Abstract art

I have never understood abstract art. I have tried.

I am not a big art lover but when I have viewed art I tend to be at the photo-realistic end as, to me, that shows the skill of the artist.

A recent article made me reconsider the role and evolution of abstract art. It highlights five artists and then works through their journey to the abstract art that made them famous. In each case the artist was not just creating the art as they couldn’t paint; they were all talented artists that went on a journey. You can see at each point how they are experimenting and how it ties to previous work.

Looking at the early artwork of each of them, to me, they were nice but didn’t really stand out. I wonder if this is what lead them to their journey. By experimenting to see where it went they could break away from the normal, stand out from the crowd. This is a bit like fashion. It is pushing moving away from the every day, the normal.

I certainly learnt a new view of abstract art from the article. My preconceptions about it just being someone who couldn’t paint have been expelled and each of their transitions is interesting to follow.

However I still don’t understand the appeal of abstract art.

Links

The Figurative-to-Abstract Art Pipeline

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