Written by: Benjamin Tan
The art talk this time was entirely on abstract art. This was one area that I could not understand or appreciate.
However, after the art talk, I was much more informed on how to actually appreciate abstract art. These are the few tips I would like to share with you!
Firstly, it is the biography of the artist. Understanding where they came from and how they were raised from young can really give you a depiction of what kind of abstract they will be painting and also what is the effect that they want to draw out from their painting.
Secondly, It is the brush strokes. If you start to lean in and observe each of the abstract painting, you can start to see the different gestures that were used in each of the brush strokes. This makes viewing the abstract art even more interesting as you start to ponder what kind of emotions the artist was having when he/she did that brush stroke on this corner of the painting.
Thirdly, which is the most interesting is the grid. Every abstract art will always have a formula for a grid. Some questions that can help facilitate your pondering of the art will be is the grid dominating the whole painting? Is the grid symmetrical or is it distorted?
During the art show, there were 3 abstract paintings that were showcased.
For Louise Fishman, one thing really unique about her art is that the brush strokes were actually many different objects that were removed from the painting to give that really special brush stroke to the abstract art.
For Purvis Young, he will use any kind of material and objects in his abstract and as shown above, he used carpet this time round for his abstract art.
For McArthur Binion, the interesting fact of his abstract was that he used his own birth certificate for all the 4-inch squares in the art. Also, if you look more closely, you will actually see an oval in the painting too!
Overall, I was really glad to go for this art talk to learn about the wondrous world of abstract art.