Abstract algebra

The exhibit tells me a lot about the background of Viki, one of the basket makers in the United States or specifically in Indiana. Besides that, the exhibit also tells me a lot about the process of making baskets. The process might be difficult for someone who is not familiar to basket making. There are three essential tools that are needed to make baskets and the tools are spitzka, pruning shears and pocketknife. All of these tools are required to shape and bend the willow to become a perfect…

German expressionism appeared, as the name implies, in pre-WW1 Germany. During these times, the country was in turmoil and was facing complete isolation from other countries, especially during the end of World War I and the subsequent change in regime, as in The German Empire was transformed into a republic, more specifically the Weimar Republic, would bring Germany to its knees. Thus, it comes to no surprise that a country with such issues would produce these kinds of films; surrealistic,…

In this eerie ghost like painting, the subway becomes a place of alienation, of homelessness. This painting minimizes the influence of people and eliminates details in order to map out the space as an abstract structure of empty rectangle planes. Modern city dwellers on the move, these faceless people go about their business with silent indifference, held within an elaborate grid of vertical and horizontal rectangle entrance/exit ways (Baal-Teshuva 30)…

Vassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter, writer, teacher, art theorist and the father of abstract art. Being a trained musician, he used music in his approach to color which he made sing from the canvas. A major turning point in his style of art came after he viewed Claude Monet’s “Haystack at Giverny” at a Moscow exhibition. Over the years he perfected his style of abstract art. He inspired other artists, wrote books on his theories, worked with museums, and ballet’s, experienced his work…

in Art.” Here, Kandinsky comments on those “rhomboidal composition[s] made up of a number of human figures [which are] an absolute necessity to the composition,” criticizing the figures’ material appeal for “directly weakening [the composition’s] abstract appeal.” While Kandinsky correctly…

Besides abstract art, an additional medium in which reason relies on emotion to work is film. Oftentimes traditional films rely on action and emotion to drive their plot and besides the “system one” analysis which drives the following of the plot, the deeper analysis of potential commentary or other aspects of the film comes later. When analyzing films, the role of emotion is an important consideration to make. Thus when considering film (excluding abstract films), reason does rely…

The minimalist movement was started in the early 1960’s in the heart of New York. This movement stemmed as a reaction to the Abstract Expressionism movement. Many temporary names were used before the name Minimalist stuck. When the movement first appeared to the world, names such as “A.B.C. Art”, “Reductive Art”, “Literalism”, “Systematic Painting”, and “Art of the Real” were used to try and describe such an indescribable piece of work. We can only theorize why the current name stuck around, but…

Jackson Pollock was an abstract artist whose paintings have a deeper meaning than they seem to have. Everything he put on a canvas represented a form of expression whether through chalk or paint splatters. It was a way for him to be vulnerable and put his thoughts into a body of work. Pollock was a fan of John Cage’s music, because Cage too was pushing normal artistic views. Cage was introduced to the idea of Abstract Expressionism by an exhibit by Mark Tobey. He realized that art could just…

painters. He started his art career when he was only eighteen years old. He studied with countless numbers of well-known artists in his lifetime. From the Public Works Project in which he developed his most famous paintings, to being a part of the abstract expressionism art movement, Jackson Pollock was truly a talented and smart young man who got mixed up in something that eventually took his life. Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming to LeRoy Pollock and Stella May McClure. His father was a…

Abstract Expressionism is a term pertaining to a movement in American painting that thrived in New York City after World War II (late 1940’s). In abstract expressionism, the painter expresses their personality by the use of color and shapes. Abstract expressionist art does not necessarily consist of painting an object or image, but instead focuses more on the interaction of color, paint, and canvas. The varied works share the theme of using abstraction to convey strongly passionate and…