abstract design

What is abstract design

Abstraction in the interior. How to understand and what to choose.

Abstract paintings are quite often used to decorate the house: they fit well in almost any interior, you can play with the size, it is easy to pick up the right color. And yes, only a big good abstract can be better than a good abstract.

But over time, the picture no longer evokes emotion, becomes inconspicuous, as if it dissolves into its surroundings, despite its bright color and even its large size. Something has gone wrong…

When choosing a painting for the interior, much depends on your goals and objectives: do you want to complement the house with a bright spot that fits perfectly in color and shape, or do you want even more – both color, shape, meaning and ideas. Do you want the picture to be responsive, not boring, so that the look stopped on it every time, wandered through the intertwining of lines and forms, opening something new? Then the choice will have to be made more deliberately.

abstract design

Here are a few thoughts on how to choose a good abstraction:

Intentionality.

Sometimes, looking at an abstraction, you might think it’s an involuntary combination of shapes and colors. But in good work, as Jackson Pollock, one of the pillars of abstract expressionism, said, nothing is accidental. Behind the dashing lines there must be an idea, a meaning, and that means that the details of the painting are not random. The attentive viewer discovers their unconsciously-significant meaning. Composition, all means of representation, are subordinate to the artist’s idea.

Color.

Wassily Kandinsky, the recognized ancestor of abstract art, long studied the impact of color.

In his work “On the spiritual in art,” he wrote, among other observations: “The eye is more and more attracted to the light colors, and even stronger and lighter and warmer tones: cinnabar attracts and beckons us, like fire, to which a person is always ready to greedily look. The bright lemon-yellow hurts the eye after a while, like the ear from the high sound of a trumpet. The eye becomes restless, cannot stand the sight of this color for long, and seeks deepening and rest in blue or green. At a higher development, this elementary action passes into a deeper impression, strongly affecting the soul.”

So, it is not only the color which is close to the “palette” of the room that should be chosen, but one which is consonant to you, and the more it is consonant, the more concrete its characteristics become for you, the more distinctly it resonates in your consciousness.

For those who are ready to develop a little more color perception, it is worth looking at additional colors in the color wheel. It’s easy to find on the Internet. This will give an idea of the origin of some colors, complementary colors, their mutual influence on each other. Then the banal copying of the main colors of the interior can be replaced by their competent use, emphasizing certain elements, emphasis, not to mention the depth of the picture and the consonance of the themes and ideas.

It is also important that color has an impact on the human psyche. Color is symbolic, the perception of it is always subjective, the attitude to it is ambiguous. The artist creates a kind of color reality, which has quite a specific effect. Trust yourself when choosing a picture, because it will have its artistic and aesthetic effect every day on you.

Shape.

Each figure has its own meaning, a special “sound”. Painted in a certain color, it becomes more or less expressive, as well as the color intensifies or dims.

Composition. It will express ideas and meanings of the author, it will speak language of form and color, as well as competent combination of colors and detailed arrangement of lines and points on the canvas allow achieving visual harmony even without images of pleasing to the eye objects. Correctly arranging the accents in the composition makes the picture more expressive. The impact becomes stronger. It is important that one single “point” in the picture does not draw all the attention to itself, in this case you can miss other equally significant moments.

abstract design

And yes, that means you have to think and feel into it before you choose a particular abstract painting.

The “signature” of the author. It’s no secret that it’s by iconic hallmarks that we recognize great artists. Which means you have to delve a little deeper into the subject to understand it. Try 10-15 minutes before going to bed or other free time for a couple of weeks to view paintings by acknowledged masters of abstraction. Start with Kandinsky, then the searchers themselves often suggest some other options. Here’s just one condition – just look, do not try to grasp the meanings and subtleties, they will reveal themselves over time, do not cut off your shoulder – “I do not understand”. Here are a few more names that are, as they say, “on the radar”: Paul Klee, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Culling, Richard Diebenkorn, Barnett Newman, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaller, Lee Krasner, Kenneth Nolan, Gerhardt Richer and many more talented artists. Even such a small amount of “observation” will seriously expand your boundaries of perception. And then the chosen abstract work will become not only a timeless artifact of your home, but also a vivid expression of your own views and ideas!

Author: Abstract