anyone who cares to listen. This, of course, includes my opinion against concealing natural gray hair through artificial color. I have come to the realization that many people don’t agree with me.
Society seems to embrace change as long as it has to do with looking younger than you actually are. The range of visual body changing services available to anyone with financial means is abundant in our society. There are several weight loss programs and botox treatments available, along with plastic surgery, breast augmentation, liposuction, stomach stapling, and hair coloring, just to mention a few. With many celebrities going public about the various treatments and programs they put their bodies through, many of the treatments have become mainstreamed with a wide level of societal acceptance.
The premise in favoring these things is quite simple: it’s so important to look young, that you should do anything and everything you can to achieve a youthful appearance. The goal is to try to convince yourself of how much more successful, fulfilling, and satisfying your life will be by visually altering yourself to look younger.
The arguments presented for this are difficult to repute if you focus only on print media, commercials, and award shows. The actors and actresses earning awards and being depicted in commercials and print are, by and large, considered the beautiful people of the world because of their youthful looks. Who wouldn’t want to look like them? How many celebrities do you see with natural gray hair? Not too many. Most of them alter themselves to look younger so they can be cast in roles that depict generations younger than their own. This is especially true with women, due to the fact that at a much younger age than men, they are considered too old to be box office gold.
Non-celebrities also have paths to a more youthful appearance available to them. Go to any grocery store and you’ll find an entire aisle filled with hair kits ranging from one end of the rainbow to the other. You don’t even have to go to a beauty salon to color your hair anymore. Anyone can do it, and anybody that wants to do it does it. This includes not only the gray haired generations, but also the youth of the world. Young people with gorgeous, silky, soft hair are dying their hair bright orange, green, blue, purple, and every other color you can imagine.
The main issue with home coloring kits is that it’s very obvious when someone has taken that route instead of having it done professionally. As much as I disagree with the whole concept, I figure if you’re going to do it, at least do it the right way. The art of hair coloring has come a long way in the last thirty years. Take advantage of the professionals, so you won’t come home looking like you dipped your head in used oil.
Many people consider a youthful appearance a one-way road to that promotion at work, or some kind of recognition for a job well done. Everyday, I see people at work that have had their hair color altered. The funny thing is, the majority of these people have been promoted to a higher position within the company. In fact, you can almost tell who works in what department and at what level by their hair color! This is a very disturbing, but real phenomenon. To me and countless others, this is a travesty. Many people are out there in society living as honestly as they can. They’re losing out on opportunities at work and in their communities because they refuse to live a lie by coloring their hair. They embrace entirely the natural progression of their bodies by accepting wrinkles, love handles, stretch marks, and last, but not least, gray hair. They recognize how far they’ve come in life and what they’ve endured to earn the right to display themselves in all their glorious societal shortcomings.
Gray hair to them is a symbol of maturity and growth. It’s recognized as something that should be celebrated, rather than cast off with the swift brush of color over their scalp. They choose to proceed through their golden years being honest with themselves and with anyone who glances their way. They remember their youth and continue to base their lives on the values taught them by their parents: be honest with yourself and others, don’t steal, cheat, lie, or color your hair. They live with the hope that they were able to instill the same set of values in their children and in generations to come.
To dye or not to dye? I say, be true to yourself. Embrace the silvery gray hair that the youth of today is trying to copy through artificial means.