Abstraction – thinking and understanding

With the topic of nature and abstraction we have a wide field to plow. Apart from the study of nature and subsequently its abstraction, it touches very much on the metaphysical.

When we speak of abstraction, we’re faced with a variety of definitions. This causes problems until today. Because what is abstraction? If we reach for the dictionary, we see: “Abstraction, Latin abstractus, removed. Or abstrahere, to drag away, remove, separate.” Yet, we still have no idea what it means. Nevertheless, these terms are quite accurate, because when we talk about abstraction, we’re also constantly talking about reduction. It’s like saying, we leave out as much as we can while still achieving the greatest possible expression. In the process of abstraction, we leave things out to arrive at a generality.

Language is also abstraction. For example, when we use the word “tree,” that’s already an abstraction. Because what is meant by it? The “tree” can be any tree. It’s so general that all trees, anywhere and of any species, have a place in this word. This capacity for abstraction isn’t developed by the human brain until the age of twelve to fourteen. Before that, a child’s brain is not capable of abstract thinking, even though children can make beautiful abstract drawings. This is because the image comes before language.

In the development of the brain the image comes before language development. This is an interesting matter because it makes visual art a form of expression that is beyond language. That’s why we have to strive for immediacy in an image that foregoes narrative altogether. So that we no longer need language. I emphasize here explicitly that this does not concern illustration. Illustrations live from the narration, from the fact that it becomes literary, that the trains of thought within the represented can also be translated into language.

In an abstract image, we can no longer easily resort to words. We are much more concerned with the perception of our own abilities and what feelings and experiences we associate with it. Kandinsky said that we have to see with feeling eyes. Of course, we need certain information to do that and that is the history of art. This brings us to the great achievements in the visual arts at the beginning of the 20th century. Hilma af Klint was the first artist to paint the first abstract painting. This achievement used to be attributed to Wassily Kandinsky, but today we know that his first abstract painting, later predated to 1910, was painted in 1913. In truth, Hilma af Klint was the first with her abstract painting The Ten Greatest, No. 2, Childhood, Group I in 1907 and today she is recognized for it.

What does this have to do with the practical activity of drawing? You’ve practiced looking closely at nature, studying the lines of the bark of a beech tree and focusing only on individual lines that became abstract by leaving out the bigger context on your drawing sheet. The next step was to include geometry, the basic elementary orders that an image can have.
So you’ve abstracted the process to the point where you no longer have any details, but only horizontal, vertical, diagonal and round shapes or lines that generalize the idea of an image so it leads into absolute abstraction. This process seems to be a simple one and yet it’s complex. Abstraction in painting and in drawing of contemporary art is seen in the absolute conceptuality, when a concrete reference to a thing or a recognizable form is completely absent.

Nevertheless, there are different movements in the formal principles themselves. For example, there’s geometric abstraction, on which we will focus in this impulse in order to understand it and the possibilities it provides. But there’s also, action painting, for example, where the outbursts are very gestural and emotional; like it’s the artist’s sign language. Or the phases of Informel, Tachism and so on, which have been given a name in art history.

In the performing arts, abstraction goes so far that the viewer can understand the original features of, for example, a conversation or an action only if they recognize their essence. That is, even if the actor forgoes an actual verbal form of expression, they must recognize the essence. In any case, all forms of expression, all styles and movements in abstract art require perceptual and interpretive skills. These theoretical foundations were also provided by Wassily Kandinsky in his book “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”.

Begin with a dot to analyze how the dot affects the drawing sheet. How big does the dot have to be to sit at the right place and create tension? It’s only one dot, so it’s an absolute reduction of possibilities.

Work simply and gradually, so that you fully understand the effect of something as small as a dot. You’ll find that it’ll bring you absolute joy over time. You’ll deeply understand what nature does in nature when we experience one single dot as nature, as nature in itself. And if you absolutely need something real, like an element from nature, then you can integrate that. You have to take this freedom. First think about the quality of the line. If you’ve understood this, then you already know that even a dot has a quality. It can be quite hard, it can expand, and it can thereby take on a form that is no longer perfectly round. Yet we still perceive it as a dot. You can spread the dots regularly over the whole sheet, you can scatter them, and you can observe and perceive them. Sit down consciously at your drawing desk, take a deep breath, draw your attention to yourself, notice how you feel in this moment. No past, no future worries, or plans, just the current moment. And with this moment you create dot by dot, moment by moment.

I wish you a lot of fun and beautiful results!