One of the
problems we have in talking about art, is the tendency to use all of
the above words as if they mean the same thing.
Abstract pictures have their beginnings in reality. A process of
abstracting starts with a realistic image, which is broken down into
design shapes, changed to the point where they are still
recognizable, called semi-abstract. The total abstraction of an
image results in a work where we no longer recognize the original
image at all. There is no set number of stages in between realistic
and abstract images.
Avant garde means experimental (158), looking abstract, but without
having gone through the process of abstraction.
Constructivism is "nonobjective, concerned with formal organization
of planes and expression of volume in terms of modern industrial
materials" (159) also looking `abstract'. Deconstructivism, means
what the name implies, which is the opposite of construct, or to
tear apart, or destroy, and quite often includes our appetite for
art.
Sometimes we forget that people rolled their body in paint and then
on the canvas, two thousand years ago. We think these are modern
occurrences.
"The most common denominator of most avant garde art of the past
two decades has been an increasing reflexivity - art whose basic
subject is art, that evolves primarily from art, criticizes and
parodies art, a parasite feeding on its own body, and reflecting
itself endlessly, as in a hall of mirrors. This reflexivity - the
medium is the message is the link between conceptualists and
phenomenologists, and between avant garde artists and specialists in
the philosophy of language - like cryptographers cracking codes only
to arrive at others that cannot be decoded, onions that are all skin
and no center. As if poetry could be written by studying grammar,
they preoccupy themselves with analyzing the tools, rather than
contemplating the work to be done." (160)
Thomas Albright
"From the point of view of art, forms are neither abstract nor
concrete; they are simply forms - lies - some of which are more
convincing than others... There is no abstract art. One must always
begin with something. Then all traces of reality can be removed.
There isn't any danger then, because the idea of the object has left
an indelible mark. It is what moved the artist originally, inspired
his ideas, set his emotions to vibrating. In the end his ideas and
emotions become imprisoned in his painting. No matter what happens,
they can no longer escape from the picture." (161)
Picasso
158. A Merriam Webster, ed. H. B. Woolf, Webster's New Collegiate
Dictionary, (Springfield, Mass. U.S.A., G & C Merriam Co.,
1976), p.77
159. ibid., p.244
160. Thomas Albright, On Art and Artists, (U.S.A., The Chronicle
Publishing Co. 1989), p. 41
161. Hans L. C. Jaffe, Pablo Picasso, (N.Y., Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,
1964), p. 11
