The colourful world of abstract art
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An abstract painting by Wassily Kandinsky
The history of art is also the history of art movements. There are hundreds of such movements that shaped the visual art over the years. While some survived the ravages of time, some other movements faded into oblivion.
Abstract Art is a 20th century modernist movement against representation, which was often misunderstood by many, but it is still a major genre in contemporary art. While art was mainly about visual references in reality, many artists felt they should create works that are not related to reality and free from the bondage of subject matter.
In abstraction, non-representational lines, colours, shapes, and forms replace accurate visual depiction of objects, landscape, and figures. Representation was the unwritten belief that art was meant to reflect or represent what there was in the everyday world. Some artists rebelled against this restriction and especially against the idea of art only as imitation, which heralded the birth of abstraction. Abstract artists felt that colour and form could express feeling or states of consciousness that were personal and not necessarily ‘realistic’. Art no longer had to refer to something in the everyday world, they felt. In a way, a painting can be experienced like music, some of them argued.
Modern movement with ancient tradition
Though the term abstract is a modern term, we can see the early examples in the art of the Stone Age. In the prehistoric engravings in the cave art of Blombos Cave in South Africa, we can see the elements of geometric abstraction. The ochre plaque engraved with geometric motif, found in the cave, was done more than 70,000 years back, according archaeologists. Similar works can be seen in the hand stencils discovered among the El Castillo Cave paintings, done in 39,000 BCE, the Neanderthal engraving at Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, and the Altamira Cave paintings dating back to 34,000 BCE. This means abstract symbols were predominant in the Paleolithic cave art. However, here we focus on the modern age of abstract art.
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In the modern context, Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky is said to be the father of abstract art. He became known for his colour theory and attaching emotions to his vividly coloured paintings. Kandinsky believed that colours provoke emotions, and did a watercolour. This untitled watercolour is considered the first abstract painting. Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter, is another dominant character in establishing abstract painting. Mondrian had experienced cubism in Paris, and eleven years after Kandinsky did his path-breaking work, Mondrian created one of the most famous abstract paintings, separating panels of paint with thin black lines. This work, characterized by geometric shapes aligned with mathematical precision, was a complete departure from the style of the predecessors who did abstract paintings. This famous abstract art piece titled Tableau I referenced form, colour, and line and nothing other than that, and served as an inspiration not only for painters and sculptors that followed but also for an array of other artists including architects and fashion designers.
However, if we look at the works of Joseph Mallord William Turner aka William Turner (1775-1851), we can trace the roots of abstraction. His landscape paintings have the elements of abstraction that would become the substance and subject matter of the generation of painters working in Abstract Expressionism.
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The subjects in abstract art are often stylised, blurred, repeated or broken down into basic forms so that it becomes unrecognisable. Intangible subjects such as thoughts, emotions, and time are often expressed in abstract art form. Cezanne painted essentially abstract art even though his subject matter was ostensibly realistic. Artists like Paul Klee developed their own vocabulary of form, symbol and colour as well as new techniques to express their inner vision. Pablo Picasso is probably the innovator who did the most to popularise and give legitimacy to abstract art.
The genre of cubism introduced by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque was a key precipitating factor in the development of abstract art. However, he refused to be identified as an abstract artist. “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterwards you can remove all trace of reality. There’s no danger then…because the idea of the object left an indelible mark,” he said once.
Then there is Jackson Pollock, who was primarily associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. Other major names include Joan Miró, Ben Nicholson, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly, to mention a few.
As we all know, the term ‘abstract art’ refers to that art which does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect. We could say that shape, form and colour become the language of abstract art.
We can roughly split abstract art into two ideas. While it is the quest for rationality and an independent order from external reality on one hand, it is the development of the symbolic function of colour, rhythm of forms and their independence from a subject on the other hand. In short, abstract art makes us appreciate it without any representational element.
We can read this along with Plato’s statement, “Straight lines and circles are... not only beautiful... but eternally and absolutely beautiful.” It can be said that Plato wanted to assert the beauty of non-naturalistic images such as circles, squares, triangles and so on.
Abstract Expressionism
Though there are many other art movements associated with abstract, we would discuss one more term here, which is Abstract Expressionism. It can be said that Abstract expressionism was an American post-World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also the one that put New York City at the center of the art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. The term was first applied to American art in 1946 by the critic Robert Coates. Technically, its most important predecessor is often said to be surrealism (1920s-30s), with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation. Abstract expressionism became popular as a movement during the 1950s.
It emphasised spontaneous personal expression, freedom from accepted artistic values, surface qualities of paint, and the act of painting itself. Here the artist expresses himself purely through the use of form and colour. It is form of non-representational, or non-objective, art, which means that there are no concrete objects represented.
The leading exponents of Abstract Expressionism are American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, and their works are often characterised by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity. Pollock initiated the revolutionary technique of splattering the paint directly on canvas to achieve the subconscious interpretation of the artist’s inner vision of reality.
Another movement in this connection is Op Art (optical art), which is a form of geometric abstract art, which explores optical sensations through the use of visual effects such as recurring simple forms and rhythmic patterns, vibrating colour-combinations, moiré patterns and foreground-background confusion. French-Hungarian artist Victor Vasarely is known as the ‘grandfather and leader’ of the Op Art movement. Using geometric shapes and colourful graphics, Vasarely created compelling illusions of spatial depth, as seen in his path-breaking work Vega-Nor, which was followed by many such works.
The Indian story
Though abstraction is predominantly a Western art movement, there are many Indian artists who are abstract painters. While the veterans including SH Raza (1922 - 2016), Ram Kumar (1924 - 2018), Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (1924-2001), Jehangir Sabavala (1922 - 2011), Akbar Padamsee (1928 - 2020) J. Swaminathan (1928-1994), Biren De (1926-2011), Ghulam Rasool Santosh (1929-1997) and K. M. Adimoolam (1938-2008), were regarded as India’s foremost abstract painters. Artists including Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009) and MF Husain (1915-2011) also a contributed a lot establish abstraction as a movement in India.
Among the contemporary Indian abstract artists, the notable names are Krishen Khanna, Akkitham Narayanan, Achuthan Kudallur, P Gopinath, S.G. Vasudev, V Viswanadhan, Mona Rai to mention a few.
Even though many new movements have made inroads into the contemporary art scene, abstraction still remains a major movement that has a distinct identity.
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