Four horsemen of the abstraction
Stepping over the canons, shocking the public, enduring persecution… they were looking for a new language to express the emotions that overwhelmed them, and found it in colorful spots and clean lines that affect not the mind, but the soul. They have found abstractionism.
Abstractionists abandoned realistic forms. Its main feature is non-objectivity — there are no recognisable objects on the canvas, and the audience sees something incomprehensible and beyond the control of logic, outside of the boundaries of normal perception.
Wassily Kandinsky was in constant search for an answer to the question of how painting can escape from form. Immersed in thoughts during a workshop, he noticed some strange picture in which nothing was clear, but its colourfulness caused him deep feelings. Then the artist realised that he was looking at his own canvas, turned on its side. This insight later formed three forms of abstraction: composition, improvisation and impression.
It was like music, leading a person from reflections in the world of sensations.
Therefore, the artist’s compositions hadn’t titles in the usual sense and often differed only in numbers.
The pioneers of Russian abstractionism include the artist Kazimir Malevich. The painter tried himself in different styles, did not want to follow the canons. In 1915 he put together the theory of Suprematism. This theory became central to the Russian avant-garde and was expressed by means of combining simple geometric figures.
Outwardly, it seemed that these were ordinary figures on a plane, for example, squares, circles, rectangles. They were depicted separately or assembled into a composition. However, upon detailed examination of the paintings, the viewer could observe a complex transition from one tone to another in each figure. Malevich used his own methods of superimposing some tones on others, by which his works can be easily distinguished from fakes. With the help of these tones, the impression of movement was created within the figures.
Armenian emigrant Arshile Gorky (Vozdanik Adoyan) developed a special technique: he laid out white canvases on the floor and poured paint on them from buckets. When it hardened, the master scratched lines in it, making something like bas-reliefs. Gorky’s creations are full of bright colours. Viewers feel the pulsation from his canvases.
In the late 40s of the last century, Jackson Pollock invented a new technique for spraying paint — drip, which became a real sensation. She divided the world into two camps: those who recognised the author’s paintings as brilliant, and those who called them daubs, unworthy of being called art. The creator of unique creations never stretched the canvases on the canvas, but placed them on the wall or floor.
He walked around with a can of paint mixed with sand, gradually plunging into a trance and dancing. It seems that he accidentally poured a multi-coloured liquid, but his every movement was thought out and meaningful: the artist took into account the force of gravity and the absorption of paint by the canvas. The result was an abstract confusion, consisting of blots of different sizes and lines. For his invented style, Pollock was dubbed “Jack the Sprinkler”.
To find out how abstractionism changed since century ago check our NFT digest on modern abstract art.
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