ABSTRACT, MODERN & UNTITLED ART

ABSTRACT ART

ABSTRACT ART uses a visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist  with  a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures other than the European had become accessible and showed alternative  ways of describing visual  experience  to the artist. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would  encompass  the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy. The sources from  which individual artists drew  their theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual  preoccupations in all areas  of Western culture at that time. Abstract art, nonfigurative art, nonobjective art, and nonrepresentational art are loosely related terms. They are similar, but perhaps not of identical meaning. 

Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum. Even art that aims for verisimilitude of the highest degree can be said to be abstract, at least theoretically, since perfect representation is likely to be exceedingly elusive. Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance color and form in ways that are conspicuous, can be said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to anything recognizable. In geometric abstraction, for instance, one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic entities. Figurative art and total abstraction are almost mutually exclusive. But figurative and representational (or realistic) art often contains partial abstraction.

Both geometric abstraction and lyrical abstraction are often totally abstract. Among the very numerous art movements that embody partial abstraction would be for instance fauvism in which color is conspicuously and deliberately altered vis-a-vis reality, and cubism, which blatantly alters the forms of the real life entities depicted.

MODERN ART

MODERN ART includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era.[1] The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency away from the narrative, which was characteristic for the traditional arts, toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called Contemporary art or Postmodern art.

Modern art begins with the heritage of painters like Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all of whom were essential for the development of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubist Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism. Henri Matisse's two versions of The Dance signified a key point in his career and in the development of modern painting. It reflected Matisse's incipient fascination with primitive art: the intense warm color of the figures against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of the dancing nudes convey the feelings of emotional liberation and hedonism.

Initially influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and other late 19th century innovators Pablo Picasso made his first cubist paintings based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), Picasso dramatically created a new and radical picture depicting a raw and primitive brothel scene with five prostitutes, violently painted women, reminiscent of African tribal masks and his own new Cubist inventions. Analytic cubism was jointly developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about 1908 through 1912. Analytic cubism, the first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed by Synthetic cubism, practised by Braque, Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and several other artists into the 1920s. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.

UNTITLED ART

UNTITLED ART frees the viewer’s imagination to creatively explore the art with absolutely no limits or boundaries. This allows the viewer more time to look and think about what is being seen. This individual way of observing, creates endless ways and potentials of how the art is being viewed. Such an effect causes the viewer to create his or her own interpretation of what they see.

The artist believes titles can sometimes be limiting for both the viewer and the art. Titles can bring immediate closure to the viewer exploring the art.  All is seen in the title.  Therefore, the viewer looks, but does not necessarily take time to see, what could possibly be beyond the title.  

The artist’s goal is to help strengthen and create independent thinking and expression about what the viewer personally sees and feels through his or her own eyes, by simply using his or her own minds. This style of art has been birthed free of titling, so that the art can converse and articulate its own voice to the viewer.  Anton quotes, “I want the viewer to remember the art by establishing a personal connection from the experience of visually exploring the art, possibly creating his or her own title.”