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The origin of abstract artworks has changed the way we look at modern art in general. It was a significant shift from the traditional painting styles and allowed the artists to go beyond the references to real-world objects. Depending on the choice of artists, abstract paintings can be quite simplified or filled with complex shapes and patterns, pulling your attention to the composition. 

It has been almost 100 years since abstract art came into existence. Not to mention, it was quite a radical transformation at the time of its origin. However, despite being around us for so long, many artists as well as art collectors and lovers still don’t feel comfortable exploring this unique form of art. Many people do not understand its significance and how it has revolutionized our perception and ways of perceiving artworks. In this blog, we will explore some unique reasons that would help establish the importance of abstraction in present times. 

Creating Abstract Artwork Offers the Freedom to Explore

Since this art style steers away from the traditional style of creating fine art paintings, it also offers more room for artists to explore. It is an independent style of art that doesn’t rely on illustrations or representations from the real world. Hence it frees artists to explore the depths of their own thoughts, creativity, and perception of art with these paintings. 

Elevates the Burden of Accuracy and Realism

Artists often feel scared of taking up difficult compositions out of fear that they may not be able to depict them accurately. There is always a looming fear of doing justice to the subject that they want to depict. However, with abstract artworks, this fear can take a backseat. It puts them at ease because they do not have to worry about the accuracy of the depiction. An artist can always create abstract paintings with unintended inspiration and no worries about accurate depiction. 

An abstract painter might look at a room full of people and decide to paint it only with geometric shapes and patterns. Instead of using accurate proportions to draw human figures, they might choose to only paint their silhouettes or just create random patterns in different colors to express what the room makes them feel. 

It Encourages Viewers’ Involvement

Unlike other schools of art, you cannot take a glance at an abstract painting and tell what it is about. To truly interpret the painting, you will have to observe the composition and study the nuances of its colors and shapes. It compels you to engage with the work. You will have to spend time with the painting and then look within yourself to decide how it makes you feel. Depending on your emotions, mood, and feelings, you can interpret it however you feel it best.

What makes it even more beautiful is the fact that abstract art is always open to interpretation by the viewers. A painting that may make you feel gloomy might be inspiring for someone else. Every individual is free to interpret an abstract composition as they wish and none of it is ever wrong. The open-ended nature of these paintings has made them an interesting choice among viewers and modern art collectors. 

It is not a Hall Pass to Skip Technicalities

If you think abstract art is your free ticket to creating artwork without any basic knowledge of art, you couldn’t be more wrong. While it may seem like a random canvas of colors and patterns it is not. If you look at any famous abstract art of old masters, you will realize that they are well-thought-out art pieces. Just because they had the freedom to explore, they didn’t forgo basic rules like the color theory, balancing of the composition, and other minute details. They were just smart enough to camouflage these rules under the cloak of abstraction and wilderness. 

Abstract Art is a Legitimate Form of Art

If you are still worried about the legitimacy of an abstract artwork, wondering if it truly is art or not, you can now set that worry aside. Abstract art is a perfectly legitimate piece of art and it was established years ago after different abstract art movements emerged and taught people why they are relevant. 

To elaborate on this point further, think about what art truly means to you, or anyone else for that matter. Most people call it a means of expression and an outlet for freedom. Since it is a mode to freely express then how can we limit it to real-world objects or anyone’s idea of what art is? The core of art lies in its adaptability, flexibility, and creativity and it can vary for every individual artist. 

Abstract Artworks Are Changing The Perception of Modern Art

With the adaptive and dynamic nature of abstraction, it is slowly gaining popularity among art collectors. Even though many people still do not understand it, it is now gaining the recognition it truly deserves. With efforts from different art galleries like TERAVARNA, which often organizes abstract art competitions and different exhibitions, people have started embracing it with open-heartedness. If you have come this far, I hope the blog might have helped you change your perception of abstract art and help you understand why it is so important.

It started on tumblr [citation needed], we've all seen the "a e s t h e t i c" tags and all the blogs dedicated to the many many different types of aesthetics. I have spent the better part of 4 years collecting, studying, and categorizing theses aesthetics. I do have a formal education in art and architecture so I sort of know what I'm talking about. I'd like to share with you what I've found. I've also made a chart (link) of my findings. This chart is very rough and not meant to be taken as fact. It is how I've categorized almost 700 different aesthetics but that is not even close to how many there are. I do plan on expanding it more. If I get some attention, maybe I'll make more posts that dive deeper into defining this new art movement.

In short, today's use of the word "Aesthetic" is a noun that refers to a title/word given to a specific atmosphere, emotion, feeling, or vibe that a collection of images evokes when viewed together. A comparable approximation would be a "mood board".

Anything can belong to a particular Aesthetic; an art piece, a song, an entire show, an outfit, etc. In my opinion however, its very rare that a singular work can express an entire aesthetic. As stated, an aesthetic is a very specific emotion. Thus, in most cases, a singular work (work here referring to any form of expression) is likely to be interpreted in a multitude of different ways. The only exception to this is if a particular aesthetic is based on a very specific motif found in a particular work that is unique to only that work and from there new pieces can be made that also carry that motif or relate to the original work that the aesthetic was built upon. This will be discussed later. Not every genre of art can express an aesthetic, for example, some aesthetics may not translate very well to fashion, imagery, music, etc. That is to say that it may not be possible to express the emotion evoked by the aesthetic through other mediums other than the original medium the aesthetic was created in.

In summary, an aesthetic is a collection of images that evokes a specific emotion. Most often, this emotion is evoked through the combination of particular motifs found in each work that contribute to an overall "vibe" or atmosphere. These motifs can then be used to create new original works that belong to this aesthetic.

There are a multitude of categories of Aesthetics that I have identified and some of them may seemingly contradict this definition. We will discuss these later. There is also much overlap between specific aesthetics, it is extremely common to find that an art piece may belong to multiple different aesthetics.

What I thought that meant: telling us about unique sculpture materials and paint mixtures.

What that actually meant: an 84yo woman gingerly holding a beautifully beaded and embroidered dress (apparently from Ukraine and at least 200 years old) and, with tears in her eyes, showing how each individual thread was spun by hand and weaved into place on a cottage floor loom, with bright blue silk embroidery thread and hand-blown beads intricately piercing the work of other labor for days upon days, as the labor of a dozen talented people came together to make something so beautiful for a village girl’s wedding day.

What it also meant: in 1948, a young girl lived in a cramped tenement-like third floor apartment in Manhattan, with a father who had just joined them after not having been allowed to escape through Poland with his pregnant wife nine years earlier. She sits in her father’s lap and watches with wide, quiet eyes as her mother’s deft hands fly across fabric with bright blue silk thread (echoing hands from over a century years earlier). Thread that her mother had salvaged from white embroidery scraps at the tailor’s shop where she worked and spent the last few days carefully dying in the kitchen sink and drying on the roof.

The dress is in the traditional Hungarian fashion and is folded across her mother’s lap: her mother doesn’t had a pattern, but she doesn’t need one to make her daughter’s dress for the fifth grade dance. The dress would end up differing significantly from the pure white, petticoated first communion dresses worn by her daughter’s majority-Catholic classmates, but the young girl would love it all the more for its uniqueness and bright blue thread.

And now, that same young girl (and maybe also the villager from 19th century Ukraine) stands in front of us, trying not to clutch the old fabric too hard as her voice shakes with the emotion of all the love and humanity that is poured into the labor of art. The village girl and the girl in the Bronx were very different people: different centuries, different religions, different ages, and different continents. But the love in the stitches and beads on their dresses was the same. And she tells us that when we look at the labor of art, we don’t just see the work to create that piece - we see the labor of our own creations and the creations of others for us, and the value in something so seemingly frivolous.

But, maybe more importantly, she says that we only admire this piece in a museum because it happened to survive the love of the wearer and those who owned it afterwards, but there have been quite literally billions of small, quiet works of art in billions of small, quiet homes all over the world, for millennia. That your grandmother’s quilt is used as a picnic blanket just as Van Gogh’s works hung in his poor friends’ hallways. That your father’s hand-painted model plane sets are displayed in your parents’ livingroom as Grecian vases are displayed in museums. That your older sister’s engineering drawings in a steady, fine-lined hand are akin to Da Vinci’s scribbles of flying machines.

Last night

How to find my soul a home

Where water is not thirsty

And bread loaf is not stone

I came up with one thing

And I don’t believe I’m wrong

That nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires

With money they can’t use

Their wives run round like banshees

Their children sing the blues

They’ve got expensive doctors

To cure their hearts of stone.

But nobody

No, nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely

I'll tell you what I know

Storm clouds are gathering

The wind is gonna blow

The race of man is suffering

And I can hear the moan,

'Cause nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

I thought we'd passed through it

I thought thing's going back to normal

Thought our scars were healing

But I guess I was wrong

After so long

After all this time

After I tried my best to

Show you everything's fine

You brought him back

You thought I was talking about him

When all you could think was that

I wanted some time alone with you

There was no context for you to

Bring him back

But you did

You thought about him asking me to

Go to a motel with him

But everything the context told you

Was that I'd like to go to a motel with you

And spend quality time with you

I'll not deny that

You bringing him up again

Hurt me

I just want to overcome it

Just wanted to leave it behind

Like it never happened

But you had to let your insecurities speak

Louder than reason

And now here I am

Writing about it

Because I can speak to no one

About it

Once, I wrote you a poem

And you loved it

And you loved me

But what you didn't know, is that I wrote you three more after you said you didn't want me and I cried

I cried tsunamis and hurricanes

And I guess you could say I'm not over it

Because whenever I see her I feel a knife through my chest

A sharp pain

One that only you could inflict

And of course you love her now

I get it

She has a smile like the full moon

One that you have to stop and look at to see if it's real

It's mesmerizing

It engrosses you

And you've always been one to worry about looks

Well look

That's shallow

But I know

That the girl who writes poetry every time she feels an emotion is not what you wanted at all

I was merely the bus stop to your real destination

Some kind of

Procrastination

I was nothing

To you

Yeah, I get it

A girl who can light up a room is one you wanna keep, man, she's special

But I thought I was special too

See what kept me going was

You

And you were all that I wanted so I just gotta ask

Why'd you do it?

I hate to say this but I hope she breaks your heart

I hope you tell me

Every grueling detail

And the excuse she had

Because even though you'll be sad you'll understand the devastation you caused me, and all those countries that had to live with the great tsunami.

I encourage you to have a seat and read this little ‘essay’ I wrote back in 2014 if you really want to understand what I’m doing today. I would be really grateful and I’m sure you’ll have a much better understanding of my whole work.

Digital walls, but walls

On the way to space and public art | came across the digital walls. They can be “painted” but they also have the function of limiting, of delimiting, of separating…

A change of paradigm has been happening for some years now with the arrival of the internet, which has completely changed some aspects and concepts that have to do with the world of art and more specifically with urban art or public art. From the beginning, this type of art has been carried out in public places with the aim of being observed by anyone on the street and thus making it free, accessible and free from any premise or institution when it is created. (not considering the “warlike coexistence” with the advertising).

The appearance of the Internet has changed it. A vast majority of the art is seen online on a screen, what questions that the street is the natural canvas of this art discipline. While it is for the one who creates the piece, it is almost never for the one who looks at it. Public spaces are no longer just physical, in the same way that the plastic arts are no longer just plastic.

Due to the access to technology and its cheapness, nowadays it is inconceivable to think of art without considering the whole digital sphere, whether as a tool, a method of creation or of dissemination. But at the same time, all these centuries of art history condition the understanding of art, sometimes acting as a burden in terms of understanding what art is.

The dragging of already preconceived ideas and the weight of the genetic inheritance makes us repeat concepts about what art is and was. In the face of such a rapid change of paradigm, it seems that we find it difficult to understand that this whole new digital world is still the world. Both virtual and augmented reality are also reality, but the fact that it is appreciated through a screen sometimes causes it not to be considered as something artistic or even real. Thinking that way we could say that looking at a piece of art on the Internet does not have its complete experience, since we are not seeing it in the place for which it was devised, and neither are we perceiving it in a direct way, but with a screen as an intermediary. But at the same time, I think about all the content that we consume today with these devices - movies, series, photographs, news, and even art, current and classic - and not because of that we think or say that they are unreal.

At this point, where the analog space merges with the digital space, a new artistic expression is born that is entirely digital, where the final piece is born and ends up in the digital realm. Conceived through digital tools and deposited in the public digital space. These pieces of art suggest skipping the step of "existing” first in the ‘real reality’ to reach directly the virtual reality, which is also reality, and once from there, to have an impact on the analog reality.

It would also be curious to reflect on the parallelism between urban art and digital art, since, being in public places, both are susceptible to being stolen, altered or appropriated by other people for different purposes. And also, on the idea of anonymity, always used by urban artists to be able to work in the street without risk of infringement, and now also used in the digital environment. Either by often using copyrighted content that we find on the web (street 2.0) for an artistic purpose or by the “erosion of sharing” in which at some point someone does not credit the work, but it is still shared. In this case there should be a new word to define those people that everybody knows, but nobody knows who they are. “Famonimous” characters or the concept of “famonimity”; people or artists who are known precisely because they are anonymous.

Since the beginnings of urban art, the idea was to use public space to express oneself freely, but we must bear in mind that public space is nothing more than the remainder of the space divided by the private, the “leftovers” after the developers pass, the worthless places left open to the common people by institutions, etc., etc….. With the change of social, technological and artistic paradigm, urban art has been normalized and is now used as a method of decoration of places in poor condition, as a complement to a public road or simply as a means of open artistic expression as it has always been. Because if the initial objective was to make art accessible, direct and open to everyone, that idea has moved to the internet and, in some ways, the radical idea of urban art would no longer have that sense.

Therefore, if we understand urban or public art as a type of art accessible to everyone, free of charge and without any kind of condition, | believe that digital art fulfils this role today, since it inhabits all public places, whether analog or digital. Urban art needs this digital sphere to be able to expand and be visible. Because nowadays most urban art is seen through screens, not in the place where the piece has been created, which makes all these works more accessible to everyone at any time. And so, the ’paradox of the graffiti artist’ is born, the one who expresses his freedom in the walls that imprison him. These walls generate private spaces and what is outside them is considered public space by the mere fact of being spaces where people pass through. But it does not mean that this public space is open to intervention. Every public space is under the supervision of a privative entity, whether it is a municipality, a company or simply, the property of an individual. Public space does not exist, neither in the ‘real reality’, nor in the virtual one. It is always subject to something superior that manages it.

Within this dilemma, augmented reality becomes another alternative to the path of public art. It gives the possibility of creating art in public spaces, only seen on digital devices, and using the ‘real reality’ as the piece’s canvas. Until recently, photography and/or video were methods of capturing reality. Now, with this change of prism, these disciplines moved from being the purpose itself, to becoming raw material for the creation of other new artistic expressions. In this direction, | want to focus on the gif format. This format is strictly digital, so it gives us the option to edit, to add movement to pieces that, before, condemned to live still. We can spread in on the Internet and make it accessible to everyone at any time. When adding augmented reality, the two concepts intertwine, urban/public art and digital art, what gives rise to new artistic expressions that call into question deep rooted concepts such as museum, art and reality.

There are already many centuries researching, testing and creating the same type of art, whether sculpture, painting…. Except for the birth of new “isms” within these disciplines, it gives the impression that they are exhausted. At this point it would be convenient to think about the idea of unique work, copy, forgery, recreation… Thinking about the evolution of art we must consider that all new progress is born of the technological options that occur in each era. Nowadays, the difference is that progress happens every day, very fast, and it seems that it is difficult (or unwilling) to understand this change because of the speed of it. This cultural and genetic heritage blurs our vision and sometimes prevents us from conceiving new artistic expressions as such, since there are no previous references to support them.

But, at the end of the day, every new artistic expression, in its beginnings, was not art. “Science develops ideas that come from art that is inspired by science.” The world of classical art enjoys an aura of untouchable deity because when we are born it has always been there, but we cannot forget to think for a moment with perspective that all this classical art was created mainly by the entities of power of each era: kings, church, political powers…

This is why today (without underestimating the technique and the work of the artists) these types of classical art enjoy an invulnerability as, in the end, it was created by and for the power itself.

Then, this type of art collides with the urban and/or public art, along with digital art. In the public and digital space those who decide what is "art” are the people.

I am sure that the first Cro-Magnon who used a tuft of horse hairs instead of his own hands to paint was seen as an art/magic/belief apath.

Now we live in a new paradigm shift, but in this case it is not local or national, it is global and immediate.

There are a multitude of dimensions that make various mediums ideal for therapy.

They tend to be low-demand for attention while requiring movement and repetition, so you can think and track how present you are by your speed and progress.

Needlework like embroidery and sewing require focus to avoid pricks, which can also be grounding if you can work with pain in a controlled manner.

Plus embroidery can be done on most mass-produced clothing, so you can do it with the clothes on your back with some floss (embroidery floss) or thread and a needle— we embroider our sleeves and tuck the needle diagonally into our ring when we’re not using it.

Some yarns can be crocheted or knit into fabric with just your fingers. Crochet hooks are similar in size to a pencil, and you can pause by closing the last loop you worked on and starting a new strand next loop.

Beadwork is so nice to touch. Embroidery, weaving, knotwork and jewelry. It’s not so easily portable, but it’s easy to make pretty without much technique.

Have you ever made your own rope or yarn? That’s gratifying, starting from plants and animals and ending up with netting and blankets.

i see the disdain flash in my mother's eyes when she is compared to my grandmother. i watch as she catches the fury under her eyelids.

what frightens me is that a mother's hate is a mirror to a mother's love. but the stretched ropes and falling eyelashes hold me in place, as they hold her. she is the reflection of my shadow. in another day, in another time, her mother is a reflection of hers.

you could set fires to a forest, but what will you do if the roots remain intact? i know she tries to let it go. i see her try every day. but she is the mother she had, no matter where life takes her. and i fear i will be the mother i have.

A good book for anyone interested in art history, historical propaganda, or in our responses to it. Mary Beard is a strong writer as always: clear, grounded, and brings the past to life without sensationalizing it. I think she did an especially good job of acknowledging the role of art in propaganda and issues of racism, sexism and imperialism, without being preachy or condescending. It reads as if she trusts you to be an intelligent and caring person who is ready to move beyond "social justice 101."

I love politics, but I admit Beard made the right choice by only mentioning it briefly, to give context for each artwork featured. You don't need to know any history before reading this book. You don't need art theory, either - she skips talking about artistic techniques like composition, linework, and color. Instead, her focus is on how people react to art and use it for their own purposes. It's about the role that images of Suetonius' twelve Caesars have played in European culture.

I particularly liked that she explores a variety of media, from coins to teacups to book bindings, as well as the usual busts and paintings. She even steps out of the aristocrats' homes into middle-class kitsch and raunchy pamphlets. The chapter focusing on imperial women was also very good.

I would have liked to see more Roman art of ordinary people, and of art about Romans made after 1900. There's also no discussion of how the Papal States, Holy Roman Empire, and Byzantines used images of the Caesars for their own political ends, either. But these are huge topics worthy of books in themselves, so I can accept Beard didn't have room for everything.

I learned that western cultures can't really separate our art from Roman influence. It's often very subtle, but our ideas of "What makes a good portrait?" are shaped by how Renaissance artists borrowed Roman postures, gestures, and realistic features. If an English speaker points at an abstract sculpture and says, "That's not real art," his assumptions about what art is likely derive from this tradition. And European pseudosciences like phrenology and physiognomy were partly inspired by studying Roman portraits, and feed into modern ideas of biological racism and discrimination against the unattractive and disabled.

I also came to realize that celebratory and contemptuous portrayals of the Romans can both represent at reactionary ideology. A prejudiced person could either glorify Rome to pretend that modern society is degenerate in comparison, or he could claim we're degenerate just like the Romans and thus doomed to "fall" like the Roman empire did. I suspect prejudice against modern pagans has also been encouraged by centuries of art portraying Roman pagans as cruel, corrupt, and lascivious.

The Great Beast, once alive here, is no longer. Its roars silenced in the fog of the town; glisteningly dull reflections brought to a still gray in the puddle water. The first sign of its release. There were people here once. Bustling, stepping toward the mouth, brought to work in the belly. Sweating from the heat to do what they came here for, now left only courtesy notes and abandoned boots. Its horns, once puffing out smoke town-wide, now a dirtied red, the tips blackened by soot and ash. The second sign of its release: The fog winning against the fume. Amongst the swamp and pine no longer carried a taste, nor smell, only that of nature. Curious animals, bolstered by the lack of warning, made nest here, only for what was left to hurt them. Trees close by now no longer husks of their former selves, but green and lush as once they were before. The beast had its downsides. The third sign of its release, a sickening drought, boiled out by intense heat from the womb. Water turning to vapor. A thin, white streak of gas serving as its last breath, as both fire and man finally vacate it. It served us well years long. Instead of death we found peace, protected by the beast- Its work utilitarian, necessary. I found myself caring more for it than I bargained. Its exterior nostalgic and its interior impressive, myself found nervous amongst its organs, dusted fingers rubbed off on clothing.  I walk a path many others have, yet its eerie silence brings shuddering to my shoulders as ghostly hands impart on my back. From lockers to tables set for a day to never come, I alone was here to witness both past and future. And I was afraid; For things to follow through hallway and room, always behind enough to hide, tracing claws along walls made of need. So, I ran. Out from its womb, to its belly, and out of its mouth. Looking behind me to see only dreams.    

//////////////

They pretend art has always existed to appeal to the greatest number of people and appeal in a way that is simple and explicable. If you look at the history of art that could not be further from the truth. Even art that was performed to an ‘illiterate’ public often maintained layers of meaning and ambiguity throughout long periods of history (just look at the global historical traditions of oral storytelling)

The simplification of art and the expectation that everything should appeal to a wide audience is the result of commodification not democratisation. Art has arguably never been less revered than now and still there are people who think it has further to fall in esteem. Just look at the AI movement’s desire to undermine artists while stealing their work.

I believe that the ‘it’s not that deep’ crowd who is eager to wield the accusation of pretentiousness whenever something doesn’t connect to them is part of an anti-artist, anti-intellectual movement to do away with mainstream non-consumerist (non-recuperable) art.

There has been a concerted effort by corporations and those purely interested in consumerism to erase the notion that art is primarily a human expression that is not necessarily made to pander to a wide audience. Every day we see more efforts in the social media & technological culture wars to devalue art and demonise artists who wish to create artistically fulfilling works rather than crowd-pleasing content.