Friday, August 6, 2010

catching up to abstraction

from the Longmont workshop:

notes derived from Robecca's binder on abstraction, which she loaned me, fodder for much further thought:

the analogy of abstract art and instrumental music -- the analogy is to non-choral music, without verbal references, just as purely abstract art has no identifiable visual images. the idea of communicating via structure and basic artistic elements and intuitive ideas, things that stimulate the imagination and memory without specific representation. how does a painting relate to a cello sonata?

defining a "way of seeing" -- how do we each see the world? some see line, others multidimensional space, etc. "haptics", the sense of oneself physically as a body in the environment -- incorporating implied touch, intuition about distance and proportion, the feeling of masses and volumes in relation to each other and oneself. does this, for me, relate to dance?

Piri Halasz: understanding abstraction as "multi-referential". the essential point here is that abstraction, rather than having no reference, actually refers to qualities common to more than one reference or phenomena.

interesting article to get a copy of: Laurie Fendrich, "Why abstract painting still matters", Drawing us in: how we experience visual art. Chasman & Chiang, eds. Beacon Press, 2000.

Robert Genn on abstract art -- search his archives.

Too tired to deal with any of this tonight.

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