Notes on Abstract Art

*This is for the 12:00-1:30 TTH graduating students...

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. 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.

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Notes on Art Markets

Notes on The Art Museum II

Since about 1965 a shift has occurred in museum finding, 1992, almost $ 700 million was given by corporations to promote culture and the arts. The shift to corporate sources coincides with the rise of the “blockbuster exhibitions”. These exhibitions aim at a broad public appeal and middle-class taste.

In the article written Brian Wallis entitled, Selling Nations: International Exhibitions and Cultural Diplomacy, he explains, “Individual nations are compelled to dramatize conventionalized versions of their national images, asserting past glories and amplifying stereotypical differences”.

Curator Susan Vogel of the Center for African Art in New York arranged an exhibit in 1988 entitled Art/Artifacts using varied display techniques to provoke visitors to ponder distinctions between art and non-art. 

Freeland, Cynthia. Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction.Oxford U Press: New York, 2001.

Centre Goerges Pompidou