Abstraction

 The beauty of an abstract painting is something that has intrigued all of us in class. There is something enticing about forming a piece that is totally at the mercy of one's thoughts and feelings. An abstract painting acts as a puzzle that can only be solved through discussion with oneself. 

Now, in class, we have analyzed everything from Cezanne to O'Keefe and Picasso. Now Cezanne's work is excellent in its own right. However, most of the class has been feeling an internal connection with O'Keefe and Picasso's abstract paintings. 

I have one question: Why? 

If we look at this Picasso painting, our soul races to its depths to find answers, to conjure up what this masterpiece might be saying to us. Even though it might not be saying anything. It might just remain an elegant piece of stillness. But that is very rare in abstraction. 



We cannot see a perfect bottle of rum in this picture but we can collect its pieces and call this painting a resemblance of rum. If we focus just above the center of the canvas, we can formulate a cork and the curvature of a bottle. We can see the same curvature almost echoing on the left side of our focus point. The center of the presumed bottle is open to imagination. The rigid and harsh angles and lines in the painting force one to focus on something, to conjure up something. The letter on the west of the canvas and the eye on the upper right side may make us think that this is not a bottle of rum but rather what a bottle of rum feels like. 

However, we can analyze this painting all we want without knowing its actual purpose. The fact that we are unaware of its purpose is what entices us. 

That leads me to a question: If I create an abstraction on a blackboard, would it be more enticing than a perfect encapsulation of a scene like Cezanne's work? I wish I knew the answer.      

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshNovember 27, 2022 at 8:46 PM

    Interesting. Could you make an argument as to why your blackboard abstraction might be more enticing than a Cezanne?

    ReplyDelete

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