I'm really bad at
abstract art. I mean, really bad. I'll show you the horrors that is my abstract are in an upcoming post. One time my mom asked for a piece of abstract art and I warned her that abstract isn't my thing, and she should be specific about what she wants. She refused and, well, she got what was coming to her. Even she couldn't convincingly say she liked it (I'll be sure and find a photo of it for your entertainment). Honesty runs in the family I guess. In college I learned how
Piet Mondrian came up his with abstract art- he started with a tree or a beach scene and then
progressed into increasingly abstract art until it became nothing but squares of color. The step where it is still almost recognizable but starts to become more a study on color, composition, and shape, as in Mondrian's
Grey Tree, is my favorite. That's usually what I try to create when I try to do abstract art and fail. I'm not a huge fan of abstract art in general, although once I sat in front of what I'm pretty sure was about a 6'x6'
Rothko (or something similar) of a gigantic indigo blue square and it was incredible. I can't explain why exactly, just the purity of such a beautiful color evoked emotion in me. Speaking of which, this post was supposed to be about color, not abstract art! Below is a little painting I did in about 10 minutes while chatting with friends.
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| Untitled. 4"x12", acrylics on canvas. |
Although I suppose this could be classified as abstract art I'm not counting this as abstract art because its doesn't fit the purist textbook definition of something that was
abstracted from actual imagery. Maybe it doesn't have to be. I'm really not sure.
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| Detail of above. |
But when I just paint color and lines it turns out a lot better than when I try for true abstraction.
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| Detail of above. |
I find the color and shape of pieces like this to be really interesting to look at and very relaxing to paint.
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| Rainbow. 5"x7". Acrylics on Canvas Board. |
This is another mini one I did on the same day in just a few minutes. I think I'm going to try to do a big one soon. Stay tuned, viewers!
Is it possible to be bad at abstract art (or even art in general)? Given that art is an expression, you only have yourself to criticize, but criticism doesn't make something any less art (just ask Maplethorpe or O'Keeffe or Hirst). Paul Cezanne once said, "a work of art that did not begin in emotion is not art". I would challenge you to post art you consider to be bad so that through the act of sharing you can explore what makes it bad to you.
ReplyDeleteI love this series of images, particularly the examination of the colors in the last image. Thank you for sharing.
You know, I do check back here to see if you've answered my questions....
ReplyDelete:)
Sorry, I just wanted top wait until I had the chance to give you a thoughtful answer.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, you beat me to this topic! I had been planning on addressing your points and questions in an upcoming post about "BAD ART". I think you're absolutely right that art cannot really be bad, it can only be not what you intended or wanted. Without holding on to expectations, you can truly enjoy and appreciate anything and everything you produce for just what it is. Ah, this is true with nearly everything I suppose.. not to get too Buddhist on you.
I think that because I have some confidence in myself as an artist (I'm still humble, but I don't think I suck), it allows me to truly enjoy just making terrible art sometimes. It can be the most therapeutic sometimes, because you're not focused on the end result, just the process. Often I throw away whatever I've made, and sometimes it ends up turning out well despite myself.
I will surely post some "BAD" art for you in the near future. I just don't have a lot of photos of stuff I've done in the past, so I've got to make time to do new bad art;)