Lecture 2 | Abstraction
The second lecture of introduction to visual communication was on Abstraction. Abstraction is the process by which an artist reduces an idea right down to its basic form. Abstract is artwork that reshapes the natural world for expressive purposes. The theme of abstract art is based on colour, shapes, size, scale and brushstrokes. For graphic designers this is important as it is a method to increase their understanding for the target audience. It is important for a graphic designer to use effective communication in their designs as their target audience should be able to get a message through it or know what the design is trying to tell them. One of the artist that Paul Proctor mentioned was J.M.W Turner. J.M.W Turner (baptised 14 May 1775 – 19 December 1851) was an English Romantistic landscape painter. His painting ‘Snow Storm’ is a significant painting. The reason for this is because in the beginning to mid 19th century it was common to see images with a person against the background or a tree against a landscape. What Turner did which was so significant was that he blended the figure in the foreground and background together creating one thing. It was as if the object was dissolving in the background. I think this was important as artists in the modern day’s use this as inspiration, blending images together making it one thing. Another artist which uses abstract effectively was Julian Opie, especially in regards to his commission where he produced an album cover for the pop band Blur which was called ‘Blur:The Best Of’ in 2000. The images consist of outlines and blocks colours which makes it stand out and is appealing to the audience as if he was to add anymore things into it then the audience wouldn’t be able to connect with the set of paintings.
