Welcome to Abstract Art Analysis with LoneWick
About this newsletter...
Content:
What, and Why?
Why Abstract Art?
My Background and Perspective
What, and Why?
This will be a weekly newsletter highlighting a few pieces of abstract art. Most of the art will be from newer artists who’s work you can find and collect as NFTs on various blockchains. It is subject to change as I receive feedback and it may evolve to include more works throughout history, as well as educational materials.
Why?
To put it simply, I think most of us who enjoy and collect art (especially in the world of NFTs) would benefit from slowing down a bit and spending more time observing the details of the art that otherwise gets buried in our ever-growing collections and social media timelines.
This type of analysis is something I already do in my head each day when I’m looking at art. It recently occured to me that it might be fun to put these thoughts into writing, share it with others, and learn more about this stuff in the process.
There is a ton of art being shared on Twitter, NFT platforms, and elsewhere at a high velocity every day. It’s no surprise that our behavior is trained as such: Scroll → stop for a second to look at piece → hit ‘like’ or ‘buy’ → continue scrolling. In reality, this is how it will always be with most artworks.
Since this is the way most of us experience art, how much do we really see when a piece of “abstract” art hits our eyes for a brief moment? Abstract art is considered almost anything that isn’t purely figurative. In other words, it’s not trying to be a representation of a real-life scene. It often looks like random shapes, textures, and colors. Sometimes it uses recognizable objects, such as a chair, but it is used in a way that doesn’t represent reality. When you come across an abstract piece that stops you in your tracks, it’s usually due to an immediate reaction to general elements such as its color, its intensity, or maybe the sense of calm it brings. When a piece calls your attention it is usually because it resonates with the types of aesthetics or attitudes you identify with in other areas of life, or sometimes just how you feel in the current moment. That first impression is typically where most viewers stop and move on. This is perfectly fine, but there’s often so much more to the piece that can be observed if one only knew how look a bit deeper. Hopefully this newsletter can help demonstrate ways to break down some of the elements of a piece.
Why a newsletter? A lot of you follow me on Twitter and see that I like to post at least one piece of art every day. I originally wanted to do analysis tweet-threads but the limited room and separated format didn’t cater to the type of longer-form writing this will require. Also, this format makes it much easier to look at all previous posts in one spot rather than trying to filter through a timeline. Lastly, it allows me to expand.
Why Abstract Art?
This publication will focus mainly on abstract art for three reasons: 1) It’s what I tend to resonate with most and acts as a major influence on my music compositions. 2) I believe abstract art is the most elusive and misunderstood (even by many people who love it). 3) I want to learn more about it and there’s no better way to learn than to research, write, and report.
My Background and Perspective
First off- I do not have a formal education in art and art history, so if you are an expert in this area, please forgive me if I’m naive to some of the most basic language and techniques. I’m doing this out of pure passion and will continue to learn more about this field as I go. In that vein, I encourage any critiques, pointers, shared links, or anything that you think would be helpful.
I do, however, have a ton of formal education and real world experience in music composition, music theory, and analysis (I’ll open up more of that world later).
Since my training and experience is in music, this tends to be the filter through which I view most other art forms. I may use some language that comes from music theory and analysis in my observations of the art. Luckily, I’ve learned that a lot of terms and concepts crossover between the two.
I love all styles of music, but it may help to know that the bulk of my musical background is in two “genres”: 1) contemporary classical (a loose term) that is often complex, intense, and noisy with elements of serene beauty. 2) heavy metal.
It may also be helpful to know that I’m a very calm and balanced person. I assume this is made possible because of a subconscious insanity that is diverted through intense music and imagery (or maybe that’s just what I want to believe). If that’s true, what an amazing form of medication, right? I digress… Due to this apparent dichotomy of traits, you’ll likely notice that I have a tendency toward intense and dark imagery, as well as calmer themes with natural, earthy, tones. Though these are my tendencies, I do enjoy works from all styles of art, so I’ll try to demonstrate some diversity. As long as I like the work, it makes the cut.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this publication.
- LW
All the best! This is a great endeavor and I look forward to reading these every week!