About abstract art inspirations.
Abstract contemporary art, modern artists, abstract paintings, photography, architecture, links to articles… this is the kin of content you will find on these article series. See some other painting inspirations here
Looking for images about overlaping planes, colors and shadows, I got to find the above and below pictures which I included in my pinterest space occupancy board. They are examples of Luis Barragán architecture. He was a mexican architect whose works, besides many other interesting things, may remind you to abstract art compositions. These pictures were taken by photographer Kim Zwarts, and were published in the monograph ‘Luis Barragán – the Eye Embodied’ (2006).
As the week went by, and while trying to find answers that helped futher develope my new abstract art paintings called “space occupancies” ( I will be showing some of them in the comming weeks), I decided to watch again Michael Dienbenkorn´s Ocean Park abstract paintings.
What I think (but I´m not 100% sure) Diebenkorn masterly did was to flatten planes and perspectives. Color, helped him on this objective. The more I look at his Ocean Park paintings, the more questions araise and the more I enjoy them. Can anyone help me? Do you know what he was trying to explain?
If you like his abstract paintings, I recommend you write down Diebernkorn Ocean Park on Google, and then press images. Enjoy!!
So far not bad, isn´t it? . I told you at the beggining of this article.
Let me finish with two more things. The first one is a picture of an abstract painting of one of my most admired artists, spanish Manolo Millares. Do you like the organic matter together with the unkonw, mistical meaining in it? A picture of his abstract paintings has nothing to do with watching them on reality. So if you ever have the chance…
The second and last thing is this text I found on wikipedia, while reading his abstract art definition. I quote: ” A commonly held idea is that pluralism characterizes art at the beginning of the 21st century. There is no consensus, nor need there be, as to a representative style of the age. There is an anything goes attitude that prevails; an “everything going on”, and consequently “nothing going on” syndrome; this creates an aesthetic traffic jam with no firm and clear direction and with every lane on the artistic superhighway filled to capacity. Consequently magnificent and important works of art continue to be made albeit in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic temperaments, the marketplace being left to judge merit.
Do you agree with the above text?. Do artists have to worry?. Please share you thoughts below… By the way, did you discover anything related to abstract art worth sharing here?. Please do so as well.
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July 16, 2012 - 7:33 am
I do agree with ‘everything going on/nothing going on’. I have said much the same – if everything is art, nothing is art – it’s just people making stuff. Consequently, more and more, in the absence of an over-riding contemporary ‘style’ and modern art being essentially ‘pluralist’, it is the market, the consumers of ‘art’, who will increasingly determine what constitutes ‘art’, rather than the artists. Until very recently a so-called ‘artist’ could take something – any old thing (remember the yacht?) – describe it as ‘art’ and then have it viewed as such. That seems to me to be less and less the case; maybe it’s a sign of the economic times: people are tired of being conned and hoodwinked, and in art as in everything else they are looking for value for money, evidence of skill and technique, something ‘meaningful’. This is a good thing: the only ‘artists’ who should be worried are those who were never artists, in the true sense of the word, in the first place. There are a lot of them about.
July 16, 2012 - 10:30 am
Hello Glennie, great thoughts. But what about the gallerists? Do you think they´re still trend setters (or art setters). I guess their influence, probably due to the enormous amount of gallerists in the world, is not as important as it used to be, though there are still some who decide (or at least try to) what is and what is not true art or even the name of a new art movement.
What ever it is, thanks for sharing your ideas.
Rgds
Antonio Basso
July 16, 2012 - 1:00 pm
Good point, Antonio. I’d say that the art establishment – galleries, critics, academics – is far less influential than it used to be, and this is because of the internet which allows us, the public, to comment freely and immediately and engage in debate with ‘opinion-makers’ and ‘trend-setters’, and, more importantly, disagree with them. The consumer is king nowadays, not the ‘expert’.
As for local independent galleries, they know this, because they have to survive. There was a bit of a thing on Twitter yesterday with people complaining about galleries not knowing what ‘art’ is and selling ‘rubbish'; I thought this was unfair and snobby. Galleries are shops, and shops stock what sells. They sell the crap, if that’s what people want to call it, to be able to promote the good stuff; they can only do this if they can eat and pay the bills. I’ve never met a gallerist yet who did not know what constitutes ‘art’. I’m not at all promoting a dumbing-down of ‘art’ – far from it; the good stuff, if it really is good, will always survive democratisation and lowest-common-denominator marketing, like a trained opera-singer in a TV talent show, and for anyone, not just ‘experts’, with the eye to see it, it will stick out like a sore thumb, as it always has.
People are not stupid, and the days of treating them as if they are may well be over. The art establishment, like the bankers, will have to get used to it.
July 16, 2012 - 2:10 pm
Hi Glennie, again thanks for developing this matter a big further. I believe you are right. I think there are and there will always be committed and not committed galerists as well as artists and/or profesionals in any field (I may exclude bankers
…). I agree with you that galerists need to pay their bills, but as with any business, there are many ways to do it. At the end the ones that go ahead are the professional, transparent, serious and able to adapt to changing society. It´s been always the same.
Thanks and hope others join this interesting conversation.
Rgds
Antonio Basso
July 23, 2012 - 11:35 pm
[…] my previous about abstract art article, I started talking about “space occupancy“. This is the name I´ve given to my new […]
July 26, 2012 - 10:38 am
[…] of the past four articles called “About Abstract art: this week´s best inspirations” (I, II, III, IV), or join Antonio Basso (yasoypintor) at Pinterest Antonio Basso. Space Occypancy 3. Drawing. […]
February 17, 2013 - 10:47 pm
[…] my previous about abstract art article, I started talking about the concept “space occupancy”. This is the name I´ve given to […]