I make abstract art – I have an appreciation for it, and there are a lot of amazing abstract artists with large followings and many admirers. There are even equally or more people who don’t like abstract art and are quick to dismiss it as child’s play or that their pet chimpanzee could do that.
Abstract art is like politics and religion – people have strong opinions on it, and whether it is good or not – or even whether it is art.
When most people look at a work of art they want to find a frame of reference to real life (we search for patterns, recognizable shapes), we want a perspective that matches our understanding of the world. We want to see it as bottom up, foundation below, sky above – that makes us feel safe and comfortable.
Abstract art challenges that bottom up view, at its best it dismantles the expected elements along with perspective.
Nobel prize winning neuroscientist & art lover Eric Kandel in his book Reductionism in Art and Brain Science states: ”Abstract art dares our visual system to interpret an image that is fundamentally different from the kind of images our brain has evolved to reconstruct.”
Kandel goes on to state, “top-down information contributes greatly to the uplifting sense of spirituality that abstract art can induce. That is because top-down processing involves brain systems that are concerned with memory, emotion, and empathy as well as visual perception.”
Knowing this might not turn you into an abstract art lover, but it may make you think about what your brain is doing the next time you look at a painting.
Abstract art takes me somewhere different, then any other form of art. It doesn’t make my head hurt, it opens my mind to spaces (like a meditation). It can give me deep peace, or enliven my spirit. I can view the same painting repeatedly and receive something from it each time.
Abstract art is like a great equallizer, you don’t have to have a frame of reference for it, you could be from anywhere in the world, with any life story and experience – and it could speak to you through your eyes and in your language.
Go ahead give abstract art a chance to move the neurons in the brain, let your imagination interpret what the eyes take in – you might just find this art more fulfilling then you would dare to think.