What is it?
abstract art depends upon the assumption that specifically aesthetic values
reside in forms and colours, entirely independent of any subject of the work
of art. This view is of great antiquity and has resulted in much art of a
semi-magical character, as well as pure decoration. It also prevails in Muslim
countries, where representation of the human figure is frowned upon. The
'liberating' influence of the camera allowed the painter to neglect his older
social duty as a recorder of things and events, and, at the same time, late in the
19th century, Impressionism came to be regarded as a dead-end of naturalism,
thus leading to an increased emphasis on formal values, and ultimately to
Cubism, Constructivism, Tachisme, and the rest. It is not synonymous
with non-objective art.
The philosophical justification of abstract art may be found in Plato: 'I do
not now intend by beauty of shapes what most people would expect, such as
that of living creatures or pictures, but . . . straight lines and curves and the
surfaces or solid forms produced out of these by lathes and rulers and squares
. . . These things are not beautiful relatively, like other things, but always and
naturally and absolutely' (Philebus).
Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
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