In looking
at abstract painting in particular, there is the possibility of being liberated from the conceptualisation that often dominates our experience, say, of figurative art — that is, if we can suspend our compulsion to form associative thoughts, as when likening the juxtaposition of forms, say, to a landscape.
On the one hand, the art world tends to look
at abstract painting as being traditional, even old - fashioned, which it is; when the paint was wet on those early Kandinskys, it was practically in the Victorian era, the space age still half a century away.
Think of the feeling of dissonance we get when we look for the first
time at an abstract painting: we don't know what it is we are supposed to be seeing.
Asked about the difference between abstract and figurative art, she said: «Many people would like to know how to look
at abstract painting because they may be used to looking at figurative painting.
Apart from the very occasional, idle foray into figuration — «sans le même désespoir» — I have been
at the abstract paint face, so to speak, for the best part of thirty years.
I admit that this is not as clear cut as a ruined castle on a distant hill top, but I think that it is a big mistake to look
at abstract painting in the same way as a figurative one.
The result is a creative experience that viewers themselves undergo as they look
at an abstract painting.
But I certainly didn't expect anyone to look
at the abstract paintings and say, «Look, here are those people,» or, «That's a leg over there.»
There aren't many people who like to look
at abstract painting or who want to bother with its implications.
I look
at abstract painting and figurative painting with the same eyes, and when I look at a more full - on Rubens painting, taking in all of its aspects, I often think it has a relationship with a very fulsome abstract painting, like the De Kooning in this room (pictured).
You can look
at any abstract painting and you could localize it.
«Someone looks
at an abstract painting and they wonder what it means... well forgive me, but what does anything mean?
Reading the discussion between Harry Hay and Simon Gardam they talk about «feeling» space in abstract painting which actually resonates and could help to experience space as abstract rather than figurative when looking
at abstract painting.
Not coming from a painting background, I understand paintings from an image perspective, and it was always much harder for me to look
at an abstract painting and decipher whether it was successful or not.
Yet when you look
at an abstract painting, this sort of information is fundamentally irrelevant.
Barnett Newman had very specific opinions about how viewers should look
at his abstract paintings.