2009/08/19

*The Dehumanization of Art*












Kandinsky.
&Malevich.
&Mondrian.

*The Dream Team.........of..........................Abstract Art.*

WAIT! Keep reading...it's good : D

1st up. Wassily Kandinsky!

The truth behind abstract art is quite amazing. Kandinsky is credited for discovering abstract art, BUT, it's the way he discovered it which is most amazing...

It's a late night, in 1908.

Kandinsky opens the door to his studio...through the dark he sees an image of "indescribable and incandescent loveliness"...he couldn't identify it as an object...it was an image composed of only bright colour patches...He walks closer.........voila! it turns out the image was his own painting sitting sideways (A la Paul Wall : D)! The image was distorted simply because of the angle in which he viewed it!

And so goes the discovery of Abstract Art! I know...astounding.

At the time "true art" consisted of the environment, self-portraits, etc.... Art HAD to be a representation of the world through man's eyes, and there had to be an identifiable object. So a new concept is born! Art without an object! ....

Okay!....Here come the Haters...they're always around aren't they?...many critics first viewed abstract art as a means to be lazy, drawing anything on canvas and labeling it as art. They also feared it would invite un-talented artists to display work next to talented artists...(lol, sounds like the hip hop of today, no way I'm labeling Soulja Boy as abstract hip hop tho : D !)....However, the philosophy behind it silenced most critics...

Abstract art came in the same era as a deeper understanding of physics and the philosophy of nature. "The division of an atom" was crucial. Kandinsky realized that the images we see in everyday life are not accurate, rather they are a harmony, or arrangement of much smaller images(atoms) combined together. To draw these smaller shapes, and images, he felt, is too create a true reality. Kandinsky's images were broken into smaller shapes, without form! Example, a drawing of a bike... the bike can't be seen, only the shapes and colours that would represent a bike.

The next batter up....

2. Kasimir Malevich! (personal fav.)

Malevich is ill...the good kind of ill. Instead of breaking down objects to create reality, Malevich believed the only possible representation of reality was a "cosmic reality"...the merging of every single existing object together! Not just atoms...but merging people together, cities, countries, planets, galaxies. Malevich created the "non-objective world", or the world without individual separate objects. He believed that simply drawing one image, like a chair, or a person, was only tearing apart a fragment of a whole image(the universe). Everything must be together to be accurate!

His belief is that...."a real human life is one in which activity does not mean flight from cosmic reality, or separation from it, but that ones life is just part of the pulse of the universe"(the only true object).

What does this leave him with??? The ultimate drawing....a black square on a white background! Yup, you guessed it, the ultimate image. Malevich's drawing is an image of the universe seen from so far away, that it appears in zero form, or put simply, a black square. The black square represents all of the images in the entire universe, merged together into one shape!

3. Piet Mondrian! (last but certainly not least)

Mondrian's art was unlike both Kandinsky and Malevich. Kandinsky's art removed the original object and became formless, Malevich believed in a single form, totality, and that all objects were in rhythm with, and combined to create one single image...Mondrian's belief was in essential form. The breaking down of an object to it's simplest form, neoplastic rectangles, while retaining remnants of the original image. Mondrian painted the DNA of objects, evolution through simplification was his goal. He used only primary colours for his work, the basic of the basic! By breaking an image down to it's simplest form, only then can we truly see it...bringing about a harmony between our spirit and reality.

I found this to be art, or reality, based off of contraries? The complex becomes simple...and consequently the simple becomes complex. Deep!

Last Section...Trees....lets stay focused...these are not the ones you light! : D

One of my personal favs. from Mondrian is his set of paintings based on nature, specifically trees. To Mondrian they represented the ultimate contrary, the Yin and Yang. The roots of the tree represent the world and reality...the branches of the tree, which grow and reach to the heavens, represent spirituality. The tree chronicles a man's life journey, from the Earth, to reach to the skies and attain something greater! Our souls are celestial beings reaching to become reunited with the heavens, but rooted, and stuck on Earth. The roots=reality...The Branches=Spirituality...and the Stem=the man himself!...........

Well...with that said I'm already starting my collection of abstract art(reproductions, all I can afford!). I've got a new found appreciation and my pad could use some art...and Hey....if anything...the girls will like it! : D (damn, I can be deep and shallow in the same article, what a contradiction, ey Mondrian?).

But seriously, I recommend reading up on all three artist, as I'm barely scratching the surface here...it may change your perception of reality...Also, I recommend reading about..."The Civilization of Pure Relations"

*Any phrases in quotations are from the Book Mondrian, by Victor Ieronim Stoichita*

Learn More. Let your tree grow to the Heavens!!!!
"Abstract art is an attempt to not only create a representation of reality, but to investigate its true status..."

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