Study Finds That Abstractions Don’t Elicit Universal Emotional Responses Among Viewers artnet news, august 11, 2020
“Aesthetic effects are not universally shared but rather are highly determined by private evaluation,” it stated.
Turns out abstract art is pretty much a blank slate and you take away only what you brought with you, everyone projecting their own meanings on a square of pure improvisation. Now that’s freedom but it isn’t communication since it’s been determined definitively there’s no universal meaning in abstract art, and maybe no meaning at all. Back when the abstract expressionists first ascended they had all the meaning, subconscious supremacy and action immediacy, all such as that, and it was the representational artists who had nothing left to say and besides we’re not even looking at pictures of anything any more no matter what. Literary people fanned the flames of abstract expressionism realizing before anyone else that it truly was a blank slate and they could write anything they wanted about it. They were free to fly, constructing counterpoints of airy conjecture that would baffle their editors and leave the general public in the dust.
This inherent meaninglessness of abstraction is desirable in certain quarters and corporate entities particularly prefer its non-committal qualities for conference rooms and offices, a splash of color for muted business interiors without revealing even so much as personal taste, conceding not even that much advantage. Fans of abstract art also include anyone mentally lazy or just disinterested who find it convenient for breaking up blank wall space in waiting rooms and such since who looks anyway? To be fair some abstract art does get lots of attention but only as the price tag begins to swell to gigantic proportion and overshadow the art, ironically in itself something recognizable after all.
In the end there’s only art, all together, and we have centuries and continents of it already laid down. In our era of general prosperity some knowledge of art should reasonably be the common heritage of everyone, not just the gated reserve of the insanely rich and those who long to be like them. Down the street and around the corner someone is painting what they see, don’t know why. Their work won’t be valued by the establishment since they still haven't found the first step on the ascending ladder of certified affirmations the industry calls a career. This is the time when their work will be cheap, before the general population begins to awaken to their own human potential, abruptly weaned from sports and stadium concerts, shut out of bars and forced to cook at home, even bored enough to pickup the coffee table book and actually look at the pictures. Pretty soon they’ll be able to see the art in front of them too, and the buyer’s market for pictures of things will be gone.
“Aesthetic effects are not universally shared but rather are highly determined by private evaluation,” it stated.
Turns out abstract art is pretty much a blank slate and you take away only what you brought with you, everyone projecting their own meanings on a square of pure improvisation. Now that’s freedom but it isn’t communication since it’s been determined definitively there’s no universal meaning in abstract art, and maybe no meaning at all. Back when the abstract expressionists first ascended they had all the meaning, subconscious supremacy and action immediacy, all such as that, and it was the representational artists who had nothing left to say and besides we’re not even looking at pictures of anything any more no matter what. Literary people fanned the flames of abstract expressionism realizing before anyone else that it truly was a blank slate and they could write anything they wanted about it. They were free to fly, constructing counterpoints of airy conjecture that would baffle their editors and leave the general public in the dust.
This inherent meaninglessness of abstraction is desirable in certain quarters and corporate entities particularly prefer its non-committal qualities for conference rooms and offices, a splash of color for muted business interiors without revealing even so much as personal taste, conceding not even that much advantage. Fans of abstract art also include anyone mentally lazy or just disinterested who find it convenient for breaking up blank wall space in waiting rooms and such since who looks anyway? To be fair some abstract art does get lots of attention but only as the price tag begins to swell to gigantic proportion and overshadow the art, ironically in itself something recognizable after all.
In the end there’s only art, all together, and we have centuries and continents of it already laid down. In our era of general prosperity some knowledge of art should reasonably be the common heritage of everyone, not just the gated reserve of the insanely rich and those who long to be like them. Down the street and around the corner someone is painting what they see, don’t know why. Their work won’t be valued by the establishment since they still haven't found the first step on the ascending ladder of certified affirmations the industry calls a career. This is the time when their work will be cheap, before the general population begins to awaken to their own human potential, abruptly weaned from sports and stadium concerts, shut out of bars and forced to cook at home, even bored enough to pickup the coffee table book and actually look at the pictures. Pretty soon they’ll be able to see the art in front of them too, and the buyer’s market for pictures of things will be gone.
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