My notion of ‘abstract’

A few months ago I began exploring the notion of abstraction. My idea was to examine my photographs, determine the essential elements, boil down the emotional content and portray it in concentrated form with a few pictorial elements. (See: From Photograph to Abstract Expression.)

I used the term ‘abstract’ as a verb meaning to isolate or separate. I wanted to separate relevant portions of my photographs and portray them independently. I am not unhappy with my photography. To the contrary, I think many of my photographs are successful. However, I wanted to see if I could extract the evocative photographic elements and translate them to the visual arena of painting.

The idea of a kind of dictionary of emotional pictorial elements crossed my mind, but the last thing I want to do is re-invent the ten icons of the ‘pain scale’. Those of you who have ever visited a hospital know what I’m talking about: to assess a patient’s pain level, a nurse would point to a set of smiley-face icons and asks the patient to point to the appropriate icon. Level 10 is an unhappy face with tears, representing the worst pain; the smiley face is level 1, no pain.

There must be another way to express one’s self visually.

Enter Paul Klee

Klee used another meaning of abstract: existing in the mind; without physical presence. Klee was not trying to portray any subject. According to Robert Kudielka: “[Klee’s] drawings in particular reveal that far from being driven by the intention to characterize, to describe or even formalize something, Klee started out with nothing but the point of his pencil and the impulse to set it in motion. ‘The original movement, the agent, is a point that sets itself in motion (genesis of form),’ he wrote.” (Kudielka, R.  Paul Klee: The Nature of Creativity, Works 1914 – 1940. London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2002 pg 53)

This sounds like the automatic writing embraced by the Surrealists (see More Surrealism). According to Alfred Barr Jr. (first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City),  “Klee was ‘claimed’ by the Sur-réaliste group in Paris but found… that he was not especially interested. His work is, however, perhaps the finest realization of their ideals of an art which appears to be purely of the imagination, untrammeled by reason or the outer world of experience.” (quoted from Kudielka, R.  Paul Klee: The Nature of Creativity, Works 1914 – 1940. London: Hayward Gallery Publishing, 2002 pg 54)

How does one become an agent?

I want to know how one guides the pencil point. If it is not the unconscious, what is it? At this point this is a total mystery to me. Hopefully, I will be able to learn a bit more about this with further reading.

If any abstract or surrealist artists can help clarify this point, I would love to hear from you.

Today’s experiment

In keeping with my intention to paint each day, I submit the study below. The butternut squash has not gone bad yet, so it remains a good still life subject. I included my own hand in the study, which makes it a semi-still life, I suppose.

I used glazing again, beginning with lemon yellow. I added Prussian blue to get the greens and alizarine crimson for the orange color. I glazed a second time with aureolin yellow and reenforced the orange color with winsor red.