Abstraction: A Fluid Expansion
After almost 2 decades of figuration dominating the discussion surrounding painting and other modes of art, abstraction seems to be on the rise again evidenced recently by a number of notable exhibitions. Shows such as The Jewel Thief at the Tang Museum, Besides, With, Against, and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture at the Kitchen, Le Tableau at Cheim & Reid as well as a series of shows titled Cave Painting, explored abstraction from various perspectives, but the commonality was demonstrated by the unquestionable fact that abstraction is actually comprised of a diverse set of practices today. In reality, it always has been varied, but Modernism for the sake of promoting ideals such as unanimity and harmony disregarded this salient fact.
Although Post Modernism expunged the idea of singularity and ushered in notions of multiplicity, diversity and difference, abstraction, and abstract painting continued to be denigrated within the post-modern culture. Abstract painting being one of the highest achievements of Modernism and in particular, its synonymity with Greenbergian formalism necessitated a vehement repudiation by artists from the 1960s onward. Despite the resurgence of abstraction, it would be misleading to suppose that it has now been accepted back into the discourse of art, as it still exists for the most part in a critical vacuum.
Ironically, the more it gets marginalized, the more it appears to be provocative for younger artists. Rather than considering it as an end game or a retrograde practice, it has inspired a renewed appeal among the emerging generation of artists tired of art as spectacle or entertainment. Curious of its seemingly moribund state, abstraction has been re-energized by younger artists who have found ways to recuperate it in ways that are not necessarily about using it as sign, a site for appropriation or as a ready made with self conscious irony, nor has there been yet another return to the romantic ideals of modernism vis-a-vis self expression. Instead younger artists are turning to abstraction as a way to express a more thoughtful relationship to material that is not exclusively formal or prescribed, but underscore or address a more complex relationship to the former or to envision a situation in which the binary is no longer a viable option.
The show, The Working Title curated by Progress Report offers further confirmation of this recurrence, bringing together 32 artists who are mostly in their mid-30s with a few in their 20s and two veterans. The show comprises of mostly paintings, but also includes sculptures and videos as it attempts to cross the boundaries of these categories by exploring the various ways abstraction can be determined today, thus obliterating any residual hierarchy inherent in the way these categories can be understood.
Interestingly, The Working Title organizers think of abstraction as a visual moving target. This is an apt metaphor as abstraction is difficult to define, comprehend and value, because of its variable nature. Its complexity belies the way it appears and is capable of containing contradictory approaches and interpretations. Its goals are regularly shifted and its unstable nature owing to the impossibility of complete identification or mimesis is constant. Thus abstraction is not fixed to any theory or interpretation.
What is at stake for abstraction is whether it has the ability to contain new ideas. One of the things that abstraction has always been capable of is the fact that it continues to change and record the world while recording itself. In other words, it refers to itself as well as outside of itself and allows the viewer to regulate and engage their response with their particular associations. In this way, it resists codification remaining fluid as a mode of representation, persistently searching to present ways of seeing and thinking that previously may have been unavailable.
The terms of abstraction’s existence have been regularly altered and it is this ability that allows it to sustain its resourcefulness and younger artists today are exploiting this flux to produce works that are fresh and unbranded, yet determined without the constraints of modernism. One can still discover how old histories can be made useful and put those traditional qualities to work expanding on its history. This versatile and stimulating condition allows abstraction to persist despite its problematical status.
It is important to note that most artists at present, particularly of the generation that make up the participants in this show are digitally conversant whether it is directly, tangentially or even minimally manifested in their works. The digital is organized as a dynamic that connects and reconnects with other structures and we can understand abstraction in a similar vein. The specificity of the strength of abstraction is not found in what is inherent or in the pre-established essentials anymore. Instead, it is in the new kinds of relationships that can be constructed with other mediums and concerns that make abstraction significant today.
Shirley Kaneda
New York, NY
March 2011
After almost 2 decades of figuration dominating the discussion surrounding painting and other modes of art, abstraction seems to be on the rise again evidenced recently by a number of notable exhibitions. Shows such as The Jewel Thief at the Tang Museum, Besides, With, Against, and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture at the Kitchen, Le Tableau at Cheim & Reid as well as a series of shows titled Cave Painting, explored abstraction from various perspectives, but the commonality was demonstrated by the unquestionable fact that abstraction is actually comprised of a diverse set of practices today. In reality, it always has been varied, but Modernism for the sake of promoting ideals such as unanimity and harmony disregarded this salient fact.
Although Post Modernism expunged the idea of singularity and ushered in notions of multiplicity, diversity and difference, abstraction, and abstract painting continued to be denigrated within the post-modern culture. Abstract painting being one of the highest achievements of Modernism and in particular, its synonymity with Greenbergian formalism necessitated a vehement repudiation by artists from the 1960s onward. Despite the resurgence of abstraction, it would be misleading to suppose that it has now been accepted back into the discourse of art, as it still exists for the most part in a critical vacuum.
Ironically, the more it gets marginalized, the more it appears to be provocative for younger artists. Rather than considering it as an end game or a retrograde practice, it has inspired a renewed appeal among the emerging generation of artists tired of art as spectacle or entertainment. Curious of its seemingly moribund state, abstraction has been re-energized by younger artists who have found ways to recuperate it in ways that are not necessarily about using it as sign, a site for appropriation or as a ready made with self conscious irony, nor has there been yet another return to the romantic ideals of modernism vis-a-vis self expression. Instead younger artists are turning to abstraction as a way to express a more thoughtful relationship to material that is not exclusively formal or prescribed, but underscore or address a more complex relationship to the former or to envision a situation in which the binary is no longer a viable option.
The show, The Working Title curated by Progress Report offers further confirmation of this recurrence, bringing together 32 artists who are mostly in their mid-30s with a few in their 20s and two veterans. The show comprises of mostly paintings, but also includes sculptures and videos as it attempts to cross the boundaries of these categories by exploring the various ways abstraction can be determined today, thus obliterating any residual hierarchy inherent in the way these categories can be understood.
Interestingly, The Working Title organizers think of abstraction as a visual moving target. This is an apt metaphor as abstraction is difficult to define, comprehend and value, because of its variable nature. Its complexity belies the way it appears and is capable of containing contradictory approaches and interpretations. Its goals are regularly shifted and its unstable nature owing to the impossibility of complete identification or mimesis is constant. Thus abstraction is not fixed to any theory or interpretation.
What is at stake for abstraction is whether it has the ability to contain new ideas. One of the things that abstraction has always been capable of is the fact that it continues to change and record the world while recording itself. In other words, it refers to itself as well as outside of itself and allows the viewer to regulate and engage their response with their particular associations. In this way, it resists codification remaining fluid as a mode of representation, persistently searching to present ways of seeing and thinking that previously may have been unavailable.
The terms of abstraction’s existence have been regularly altered and it is this ability that allows it to sustain its resourcefulness and younger artists today are exploiting this flux to produce works that are fresh and unbranded, yet determined without the constraints of modernism. One can still discover how old histories can be made useful and put those traditional qualities to work expanding on its history. This versatile and stimulating condition allows abstraction to persist despite its problematical status.
It is important to note that most artists at present, particularly of the generation that make up the participants in this show are digitally conversant whether it is directly, tangentially or even minimally manifested in their works. The digital is organized as a dynamic that connects and reconnects with other structures and we can understand abstraction in a similar vein. The specificity of the strength of abstraction is not found in what is inherent or in the pre-established essentials anymore. Instead, it is in the new kinds of relationships that can be constructed with other mediums and concerns that make abstraction significant today.
Shirley Kaneda
New York, NY
March 2011