2/6 The Rules Of Abstraction With Matthew Collings
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2014
- • 1/6 The Rules Of Abstr...
First broadcast: Sep 2014.
Documentary in which painter and critic Matthew Collings charts the rise of abstract art over the last 100 years, whilst trying to answer a set of basic questions that many people have about this often-baffling art form. How do we respond to abstract art when we see it? Is it supposed to be hard or easy? When abstract artists chuck paint about with abandon, what does it mean? Does abstract art stand for something or is it supposed to be understood as just itself?
These might be thought of as unanswerable questions, but by looking at key historical figures and exploring the private world of abstract artists today, Collings shows that there are, in fact, answers.
Living artists in the programme create art in front of the camera using techniques that seem outrageously free, but through his friendly-yet-probing interview style Collings immediately establishes that the work always has a firm rationale. When Collings visits 92-year-old Bert Irvin in his studio in Stepney, east London he finds that the colourful works continue experiments in perceptual ideas about colour and space first established by abstract art pioneers such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky in the 1910s.
Other historic artists featured in the programme include the notorious Jackson Pollock, the maker of drip paintings, and Mark Rothko, whose abstractions often consist of nothing but large expanses of red. Collings explains the inner structure of such works. It turns out there are hidden rules to abstraction that viewers of this intriguing, groundbreaking programme may never have expected.
I am over 60 years old. No prior exposure to art before the Internet. Now someone cares enough about art to put it out there for those like me to view. I thank you one and all each and every time I am able to stop my very busy life for art. It is very important to me these golden moments of time spent on art. The moments spent on Utube for art. I am a farmer.
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It’s a strange world after all, cheers!
Oh how lovely. Thank you for farming so we can eat, and for appreciating art so we can feel!
you prolly dont care at all but does any of you know a method to get back into an Instagram account..?
I was stupid forgot the login password. I appreciate any help you can offer me
@Lennon Darren instablaster :)
I am an artist and trained architect, and this show is just excellent and educational. My mother used to tell me, 10 mins of everyday reading is 10 years of life expectancy of how beautiful life is. I owe everything to my mother an inspirational character.
When I look at abstract art and modern painting styles like Surrealism, Cubism ect I get this feeling of complete satisfaction when I gaze at it. I might not know why I like it but I do.
I found this quite inspiring, and educational. Thanks to you Mr. Collings.
6:45 - 6:50 "I've seen a really nice sort of loopy gesture that I think I can put down here"; this tiny moment really spoke to me, the hesitation in articulating, the small risk, the 'deep breath before the plunge', it's wondrous and heart-breaking in its own tiny, ridiculous way, and inherent in creative acts of all kinds I suspect: 'I'm not sure, and I couldn't say why exactly, and I'm not even sure this is what I mean, but here goes'
Yeah. I love that part too.
She is a master and it feels so good to learn from people like her. To many wannabes like me out there😊
@@sTeVe-vl3nh never too many! all 'wannabes' to begin with :-)
Martin Hampton yes, her last sentences: you try to make a picture, that doesn’t exist...
Well that is not possible, because there is nobody who doesn’t paint something. This things just happen. So it is a good pointer for Nondualism. In another way to say: you don’t have to try it, it’s already as it is 😜
Collings is pertinent and articulate as ever on paintings and art. It is a pity we don't see him now on mainstream tv. His programs and interpretation of art and artists was always fresh and insightful.
the best explanation and insights into abstraction. And I'm only 2/3 of the way through the second video. Can't believe i missed this 8 years ago!
Love your analysis! Love abstract Art as it lends itself to expression ... self-expression!!! Thank you!
Exactly, and it feels freeing, and in touch with your soul to create.
Life over 70 ... art, colors, daily learning in UA-cam
Thank you
Kandinsky was a genius and an inspiration to so many. A true artist.
I LOVE THE FACT THIS DOCUMENTARY INCLUDES WOMEN!!! Regardless of the difficulties, there have always been women in history but cultural content producers don't bother to give them the recognition they deserve, even today. THANKS MAKING IT JUST AND EGALITARIAN
hi! i recently discovered this series and i like it very much!! im young and i enjoy making abstract art
it’s really fascinating how one can express themselves beyond what reality depicts.
thank you for this!! im now more inspired to do something i enjoy!
Thank you Mr Collings. I still don't like abstract art but you are so poetic and deep with your explanations that I reassessed my view on abstract art.
The irony of course is that the presumably more representative art you prefer could actually be seen as constructed from a matrix of abstract elements.
As a fan of abstract, I’m glad to read this comment. Not many people even take the effort to try and understand the form, they just dismiss it as childish (as if children aren’t hyperspiritual beings!)
idk. I make "abstract" art with absolutely no meaning. it's just far more fun for me to make and I like how it looks
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Then your art is not safe-aware
then you are a true artist!
Artist today just do it for a hobby . Noting compared to painter of the past. Put they heart in it ...
As a student of the oldest waldorf-school (the alternative schools founded and initialized by Rudolf Steiner) in the world I wouldn't have expected to stumble upon Steiner in a BBC documentary...
This is absolutely fascinating to me and can't wait to finish watching it all. I especially like the part where he compared the abstract art to music.
I have synesthesia and I see numbers and music in colors. When I hear jazz or certain types of progressive rock music I see abstract images and colors in my mind..I don't only hear the music I see it in my mind ! For example when I hear Jimi Hendrix playing his electric guitar I see it like vivid colors and shapes of electric paint ..different kinds of textures and tones all twisted into chaotic yet in a structured form if that makes sense..much like abstract art...it is as if Jimi was painting with sound!
At 43 years old I wanted to get me some acrylic paints and canvases and try to emulate what I heard and saw those musical colors and shapes in abstract paintings. This has been a very spiritual thing for me and I feel like it is what I was meant to do..I wonder if anyone here can relate to what I am talking about? Anyway hope that didn't sound too weird! lol
Mathew! you are Mathew!!!
thanks for great sharing we all need your vision.
Great series Matthew. Too bad it ain't available as a DVD or Blu-Ray. I'd buy it, maybe even two copies and give one to my local library!😀
Thank you so much for these very interesting lectures on abstract art - it has been very informative and a very inspiring præsentation
Why do people have to condemn what they don't understand? Art doesn't have to be the same thing for everyone, and just because someone values a different form doesn't mean it isn't legitimate or is "BS". I'm saddened by the angry responses to this series. We can have different aesthetics, it's ok to not like abstraction or to love it, that is your freedom. But we owe each other tolerance, and spewing hateful rhetoric doesn't lead anywhere except further division. Many of these artists in the documentary could render form in a representational matter to a degree that would blow the socks off the realist painters out there. They just reached a point where they didn't find it meaningful anymore, they had lived through wars and turmoil and painting representational illusions just didn't cut it for them anymore. They wanted to try and tap into painting the invisible. Who am I to condemn someone's honest attempt to understand this life, this world? I certainly don't claim to understand all abstract art, but I don't deny their sincere attempt to reveal something about life as they have experienced it and their struggle to communicate something of that experience.
Like your command. I am really bothered when people say without thinking, abstract is BS. Don't know why but that makes me sad.
Actual reality cannot ever be depicted, nor put into thoughts, if it would be, it could not exist. Division into realism and abstract is entirely an imaginary figment of the human mind, and of course different in each individual experience. Thus all condemning anyone or anything is ultimately utterly untenable, and useless if you are interested in learning anything
I mean that actual reality is not what the mind thinks it is. The mind makes artificial arbitrary borders
Well put Mary👍
Mary Moquin It is all part of the process. I have heard people attack art in which they cannot comprehend, only to be so very disappointed with themselves immediately or shortly afterwards and even go on to find a love for that very form. 😊
It is a very interesting video to think about the ways we experience, understand and talk about art
I really like how you present this. You bring out the spirituality of Art.
I love the qoutes from Kandinsky on color: “ working with color is like playing the piano” 🎵💜🎶💙🎵💗🎶🧡🎶💛🎵🖤
so amazing Arts..!! Beautiful and very artistic..!!!
This is a fantastic documentary. I love the color theory segment . Science is art and art is science.
What wonderful creativity - a joy to view! Sending my support 🔔
A very interesting story of colour and forms and own perceptual feeling and whole in one composition I like it and know something new it is helpful to me to create at this age.Thak you.
I may not agree with Collings about everything, but I like this documentary a lot. Thanks for the upload!
Art is aesthetic it gives different meaning to the individual
I wish I had the full song list for this entire documentary. I love the song choices.
Edit: nevermind, the songs are in the description.
I save and savor each of these
Excellent!
I'm using this to cram knowledge about abstract art, and I have nothing to say except "I like your funny words magic man!"
I like doing Abstract . This helps me a lot .!
very educative!
Ten seconds in this film express a genius description of the artist's process at 6:50 minutes.
You said it.
thank you
7:52 Fiona Rae lights the whole painting up with that brushful of white.
The primitive catching the essence of the spirituel - and rhythm and tone is in everything and melodies are like lines of sound caressing, Hatting, going up and down and around and at the same time vibrating the breath of life - - its a total musicality - a synkinaestetic danceing with life
Most of the people do not know about from prehistoric to modern art because they have no special knowledge from start to nowadays art. So it is necessary to aware of this knowledge and to reach the common people, So today we have very fast communication and visual instruments so we can reach by this way to the common people, therefore, they develop their mind. Sometimes common people have also like this Idea but they cannot represent their Idea.because of the unknown of this knowledge.
This is my experience about people sometimes more educated and high profile people also do not know this knowledge.
Wtf u talking about ????
Make no sense
😀Love It!!
Steiner's colour lectures are very esoteric but after sitting with them you realize they open up so much that is closed off. Kandinsky got it.
Working with colour is the keyboard is a very beautiful theory
anyone know what the music used at 00:25 is?
thanks Mathew you are amazing brother.
your name means
If someone wants to or needs to make a living as artist, it is probably rather daring to paint pieces that don’t depict anything particular or contain very few references to what is communality. It’s about finding the sensational channels to the audience. This however is completely independent of whether you call your art abstract or not. I don’t really see what the boundary between “abstract” art and the rest is, and really doubt that there is one.
Sadly, the comments here prove that the world is filled with people not comfortable going outside the lines.
n3Cr0ManCeD Great comment!
How true. Maybe that is what is wrong with our society today! Sad, isn't it?!
Children go outside the lines. We’ve lost that joy.
2 years difference but still... You can sound as clever and as up your own arse as you want. But until you do something that is 'outside the lines' you are the same as everyone else.
@@durango-CODEBUILDER So how do you know I HAVEN'T done anything outside the lines?
Not sure what you are babbling about but cheer up buttercup..... you WILL get over it.
And BTW.... The only thing worse than art critics are art snobs....
thx!
Not crazy about abstract art - but he is a wonderful narrator. This guy should be doing voice-overs.
The sheer size of these canvases must have been a universal choice among all these artists.
I have to admit there is something about oil and acrylic paint that makes me want to go big. I feel cramped on a small canvas. Same thing with sketch books. My largest one is 18x24.
What is the music at 11:33?
Delaunay's painting seems to be a birds eye view of a city street, showing a tall three dimentional building to the left, and two lightpoles to the right. The use of prism colors from the light poles gives the illusion of height, and it is also lightening up the fasade of the building.
Abstract artists are of course always keen that their work avoids hints to the physical world!
The narrator asks good questions, however, there is something amiss. The "rules" of abstract art are not mentioned.
Given the subject I think that is entirely appropriate.
I love Fiona Rae...her Art is just so deeply profound...a gentle breeze before a thunderous storm.
Musical notes don’t depend for mood on the note that comes next, but more from the silent space in between those notes….
Only on episode 2 wonder if they will mention “Though Forms” by Annie Bessant.
I’m still waiting for this documentary to live up to its title…haven’t seen any ‘rules’ defined yet.
What is the music piece starting at 4:29?
Nice
I don't mean to be any offensive or anything I'm just asking a question for clarification. I really don't understand abstract art as the ones represented in the video; like is it that someone paints and sees what are the colors that he needs to put there that he feels go together to represent something that he had in mind or a feeling or are there rules for the diagonals, the shapes, the different strokes themselves and if there aren't how do people understand such art? I would really appreciate if someone explained.
I believe artist just do it for a hobby , make money . And how it feels to paint , the colors it brings and just play with it lol
Painters of the past were different. They convey a message , feelings , experience .
Vibrationel energy - making a picture that does not exist - a kind of definition of abstract art
Steiner is one of the most underated artists of all time
I think critics make attempt to read too much into artworks. I guess it is their job to do just that. Their criticism is in itself an added value to an artwork. However my personal opinion is if you like or enjoy to look at a picture and gives you vibes it means it works for you. If not maybe it will do for somebody else.🤔
You do you, Allessandro. You do you.
Would it be possible to give me the name of the artist please ; love to read about the. Alrene
I love this documentary! But please : with German Untertitel
Love Kandinsky he is unbelievable
is not joke.
we learn.
Have you noticed that in this video one painting of a man is being showed twice to compare it with two female painters work, each time explaining the "different approach"? I wonder why it was so hard to put each, hilma af klint, sonia delauney and kandinsky on eyes level.
👍
😍👍🏾
Unfortunately to understand or have a form of connection with this art you almost always need an elaborate knowledge of abstraction and specific artists motives, which essentially defeats the purpose of many abstract ideas. It's a shame, because the reasoning behind their visual choices are very intricate and intelligent, this can just never be translated clearly.
ZMC Film or you just get out of it what you get out of it.
You'll never see what the artist sees, even if you are and artist yourself.
That's the beauty of it, it's subjective, you project onto the art.... The artist can try and steer you one way or the other but overall it's ouy of their hands as soon as they show another individual the image.
Or you can enjoy it for the emotion it gives you, its beauty and or technique. As an artist, those who don't appreciate or dismiss abstract art reveal themselves to be non-artists. You don't need to understand a piece of music to enjoy it, abstract or any art works the same. And yes it's from the soul.
Of course it can never be translated clearly. That's the point and the power of abstraction.
Music at 8:40?
Doncamatic - Gorillaz
keeperofthecheese thank you so much!
Abstract painting - no matter how remarkable and beautiful - remains little more than a visual delight. Wallpaper . Great decoration for rich people.
Forgot to add this to my previous comment of some minutes ago...at about the 50 second mark Matthew is walking through a cavernous building and looking around, but what is this building and where is it? 🤔
I experiment a lot with colors.
jeez there's a lot of commercials..
Collings sounds completely out of puff in these videos - very interesting though :)
Mr Wolfe he needs an inhaler.
Love Kandinsky.
wundurfull, just wundurfull
winderful....
A visual thing is a kind of total seeng - a synkinaesthetic experiencing - read the Danish philosopher Professor Ole Fogh Kirkeby and e.g. His book Eventum tantum and Beauty Happens
6:03 Fiona Rae
For me, a stendahl moment (rare) stops y brain and brings me to tears. I can't even explain it and I never see it coming. Try to watch this on a screen that does the series some justice.
If Kandinsky was so spiritual how come he lived like a footballer?
lovley TV show. mat is less shiney than when i saw him on the telly last... but he's got a nice texture all the same. but i mostly 'think' contemporary abstract painters are doing a job. even if i like the feel of their pictures... the art job is a wrong-un. feeding the act... cat?
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Form = Ford Cortina. Abstraction suddenly became figurative.
Theory or hypothesis ???
Beware...big difference .
'Abstract is painting something that doesn't exist'.....I wish some of these comments didn't exist.It's sad that some artists feel compelled to try and justify their work by trying to 'explain' it.Abstract is non realistic, and art is human expression. There are no rules. Rules are defined as 'a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct or procedure' and to suggest that abstract art or any art for that matter is bound by such constraints is utter nonsense.
Jim Reid well said.👏
Nah, there's always the context of the architectonic.
....Obviously, you are not a professional artist from your comments.
Abstract art gets a bad rap because economics:
1 - people value LABOR, abstract art seems to use little to no effort on canvas and less hours
2. Abstract art commands prices in the millions
3. people do not like the contradiction: little labor and huge price, since this also echoes snobbery and harms a equal distribution of pay according to effort
In conclusion, the outrage is not aesthetic or mystical, but economic - moral.
If something is spiritual ¿how come you can own it and sell it?
One cannot escape representation with a 2D data set. It is a total impossibility because shape cannot but represent. It is the fundamental law of imagery.
Nice presentation, but Collings saying that there is "no such thing as spirit" is a huge, egotistical statement injected into a film about spirit in art! Helena Blavatsky's art and philosophy seems prescient, and very much like the work of The Academy of Future Science, which supports acknowledges Spirit and the God Most High of the Universes.
I think he's entitled to his opinion in his own film, as he seeing beyond the face value of her work into something much deeper and more universal. It's not arrogant to say spirits don't exist any more than saying they do.
artistinmiami he did specify that it was philosophically speaking, I was getting upset too but when I thought about his exact words, he didn't really mean that it was a fact of life or anything just that in philosophy that is what's believed and maybe what he believes as well but that part isn't clear
However......he states 'this' as though it is positively a fact......period!!
artistinmiami i
@@raquelarias9492 probably athiest
It's always amazing to me how abstract artists (and I've made abstract pieces) always want to justify their art with theory. Basically it's emotional and sometimes pretty to look at. The meaning, although usually there is some meaning attributed by the author, is given to it by the viewer. I see George Washington's nose in that cloud. To me the "Fauvists" had a better grasp on art than any abstraction. But personal opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.
Fauvism is abstract art, it is just not non-objective abstract art.
@@richardbond258 Perhaps all art is abstract. The world we live in certainly is.
@@gloobnord Sorry to be blunt, but no. That runs you into a nihilistic perception of visual media. All representational art is an abstraction of the representational world. And many abstract (non-objective) arts are representations of ideas, actions, feelings, beliefs, etc. We have rules that we break or follow, can categorize what we are doing and give reasons as to why. Please watch this series again. Then go to an actual art museum when COVID restrictions are lessened. You are seeing an abstraction of these abstract paintings. The visual information is compressed, degraded, and will not allow you to fully grasp abstraction. You have to see it.
@@waxywabbit1247 Lol. Have you ever heard of irony? Grow a sense of humor. Art is art, life is life. Is art life? Perhaps. Is life art? Sometimes.
@@waxywabbit1247 Explain this, why does my comment present itself as life being meaningless socially, or that nothing is real, or even that I don't approve of anything, exempli gratia. So I guess I reject your argument. Where did you go to art school by the way? I suppose it doesn't matter because art is subjective, or not connected to public perception. Thanks for your comments.
Abstract art is like believing in God - you need faith to believe in the existence of God - you need faith to believe that there is some sense in abstract art - I am losing my tolerance it is not art it is decoration - and at this point, it is totally random what is put up for verification - even a wine stain or a water stain from some leakage can be art it only depends on the intention - it is not the form or the color or the way it is executed it is the intention and definition it doesn't even need an artist only a random person to define it. Let it be Art! And in the eyes of the mentally blinded, it was Art!
i simply could not ignore his nose hairs :-D
As a musician and painter if one doesn't understand abstract art you more than likely enjoy top 40 garbage. You see...the whole a kid can do it statement I consider a compliment...a child is very close to god and as a painter I feel that way when I paint an abstract. To paint from life I consider easier...you have an image before you. Think about it. If you hate abstract art then turn you fucking head and walk towards the Thomas Kinkade painter of light section.
The sad thing is that the photo interludes such as at 0:15 contain images of far more abstract power, color, composition, and beauty than any of the the paintings.
I paint Intuitively.
Only abstract artists and art enthusiasts understand the spirituality of abstract. Commoners will never get it. Lol
I wanted to take this video seriously, but the music reminded me too much of the aliens teaching their musical language at the end of Close Encounters.
first off there are no rules for art. abstraction is in my opinion a simpler form of art simply for the fact that there is no definition. and i must also say that abstract is a form of art created by and for people who cant paint. example pollack once said he couldnt even paint a hand. if you look at van goghs paintings i believe you will see an abstract form in his work. not to mention de kooning, basquiat, rothko and many many others. what i also believe is that art has no definition, thats what makes art, art. as to the artists emotion, intention, feelings, thoughts we can romanticize all we want but we can only assume. bacon said he felt nothing when he painted. i have to ad that we have seen monkeys and elephants paint abstract paintings that could be compared in quality to some painters . art can only be judged by the person viewing it and what it means to them.