Response: Could my abstraction compete with perfect imitation?

 After understanding the nature of abstraction and imitation, I am stuck with the same question I had when observing Picasso's painting of a bottle of rum: Can I create a piece of abstraction that could compete with, or even defeat perfect imitation paintings like those of Cezanne? 

The reason for even considering such a question has come about from discussions in class. We have analyzed O'Keefe, Picasso, and Cezanne respectively. O'Keefe and Picasso's abstractions have led us to greater conversations and there is a feeling that they have been more moving than the ones with pure (and perfect) imitation. 

Now, If i created an abstract piece of art through chalk on a class blackboard, would it be just as enticing as something with perfect imitation as Cezanne? (Disclaimer: This is just a thought experiment to understand a broader concept)  

If i argue in favor of my abstraction, my rationale would be something like this:

First, my abstract art would be a child of my soul. It would not have tried to emulate the material existence of an object that we see in the world. This immediately creates a sense of curiosity in the audience.  

Second, my abstraction, once finished, will present itself as a puzzle for the onlooker. And we have learned through discussion that humans are intrinsically inclined to solve a mystery or to formulate a story around a subject. If my piece of art is enticing enough, it might allow my classmates to create their own reality through the art in front of them. We have seen Kandinsky create such a scene when we analyzed his painting "small pleasures". 

Lastly, one might form a greater sense of appreciation of art if they themselves have played a role in finding its value. Such a task is present but limited in a painting that imitates real life objects perfectly. So, my abstraction might be appreciated with a sense of soul rather than just a compliment on the excellent composition that a painting of a vase with flowers.

*This argument is subject to inspiring art pieces.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the Rings of Trees - William Crombie

Image
pictured: the branch of a young Douglas fir and an ancient bristlecone pine     I think, sometimes, about tree rings. They would be difficult for me to forget: where Highway 101 enters my hometown (once the largest timber-producing port in the world), there is an enormous Douglas fir round taken from the kind of old-growth that used to cover the Coast Range, wide enough to take me as its radius and suspended above the ground by chains as thick as my torso. It's a relic of our prosperous decades as a timber boomtown, but it's just as much a relic of time itself; in its wood, drawn with the faithfulness of the most divinely exacting scribe, are centuries upon centuries. When the city erected it, they marked significant dates along its rings. 1492. 1588. 1666. 1776. 1865. 1914.     A few years ago, a cherry tree fell in a late-spring storm a ways up the ridge from my house-- not nearly so large as the tree the round by the highway must have come from, but larg...
Read more

ms. jurich - repetition

Image
Why are we as philosophers seemingly only concerned with what lies beyond the physical? Our curriculum is saturated with thinkers who so desperately want to shed their physical reality, to escape into the intellect. Why do our beloved philosophers exist in a state of self-hatred? Unfeeling? Why are they unable to see what is in front of them? The faculties of pure intellect are interesting, of course, but I am so much more concerned with what it is to be man. There are moments when our spirits fill our bodies like a golden light, perfectly describing our individual shapes. I couldn’t imagine that this is done in the intellect. How could it be? The physical is the medium of our spirits!!! I am enamored with the tiny little things of life. Things that are so uniquely human.  I feel that repetition falls to the side much like physicality in philosophy. I feel that people are quick to judge repetition, condemning it to " mundanity." But the feeling of repetition and the expressio...
Read more

The Fluidity and Subjectivity of Paintings

Image
I was incredibly intrigued in our discussion on O’Keefe’s cross paintings to find, what I felt like, was a flip-flopping of interpretation in the conversation. At first, it seemed, like any other conversation, that we each held different opinions or were inspired in different ways by the paintings. But as we continued to explore different cross paintings in juxtaposition to one another, it felt as if two sides, two primary ways of interpretation were forming. Most obviously, this split arose in Mr. Connelly’s mention of the Black Cross with Red Sky being placed across from the Black Cross with Stars and Blue in the O’Keefe museum. Immediate reactions to the red sky of the second painting were obvious, but I felt myself confused. Where others had felt peace in the cross imagery, now they felt disruption. (Interestingly, the peace seemed renewed within the last painting we viewed of the Church Steeple, although possibly corrupted by a feeling of simplicity). As I viewed the Black Cross w...
Read more