'Recognizing Abstraction: Across, Between, Within Spaces.' Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi, Feb. 6. 2019 (original) (raw)
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Familiar beyond Recognition: Translation in Contemporary Abstraction
2017
This research contributes to discourse on abstract art in relation to a contemporary context of image sharing and exchange. Many contemporary artists working with abstraction use visual elements from art history, popular culture, product design, the computer desktop and architecture in their work. The once unrecognisable non- figurative forms of Modernist abstraction have now become recognisable objects and forms in contemporary abstraction. Artists such as Charline von Heyl, Christine Streuli, Natalya Hughes, Peter Atkins, and Ryan Gander make visual reference to pre- existing forms in their work, shifting our understanding of abstraction as being based only in formal qualities. Translation as process and concept is a useful model to interrogate how particular abstract forms are re-employed in contemporary abstraction, how they are recognised, why they are familiar, and why this is important to understanding contemporary abstraction. I argue that both a history of Modernist abstrac...
Decoding the Language of Abstraction
2019
This study is focused on exploring and implementing various strategies that can be employed by artists, art students and even non-artists, to create and comprehend gestural/abstract visuals. It deals with the idea of manipulating different formal elements of art & design like line, color, shape, composition, scale, repetition and contrast in order to evoke a particular sensation or emotion. How induced sensory experiences and movements can be translated on a two dimensional surface using various tools and mediums. Several artists have been discussed in this research who employ different strategies in their practice to convey a particular meaning, visual impact or emotional resonance through their abstract compositions. Some prominent strategies have been used to create experiments for artists and non-artists in order to draw a comparative analysis of how different people react to the same stimulus and how unique abstract visuals can be generated and further manipulated with the help of pictorial devices. This paper aims to educate the readers regarding gestural marks and the notion of abstraction, its approach and techniques of creation and how these strategies can be applied in order to achieve desired results.
2020
Iftikhar Dadi, “Abstraction in the Arab World,” in Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s, ed. Suheyla Takesh and Lynn Gumpert (New York: Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 2020), 50–59.
The Iconology of Abstraction — Non-figurative Images and the Modern World
This book uncovers how we make meaning of abstraction, both historically and in present times, and examines abstract images as a visual language. The contributors demonstrate that abstraction is not primarily an artistic phenomenon, but rather arises from human beings' desire to imagine, understand and communicate complex, ineffable concepts in fields ranging from fine art and philosophy to technologies of data visualization, from cartography and medicine to astronomy.
Bagh-e Nazar, 2021
Problem statement: Islamic philosophy and art theoreticians, such as Burckhardt, considered Islamic art as abstract since it presents divine mysteries in Eastern art through symbolization. Hence, traditional art is sacred art with an abstract model of expression that avoids figurative and naturalistic representation. On the other hand, in Europe during the 20th century, Kandinsky started a movement in the visual arts to discover the visual features beyond the visual-narrative realm of the real world. They believed that painting, like music, should set itself free from the boundaries of mimesis or imitation of nature and narratives and influence its audience merely through forms and colors. Both of these attitudes have their theoretical foundations and reasons that are different from each other. The present study seeks to answer the following questions: What is the meaning, function, and characteristics of the word "abstraction" in both the abovementioned perspectives? What are the concepts of traditionalists and Western art critics from the term "abstraction" and how are they related to each other? Research method: This basic research used a descriptive-analytical method and first attempted to find the exact meaning of the word "abstraction". Afterward, it examined and compared the characteristics of Islamic art from the traditionalist thinkers' points of view and the concept of "abstraction" in Western artists' opinions. Research objective: This study discusses art and stylistics in the theoretical field of art research and can be effective in the development of discussions on "the nature of art". Conclusion: There are similarities and differences in the use of the word "abstraction" in Islamic and Western art. In both of them, the artist and the audience are detached from the material and objective world. Both of these perspectives try to present something beyond what is visible and for this reason, the artists try to employ mysteries and symbols to present their artworks.
Talking about Abstraction ... A conversation with
2014
Silvia Simoncelli: When you developed the Abstract Possible project, you explored it via three different strands: geometrical abstraction, withdrawal and economic abstraction. The latter seems to have taken a broader space than the first two, not only because of the rich program accompanying the show at Tensta Konsthall in 2012, which was focusing on economic abstraction, but also due to the many initiatives that you have developed there afterward, such as the curatorial summer workshop on “Economy”, the series of public seminars “Publishing in Process: Ownership in Question”, a series of panel discussions on contemporary art funding. Do you plan to keep on researching on this issue also with your next projects?