Abstraction to Nonobjectivity

Each student will be assigned one of the following works.

You must answer the blog questions for just your assigned artwork.

However, I would highly recommend all of you reading/watchin​g all of the following links below over all the pieces.

 

Artworks Assigned are:

Greg - Kandinsky's Improvisation 28 (#132)

 

1. Take one minute to list adjectives that describe the following artworks: Matisse's Goldfish (#131), Kandinsky's Improvisation 28 (#132), and Mondrian's Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow in separate columns.

Kandinsky’s Improvisation: chaotic, random, colorful, messy, jumbled, abstract, and confusing

Matisse’s Goldfish: bright, beautiful, slanted, complementary, life-like, and tilted  

Mondrian’s Composition: basic, plain, linear, simple, and proportional

 

2. Compare the three works then craft a one-sentence description of each.

Kandinsky’s improvisation is different from all of the other art works in that it is a jumble of different depictions and ideas. When you would look at this it evokes a sense of chaos. It is as if the subconscious of the brain illustrated itself upon this canvas. This is the prominent aspect of this painting that differentiates it from the rest of the others. Matisse’s Goldfish contrast itself from the others in that gives the most accurate perspective and illustration of life. Even though the painting does not look correctly proportionate and 3-D it is the most life-like. For instance the things upon the table look as if they could never really stay on the top. We are expecting those things to fall of the table. But ultimately we understand what is being illustrated as compared to Kandinsky’s Improvisation where on a first glance at the painting anybody’s guess is good as any. Lastly Mondrian’s Composition Red, Blue, and Yellow is completely different the rest. The other painting represents life but here we see geometric shapes and lines represented here. This definitely when introduced started a new era of art. Never before would this be considered art and received much backlash in its entry.   

 

3. Explore the impact of Freud and the horrors of war on escalating efforts to visually depict the external world, internal emotions, and abstract philosophical concepts in innovative, nontraditional ways.

During this period with the horrors of the First World War many sought to express themselves as a way deal with what they had experienced. This event and intellectual thinking lead to a great deal of emotional and horrific depicted art work of this time period. Because of such a transformative time this resulted in new techniques and styles of art. Sigmund Freud is the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. And during this time period the perspective about the relationship and status of our own thoughts and subconscious was prevalent. You look at Kandinsky’s Improvisation and that it exemplifies what I’m talking about.

 

5. Examine ways Kandinsky abandons representation in the belief that abstraction enables color, like music, to speak directly to the soul.

Kandinsky abandons representation in the belief that abstraction enables color to speak directly to the soul by creating a swill of jumbled imagery in a convoluted way. The mess of the imagery causes the viewer to see the condition of the soul. There is no emphasis on the color of the piece because it is told through the imagery.