Derived from the Greek-Latin dialect "Abas-Traus," abstract art has found a more profound resonance in the realm of visual arts than in its literary counterpart. In the history of art, though sometimes misconstrued or misrepresented, the concept of abstraction has always been an iconic and intoxicating force. In the twentieth century, nearly every artist can be associated with at least one piece of abstract work.
In the West, during the early 19th century, a radical shift in the perception of the physical world occurred, owing to the emergence of Einstein's theory of relativity and Bohr's quantum interpretations. This shift had a profound impact on society's collective consciousness. The newfound awareness that "there exists a reality beyond single and multipoint perspectives to understand the self among the known" sparked a wave of innovation.
The effects of World War I on human beliefs further fueled this creative surge. The brutal destruction of human consciousness during this period was explored and represented in various forms of human creativity with deep dismay.
In art, there emerged a newfound vigor to seek, explore, and understand the realm of existence beyond the mortal frame, giving rise to abstract art. However, during the early days of abstract art, the form-seeking mind resisted the temptation. Most artists still sought a form, focus, and an idea in their creations as an exploration of identity within the known world. (Some, like Picasso, dissected reality in their exploration).
Perhaps the influence of faith and religious beliefs played a significant role during this period. We can discern an undercurrent of causality in all creative works, including groundbreaking concepts in relativity and quantum physics. However, it may also have been a response to the times, as the futility of material existence was exposed during the inhumane destruction of forms in World War I.
Subsequent human curiosity in the search for the imperishable, unfortunately, could not transcend abstraction beyond perceived notions of form, as form only has relative existence in our understanding (to elaborate, a physical form is merely an enclosure or set of coordinates in the Universe).
In this context, Pollock and the abstract expressionists deserve recognition. It's intriguing that abstract expressionism emerged from America, a nation untouched by the construction frenzy and mechanization of human consciousness that post-World War II Europe experienced.
Abstract expressionism was a creation without underlying currents, devoid of objectivity or meaning. Nevertheless, it still made a statement in the broader context of national identities.
Although the process of abstraction later discarded conventional concepts of art, material, color, style, and embraced social decongestant movements like hippie culture, modernism, conceptual art, postmodernism, etc., it could never fully transcend its initial liberation.
These movements often ended up as orchestrated manipulations of forms. In any orchestrated manipulation, there is typically a hidden attribute or external orientation in form. The external attribute merely supplements the subject and cannot be the essence of abstraction.
In theory, abstraction is not about attributing something external to the subject's existence; rather, it is akin to extracting sweetness from sugar, even if it's just a part of the whole.
In philosophy and science, the "observer-observation-observed" algorithm has been rigorously tested and understood for a while. In art, however, apart from the initial strides by Pollock and the abstract expressionists to explore the inner and outer realms, true abstraction has remained a distant dream.
This holds true for many Oriental art forms that draw inspiration from Western art developments. Regardless of their innovation and creativity in manifestation, they often become manipulations of form—a new creation or a protest for or against the subject. In this sense, the theoretical concept of abstraction often eludes the realm of art.
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