Conceptual and abstract art; oil paintings
Given our group’s name, it was very appropriate that in one of our early sessions we dive a bit deeper into this subject matter!
There is a common belief, perpetuated by scientists among others, that our left brain is rational and analytical while our right brain is emotional and artistic. Hence, our own dominant use of the left or the right side of the brain will dictate our inclinations towards exact sciences and engineering or art and humanities, respectively. Truly, this cannot be further from the scientific truth! Creativity is a whole-brain activity!
Nevertheless, our group embarked on our own analysis (hence, Left Brain Artists) of this subject. For fun, we have taken three different on-line tests on brain dominance each to determine an overall brain-side preference in our group (which, by the way, has many scientists and engineers) – turned out that, while there were few among us with decidedly left- or right-brain dominance, most of us were slightly ‘inclined’ towards one side or the other- meaning balanced utilization of both sides of our brains (maybe these tests were somewhat informative, after all).
It was even more interesting for us to understand how our (left and/or right) brain participates in perceiving, interpreting, and reacting to art. Why some have preference for the objective or conceptual art, while the others are ‘triggered’ by the abstract?
For that, we had to turn to Eric Kandel, a Nobel-prize winning neuroscientist, who wrote many fascinating books on brain’s perception and processing of emotion and empathy. A simple and salient summary is in this presentation.
In short – object art is familiar – brain processes it in relation to other (familiar) objects and concepts; abstract art is unexpected – brain has to make unfamiliar connections to past experiences to discover its ‘meaning’; nonobject art makes the brain work even harder – it has to explore new worlds (aesthetic, emotional, dissociated). This is really not to say that object or conceptual art is less stimulating, but rather that abstract art is more readily associated with an emotional reaction – for some it is frustration (difficulty to interpret), for others it is a ‘bliss’.
Now, we are going to endeavor on two equally fascinating trips of two of our own artists – one exploring influence of the conceptual art philosophy and symbolism on her own early painting; the other going a different way – towards a progressive reduction of object art to introduce ambiguity, uncertain interpretations and eventual pure emotional value of non-object art practiced by Mondrian and Rothko. Do not get scared, these are fun stories – you will find some laughs in them and some unexpected artists will show up. Take a deep breath and dive in…
Which did you relate to more – symbolic or abstract?
Left Brain Artists 