HELP wanted on abstract Art -

[va...@cwu.edu]

In article <3f62qb$5...@emerald.rocks>, si...@emerald.cube.net (silke) wrote:
>> Help wanted on abstract Art -
>>
> >I would love to start a discussion and collect ideas about
>> abstract art. My German-English dictionary says abstrackt and
>> non-configurational art are the same - but exactly that I
>> doubt.

Charled Eicher wrote:
>I think any decent art-history type could endlessly discuss differences
>between genres of abstract art.. non-objective is the term I think you are
>searching for, I've never heard of 'non-configurational' although this
>might just be a translation problem (or my own ignorance possibly).

>Of course ALL art is to some degree abstract.

Eicher is right. All art, and photography too is abstract. To abstract is to simplify, to
capture the important essence of something. A lawyer's abstract is a brief description
of her/his argument.

An abstract expressionist, for instance, would say that a photograph of an apple on
a table was abstract. It is a brief two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional object,
which has many possible views. The A&E painter however would insist that his/her
work was *real*--not just realistic, but real. Such painters would tell you that when they
splash a large slosh of red oil paint across a canvas that is exactly what it appears to be,
that is real--not "like real" which "realism" implies.

The term "non-configurational" is probably a word your teacher made up to replace
a perfectly good term: "non-representational." Meaning it does not represent anything
in the world exterior to the painting itself.

Please pardon my mistake in the length of the line. Oh well, live and learn.