Pathways to Abstraction

Art historians have wrestled with the difference between  the art of mimesis ( imitation of nature) and decorative or ornamental  expressions( what had been called primitive art until the mid 20th century).  Decorative art included such categories as, historic  weavings, beadwork, pottery ornamentation, and body painting. These works were not trying to imitate the single  point of view of an eyewitness. These artists were not aiming for atmospheric perspective, linear perspective, color recession, or  any of the mimetic criteria Europe had developed since the ancient Greeks.  They were making artful arrangements; ritually styled compositions, patterns and symbols rooted in cultural traditions.  Their  patterns engage us with arresting tempos of variegated colors, shapes and symbols.  Such traditions can be usefully exploited by study and borrowing,  whether it be from the Kwakiutls of the Pacific Northwest  ( see example 1, painting on wood inside Kwakiutl Raven Mask,1900) or  Tibetan Buddhist  mandalas.  Here we can observe the careful extended use of symmetry,  echoing patterns, and elegant simplified pictographic and ornamenting shapes.  I borrowed the  emphasis on balance and pattern, and then I merged it to European traditions of mimesis. This activity helps an artist find new directions and stimulates the imagination.

example 1.  

In the following examples I will show you paintings of mine which I developed by moving  away from mimesis (the Western pursuit of the imitation of nature as seen through  a window) and  pursuing  principles of  pattern  and balance found in ornamental art . As you will see,  I continued my own traditional (mimetic) use of  the picture plane as a place for  spatial and faux texture effects.  In these examples, my abstractions become  hybrids, part mimesis and part ornament. The ornamental part can be seen in my reliance on a  flat and balanced  pattern.  In my first example ( example 3) of  figures moving through space in Grand Central Station, I have already begun to move away from easy legibility. Next, I use the experience of seeing layers of paper posters peeled off  a wall ( example 4). I superimpose this flat idea onto the illusionistic space of the painting.  The resulting image is both flatter and more abstract yet, it still retains the feeling of a picture versus an ornament.

example 3.

example 4.

In the next example I begin with a  forest scene already reduced and abstracted into an atmosphere of color and floating shapes (example  5).   I then place dark ( blue/black) paint over the upper area of the painting and a warmer brown paint  over the lower area.  The blue/black not only acts as a value contrast but also, as a color contrast to the lighter mottled yellow field underneath. The  dark yellow/dark brown   which I painted over the lower section acts as a foil to the lighter purplish color now lying underneath.  Next, I considered gestural patterns which would cross the entire picture plane.  My stroke  gestures were  continuous like, an unfolding  bracelet (ornament) twisting across a darkened field.  The dark areas can be seen as flat shapes or, as dark deep space  (ornamental flat space vs. illusionistic  natural space). Example 5 is so thoroughly changed by re-painting  that  the resulting image (example 6 ) allows only traces of the original work to show through.

example 5.

example 6.

In my last example I began with a painting of  a pond with its reflections and floating  material(example 7). I added warm dark brown reds to a painting whose dark colors were deep cool blues. Again, I aimed for  contrast through color. The complex surface area of example 7 offered texture and color for my later reveals in the final centrally balanced abstraction  as now seen in example 8.  The painting was so radically transformed it may be hard to notice traces of  example 7 hiding beneath the final result  of example 8.

example 7.

example 8.  .