Wisconsin Backroad Series - 1

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with
a degree of independence from visual... more

by Jack Zulli

Title

Wisconsin Backroad Series - 1

Artist

Jack Zulli

Medium

Painting - Photography, Painting

Description

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with
a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance
up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce
an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures other than the European had become accessible and
showed alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist. By the end of the 19th century many
artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place
in technology, science and philosophy. The sources from which individual artists drew their theoretical
arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western
culture at that time.

Abstract art, nonfigurative art, nonobjective art, and nonrepresentational art are loosely related terms.
They are similar, but perhaps not of identical meaning. Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in
depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be only slight, or it can be partial,
or it can be complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum. Even art that aims for verisimilitude of the highest
degree can be said to be abstract, at least theoretically, since perfect representation is likely to be exceedingly
elusive. Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance color and form in ways that are conspicuous, can be
said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to anything recognizable. In
geometric abstraction, for instance, one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic entities. Figurative art
and total abstraction are almost mutually exclusive. But figurative and representational (or realistic) art often
contains partial abstraction.

Both geometric abstraction and lyrical abstraction are often totally abstract. Among the very numerous art
movements that embody partial abstraction would be for instance fauvism in which color is conspicuously and
deliberately altered visual reality, and cubism, which blatantly alters the forms of the real life entities
depicted.

Uploaded

November 17th, 2021