Are Abstract Paintings Subjective, Objective, Or Some Form Of Artistic Rebellion?
Abstract art gained popularity in the early 20th century as artists began to move away from traditional and classical art forms toward more subjective art forms. Many artists consider abstract art to be the purest kind of art form since it allows freedom to use imagination and spontaneous forms of expression. Painters, for instance, loosed the shackles that bound them to specific techniques representing nature and humanity in favor of a more rebellious, non-representational art.
Abstract Painting as a Subjective Art Form
The very nature of abstraction is the absence of objectivity. Abstract painting is subject to interpretation through its lines, shapes, and colors. Think of Pablo Picasso's Cubist paintings or Franz Kline's expressionism in black and white. These 20th-century abstract painters had very different styles but conveyed meaning through nonconforming art strokes. Both artists' paintings allowed the onlooker to make their own judgments about what they saw and the meanings. That is the essence of subjectivity.
Abstract Painting as an Objective Art Form
Would the paintings of either Picasso or Kline be as famous if they conveyed an objective meaning? Objectivity means that their paintings would have had some concrete form of the physical world that could be connected visually. They did not. Let's look at one famous artist whose art was wholly objective.
Michelangelo's painting entitled "The Creation of Adam" depicted God's fingertip touching Adam's fingertip. Its objectivity lies in the fact that we know by seeing those hands touching each other that something tangible—the act of man being created—happened as an outcome of that act. Yet, subjectively, if you didn't know the title of the painting, you may have dismissed its meaning for an entirely different interpretation.
Since abstract painting doesn't utilize the physical world as we perceive it, its meaning is entirely dependent on individual interpretation.
Abstract Painting as a Rebellious Art Form
It's true that abstract painting is not a mirror of reality. The idea was that abstract art deserved to exist in its own right. Like a teenager testing the waters away from home, abstract painters tested the boundaries of convention.
It didn't matter whether a painting's fluidity of color transported you to places only you could imagine or if straight lines in black, white, and red intersected in rectangles allowed you to muse over them for hours before being comfortable interpreting what they meant to you. Abstract art could be viewed as a form of rebellion—stretching the boundaries of what is and what could be.
Visit a local art gallery to learn about abstract paintings for sale.
