Why are famous abstract artists good at drawing?
I remember being very surprised when learning that abstract artists like Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, and Donald Judd had done figurative works when they were young. I’d always assumed that abstract art was something apart from figurative art, rather than something born of figurative art. Anyway, here is an interesting passage on the topic from a random blog:
I will give an analogy from my own world. Some people love to create abstract paintings. However, it’s not really possible to do good abstractions of the perceived reality if you’re not very good at copying the reality you see first. In other words, you need to be good at drawing and painting what you see before you start to dissect and alter your vision. A really meaningful abstraction is one that maintains the most important elements, albeit you can continue to abstract ad infinitum until the traces of our normal reality are gone. This is the process that the painter Piet Mondrian and the sculptor Constantin Brancusi explored back in the early 20th Century. Other forms of abstract art may be nice to look at but their intrinsic meaning is not the same if you get my drift; they are simplifications but not real abstracted abstractions. (I may add that photography tends to be a bit different since the process involves being able to see and capture what is already there, however work on the shots can imply abstraction). In a similar way, spiritual people who appear to have transcended their egoistic needs without actually having done so may have an allure about them but looking up to them is intrinsically meaningless. They are not icons to follow, though in an indirect way people can learn from them too. It’s important to understand that negative experiences are also helpful on the journey towards greater self-realization. Via negativa has a way of shaking people in the form of wake up calls to the realization of various truths.
Pretty good writing, I think. The blog author’s bio reads:
I am writing from the point of view of an artist, an ex-student of religions (I have a Masters in the psychology of religions), and someone afflicted with some fibromyalgia symptoms due to a spinal deformation.
She definitely knew how solid her resume would sound was when she wrote it…
I found this blog while googling “dissolution of an ego,” a query which returns a motley group of acid heads, new age freaks, and serious thinkers.
