10/08/2012

Find Out About Abstract Art Paintings Today

By Juliette Cruz


If your idea of a picture is a meadow with a couple of horses grazing in it, then forget abstract art paintings. For many people only that type of traditional or classical picture can be termed art. For them the rest are daubs that even a well-trained monkey could produce - and certainly a computer, but they probably do not know that.

Hence with the tide of war and revolution engulfing Europe and America from the late 18th century onwards cultural values slowly began to change so that by the time Queen Victoria left the stage and WW1 was raging, many conventional social customs had begun to change. People wanted more, to learn more and experience more. So it was no longer satisfying to simply paint the flower garden or even images of foreign lands or war. A complete reappraisal was required and happened, slowly, through many movements and cycles.

As the Expressionists and Impressionists held sway, so swing and jazz music were played and listened to in homes on a wireless set. Women from all ranks went to work, wore trousers or short dresses and people teased their minds with crossword puzzles. A new era was born.

As war threatened Europe once more the exodus began. Writers and artists who had thrived in post-Revolution Russia, found themselves under attack and moved to Germany. Soon with their German contemporaries they fled again to Paris and later London. In Europe freedom was dying but across the Atlantic it was taking root and so they ran again and this time found safe haven in New York City whose citizens welcomed them with open arms.

Seventy years on and there has been another revolution which has once again changed the way artists and the public view their work. The impact of computers and the internet is hard to quantify. It has made art, all types of art, easily accessible. Picture galleries are there online and all the old masters can be viewed. You no longer have to travel to Rome if you want to see Michelangelo's ceiling at the Sistine Chapel.

New artists can not only display their work online but they can sell it. What is more they can sell the original, they can sell prints and they can even sell greeting cards and calendars. The latter are all bread and butter to the struggling artist nowadays.

Once upon a time there were paintbrushes. Now those are only used for painting walls. To create his vision on paper, board or even driftwood, the artist uses a wide variety of seemingly outlandish implements. Even the palette knife with which large dollops of oil paint can be applied is rather old hat. Forks and sponges which used to be confined to the kitchen are now in the studio.

Large abstract art paintings are highly favored in the corporate world to adorn the walls of office blocks and can even be rented by the month providing ever changing scenery. Real abstract art is as prized as any Renaissance painting and may be more valuable. However fashion still dictates when it comes to more modern works.




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