1.3 Abstract Art

1.3_Abstract Art

Until about the mid 1800’s, western art has aspired to the rational work of the observation and reproduction of our visible reality.  The scientific and philosophical changes of the time directly effected western art, where the theoretical abstract became concrete enough in the minds of artists to visually represent their philosophical views of the changing world.  Rather than discuss the history of art and the evolution of and realization of abstraction, I will tell you that Abstract Art is a logical conclusion for the moment.

Abstraction is a language of composition without the dependance of the visual world.  The abstract work of art is an idea related to our visual world through the personal interpretation of experience and retrospection.  Abstract art has allowed modern man to contemplate on our world views, our philosophies, and ourselves in an era where we not only have the opportunity to contemplate these things, we concentrate on it.  Abstract art is a logical conclusion for the moment.

Each artist’s ideas are their own, and the concepts and results of their abstract works of art are only subject to the variables of their generation.  Method and style are irrelevant, both being products of the period each artist lives in, and as such, are a representation of the intuitive state and personal interpretation of their generation.  You cannot place boundaries on or judge the aesthetics of a generation, you can however judge their philosophy in a general observation of the collective behavior of a generation.

The further the artist progresses into abstraction, the more it will become apparent that he is actually ascending into representation; not that of a photographic nature, but that of an intuitive kind.  With brief being at the nature of abstraction, we find that abstract art is only the sketch of a concept, and has yet to have grown into the maturity of pure compositional works.  The intended concept of the artist must live in every portion of a work of art for abstract oil painting to grow out of its infancy, and into the maturity of the aesthetics of compositional oil painting.

Lastly, regardless of a work of art’s appearance, if honest, it is beautiful.

Artwork of the month by Piet Mondrian

There are two artists that I look toward for their mastery of the philosophy of abstract oil painting. Wassily Kandinsky, and Piet Mondrian; both masters of their craft and shaman philosophers of modern art.

There are four Mondrian paintings at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts that I have spent years meditating on.  I have read everything Mondrian has written, and rarely disagreed with his thesis.   His work has inspired me and pushed me to be honest with my work, helping me see my visual language as my own.

Piet Mondrian

Dutch, 1872-1944

"Composition with Blue, Red, Yellow, and Black"

1922, oil on canvas

"Red Gladioli"

1906, Oil on canvas

"Irises"

1910, oil on canvas

"Composition with Blue and Red"

1932, oil on canvas

The MIA hardly ever puts this painting out on display.  I have only seen it twice.

"All painting – the painting of the past as well as of the present – shows us that its essential plastic means we are only line and color."

-Piet Mondrian.

1.2 The abstract oil painter

1.2_The abstract oil painter

The defining attribute of an oil painter is that he use oil paint, anything beyond that one simple canon closes the door of inventiveness on the oil painter forever.  The discipline of oil painting is less limited than the other forms of art.  Nevertheless, do not be fooled by undefined intolerance, all art is of significant importance to its creators and audience.  To become an abstract oil painter is, in part, a choice; and to continue in life as an oil painter is a dedication made from the artist's passion.  It is a self-disciplined, obsessive, selfish path in its very nature, that cannot be obtained in a year or in ten.  The path of the abstract oil painter is a professional trade that becomes the disciplined pursuit of a lifetime.  I say that it is a choice because the artist will naturally develop toward abstraction the longer he creates works of art.

The abstract oil painter paints by way of his intuition, allowing it to guide him.  The intuitive artist sees the world through the perception of his own philosophy, without social influence.  He is free, liberated from the physical world but bound to its social cooperation.  The intuitive mind of the abstract oil painter is concerned only with his life's work of painting, and does not create works of art for effortless decoration.  For him, works of art are a means to reconcile all ideas, inner thoughts, and philosophical questions, as the oil painter examines every inch of every painting he dedicates himself to that insight he witnesses within his work.  He cannot be distracted from the path that chose him, having such passion for his work that everything, even the mundane acts of daily existence, are obsessively calculated movements toward competing his work.  The oil painter, led by his intuition, is unaffected by critique and all public intrusion.  He envisions praise and disdain as one, external and therefore irrelevant to his path.  High ideals intrinsically predetermine the method and vision of each artist.

The other type of artist is an ornate artist.  Following the trends of his time aesthetically as to be seen within what is popular, and what is socially gratifying.  The ornate fame and fortune driven artist will adorn his socially satisfactory aesthetic in soulless self-gratification and vague personal jokes as pointless works of art created without purpose or passion.  The ornate artist is painting merely for the sake of painting.  

You can never judge the skill and ineptitude of the artist without looking at the artist's life choices.  The intuitive artist is simply doing what drives him, and creating works of art for tomorrow to admire, as he attempts to rationalize and communicate his understanding of the nature of his ideas; and if honest within his work, is at first and at best, misunderstood.  It does not matter what quality the work is, only that the oil painter continue to work, and by continuing, if the artist is true to his nature, the quality of work will progress.  Eventually and inevitably the intuitive artist will become a master at his chosen discipline. 

0.2 Preface

0.2_Preface

I have written this for others in an attempt to illustrate how to understand what it is I do as an oil painter.  Over the course of fifteen years, the discipline of oil painting has matured into my chosen form of communication.  Within oil painting I can speak in a way that the audience is aware of my intended concepts clearly and unwittingly, regardless of my chosen subject matter or aesthetic.  I will paint for a period, and then I will write about what I painted.  This essay is a collection of my thoughts over the last decade.  This is for me and not for you, if you do not agree with my thoughts on creating works of art and humanities use for the arts, then that is fine.  My ideas are sure to evolve through time as I learn to understand myself, broadening the relationship I have with my medium.

I oil paint with two distinctive styles or methods of aesthetic.  In one, I work with compositions purely based on the texture of oil paint, and in the other, I work with the architecture involved in the poetic or rhythmic use of the composition of color-forms to entice direct responses from a viewer.  In both establishments, I attempt to characterize mental-states of being using abstract pictographs associated with the intended narrative of my subject matter.

I place myself into the mental-state that I am trying to represent, and I stay in character for however long it takes to come to a full understanding of the concept I am working with.  I will stay in character until the work is finished.  I use my total environment to alter my own mental state to that of my intended concept with media such as music, film, and literature as source material to reach and maintain a specific mental-state.  Just as the actor must take on the totality of the character they play in movies and theater, I need to be my ideas before and I paint them.  A mental-state is not simply an indication of emotion, but an intellectual stage of being or consciousness where thinking and feeling beings process information during the moment.  The mental-state of an individual effects their behavior and understanding in all aspects of life.  There are many states of being that an individual will go through in life, and whether rational or irrational, a mental state is how people deal with cause and effect.  Action A causes us to feel happy, and action B cases us to feel sad, but that effect must not be classified as emotion,  Emotion is simply an external aftermath of behavior as a result of a mental state.  We each go through several mental states throughout the course of one day.

All human situations can be represented in a mental-state.  All mental-states can be represented with sound, and all sound can be represented with color-forms.  Compositional oil painting is capable of altering the mental state of the individual, just as directly and immediately as music does.  Although it may not be recognized immediately, or even at all, the outside influence of sound changes how mankind thinks, feels, and reacts to situations.  Sound alters our mental state of being, and speaks to us without the complications of personal experience as the interpreter.

During my studies, I select the subject matter in the majority of my work before I establish the composition for each oil painting.  The subject matter I use varies depending on the metaphors I am creating.  I speak about our world indirectly through contextual metaphors and direct word association.

There is always a portion of personal life in my works of art, and although I try to erase that identity from my work, it remains to a small degree.  As time goes on, my personality becomes my philosophy, which has evolved by the constant study of my work.   The creative process is an act of necessity, and is partially an unwitting passage.  I simply have known when and what to paint one step at a time.  Moreover, like the character Frankenstein, my creations are a reflection of the era in which I live and not that of the author, myself.  There is a chance that I am completely unstable and indeed insane, to a point where I can no longer understand what is an honest idea within oil painting, and what are the over-persistent ramblings of a sick man. Since I no longer wish to make the clear distinction between the two, I leave that up to you, the reader, to decide for yourself.

The following sections are an attempt to illustrate the benefits an artist receives from a dogmatic and disciplined study of his chosen medium.  Secondly to expose the amateur, the consumerist, hobbyist, and scenester artist for what they are, and are not.