3/6 The Rules Of Abstraction With Matthew Collings
• 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 agree with the guy saying he sees a continuity between figurative and abstract. An art teacher told me once that in reality all art is abstract even if one is painting something in front of them like a bowl of fruit etc etc because even if you try to make it as close to reality as possible there will still be a level of abstraction in it. Be it from the fact that not all the aspects of the subject are captured or the fact that even as you paint the fruit it's rotting on small scales you can't quite put into the painting. That always stuck with me. It's one of those obvious things that isn't that obvious and when you realize it it kind of unshackles you from the impossibility of making it perfect. Idk. It was a very freeing thought to me.
Yep I totally agree everything is abstracted it away, but some people hate abstract art because they think a child can do it, yes in a way that’s what we’re trying to do except with the skill and experience of an adult artist. And even then it seems very difficult to create abstract art that feels like art not just random mark making and color choices. Even though it might seem random it’s very much constructed with a little bit of intuitive Draw, mark making, I find it much more difficult than your typical representational art. I can do both and I like to combine both. I like to experiment scribble marks or whatever you want to call thrm
anyone else notice that from 05:13 to 06:05 the sound completely cuts out? I wish I could hear that bit, as it covers what seems to be a trip that Klee made, and the inspiration he got from that, I think?
Yes, I think you got the right idea. It's annoying how the sound cuts out - but then, I reminded myself that I would have forgotten all about Klee's trip to the "Orient" within a couple of days anyway ... !
Thanks for saying it. Was about to troubleshoot my audio, which could have led to updating my OS.
copyright music
@@paulwoodford1984 ohhhhh! Makes sense….
Yes! I did too! I have to say as informative as this series is it is very badly edited! It's almost like the person recorded it from the BBC then dissected it into segments!
The sound track drops out of this in the sequence on Paul Klee when you have the stills of the mosques etc.
Yea... didn't think that was deliberate until I read this😂
They should be showing this video in every high school art class in the country. We only truly stumbled across the deeper meaning of abstractions and the psychological implications in the last century, an art for a culture with atomic power. We are infants to understanding it and we need more of it to better understand ourselves. Still so so many discoveries left to be made.
NO. Ancient civilization highly valued abstract art, shapes and abstract beauty long before you turned up with your opinion
@@ezicarus8216 It's highly debated if ancient civilizations even had a word for blue they would often call it purple or crimson and some scholars argued that this was evidence that the ancient civilizations we're color blind to the color blue, the prevailing narrative in modern-day academics though is that they simply hadn't created a word for blue. Their vocabularies we're still evolving to encompas the whole world and everything within it, I'm assuming you're using similar logic to concluding they we're color blind. If you think we're so much more advance and that they "the ancients" we're so much more primitive you're strongly mistaken I promise.
@@alexxander808 Did you miss the period after "NO" in his post?
@@nozecone what are you implying?
@@alexxander808 That you misunderstood his post. After his "NO." - period - he says, "Ancient civilization highly valued abstract art, shapes and abstract beauty long before you turned up with your opinion" - and you respond, 'If you think we're so much more advance and that they "the ancients" we're so much more primitive you're strongly mistaken I promise.' How you got that he thinks "we're so much more advance[d]" out of his post, I don't know - unless you misunderstood it.
How is it an abstract artist like myself has missed this excellent series until NOW?? Thank you for posting.
You’re absolutely correct! Likewise
All things are abstract until we give them meaning.
This series is brilliant, truly.
A comment at 9:40 about distortion: Abstract and impressionist art is a response to the distortions in the modern world and modern society. Most everyone alive today has always lived in a distorted world and is accustomed to it, so the distortion feels normal to most of us. I think this has completely changed the role of art to one where an artist sees the ugliness of the world, but tries to find and preserve some beauty so that the world isn't all ugly. Art is a noble occupation. If you're here to learn to be a better artist, good on you.
This is incredibly good! Wished I'd seen this years ago. Bravo BBC Arts for helping me understand my own practice as an abstract artist!
I like the idea about continuity between abstraction and other art - the simpler the more profound is the felt qualities of experiences of events of reality
Thank you for this series of abstraction - very interesting and very beautiful
The mind demands closure in understanding and abstraction thwarts the desire to comprehend - to keep an open mind to conditional possibilities perhaps is the best way to appreciate the work.
his work is beautiful..her colour palette is so good. wish i could afford loads of oil paint!
The best documentary ever. Leave it to the British to do this magnificent job.
The Klee painting at 4:20 is amazing.
Living creature and Human use , just I love them , a lot of thinking behind those works , Great!
just love the lights
I've seen this before and didn't realize my favorite abstract artist was featured...Fiona Rae. I absolutely love her work 💖
love this..i used to hate when i began painting and was labeled abstract expressionist..now..consider it a lovely compliment..🐦🐦
If you ever wondered where Mondrian got his inspiration, take a look at the exterior of his childhood house in Winterswijk.
Excellent observation
In some of the photography in this video, I see some of the pictures I have tried to make. I genuinely doubt that it's expressible in words, but the images in this video give me clear messages. I'm really still a total novice at making abstract art, but it insists that learning to see is the important part.
Nicely done.
Abstraction ae in beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
If someone did this today they would be laughed at, but in 1922 it was shocking, amazing, something unique.
The sounds seems to cut out around 5:14. Could this be reuploaded?
I removed the audio otherwise the video has been blocked....
Fucking KZhead...
is there anywhere else we could see the whole video without anything being removed...
it’s back on at 6:20
@@VfletchS They want you to think somebody's rights are being protected, somewhere. Not yours of course, but somebody's, somewhere.
Sensacional seu vídeo parabéns espero um dia criar uma arte abstrata de consistência
I’ve never seen that image by paul klee, it’s probably my favorite so far. Even though it’s a lot more ordered and symmetrical the colors work much better and the composition is interesting
I cry every time I think if we don't survive abrupt climate change, there will be no humans left to appreciate all these great art since the day Homo sapiens started to draw.......
I think it can be argued that all art is abstract. It is a depiction of something. It is an abstraction of something else. Or a depiction....varying from the very realistic like a drawing of box in stark realism to a blodge of color. But, I think we have the general idea of what the term "abstract art" refers to....that being a bunch of patterns, colors, etc..arranged in some kind of willy nilly way that grabs the eye and the mind and takes a viewer somewhere.....somewhere into fun or serious or somber or to some compelling emotion...or reflection....I like it. The wiggly line---the stark line---the contrasts....Are there rules? I don't think so.
thank you
Abstraction is a language that puts each of us in direct contact with the spiritual. This seems to divide people into two camps, those who run kicking and screaming and those who thrive on it.
is this a quote from somewhere?
.............and then what?
2:08 🔺 Continuity between Abstract and Reality, "Value 💯"
This helps my Abstract paintings
True artists always put their own personal touch in what they do, no matter how abstract they get. And that's how you know that they are genuine. Very few artists were able to switch from one style to another, like Picasso did, but nevertheless they keep putting their own personal touch in art for years. There is also plenty of scammers in this business, some of them are pretentiously laughing at you with non sense doodles, empty canvases and paint literally trashed over the wall. I immediately know that I'm dealing with a scammer when I want to slap the so called artist, 3 seconds after seeing what they do. And then you have products like Emma & Collings. They seem to have spent days analyzing and drawing straight lines with a ruler, doing endless trial and error just to fill a geometric pattern with colors. That's not art, it's absolutely technical and sterile. I don't care about how Emma justified what she did, but to me that is either a TECHNICAL exercises in colors, or just how you paint interesting bathroom tiles. I also think that Emma & Collings are using this interesting documentary for their product placement. Can't imagine how much you'd have to be BBC for that. I learned so much about many artists, especially the very talented females that I have never heard of before, but I'm sure that in the next segments I will see some hopeless lunatic drawing random black lines on toilet paper, or gluing garbage to the wall, and have the audacity to be their own critics, and call it abstract art.
So you got a lot out of the presentation, as you said. Good for you! Too bad you couldn't just leave it at that.
Welcome to art lol
For abstract artists... the abstract is mere auto-perception of what others call the subconscious that may or may not reveal itself.
Beautifully said
6:54 music background, John Hopkins ? That’s right
Yes its, light through the veins
the painting at 6:32 kinda looks like a city viewed from above??
Please someone help - what is the music starting on 4:12?
Found by accident: Raymond Scott - Cyclic Bit
This helps my Abstract paintings .
👍👍
Abstraction is in the eye of the beholder
Anyone else get a cut out in noise from 5:15-6:00 ish?
How disappointing! Why is the video not available?
I love the topic of Abstract Art, but am always disappointed when I see any of it except for a select few: Gorky, deKooning, Mondrian, and Malevich. There may be others, but "we" are not discovered yet...
And if you're looking for women artists, you have to dig deeper.
@@davevanfunk8917 Not really Fiona Rae, Cecily Brown, Julie Mehertu just off the top of my head.
@@Charlie-ye2er I will look them up. THanks!
@@davevanfunk8917 Georgia o keeffe and Tracey emin
There more . Russian painter ( forgot her name?
I am wondering about the term 'abstract'. It refers to abstracting. Abstracting from 'reality' I guess. This in a way contradicts the idea that is expressed in this series, where it is explained as the 'opposite' rather, at least in the beginning. A painting - let's say - derived from a feeling, without any image in the process is actually not abstract, it does not abstract from anything. It does not have it's source in perceived visual reality. I think there is a confusing here, or a lack of words. I wonder if in other languages this is solved differently, not in mine. I wonder how other people see this? I am very welcome to suggestion.
Mathew Collings makes some nice wallpaper designs.
You make some nice KZhead comments
the parts are cut mid sentence.
Interesting. I didn’t realize there were rules to abstract art.
There no rules wtf u on
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever".
Amen
Yes. Its a spectrum really, that goes full circle. Much like politics.
Kandinsky is outstanding, so is Rothko. But Paul Klee is the best.
Hi John...Peter Reginato
Why did they mute out the section on Klee & Islamic culture? Interesting...
Mellia You’ve got it spot on
I like to have my own interpretation of what Im looking at, thank-you very much. Anybody elses ruins it for me.
lost sound midway through
Censored
Lost sound around 5:19 into this one
Back on at 6;09
QUE ESTA PASANDO
Amir over analyzation of the simple thing called art
mcclean hits the mark
I truly believe the onslaught of all this interest and execution of abstraction is the worlds way of shutting out the real world which has become too honorific and terrible to deal with. It has weakened our understanding of of reality by avoiding it. Running from it dosas nothing to deal with it. Artists have alway reflected the world as it was . As it unfolded. Abstraction is the the perfect term for an art form, which in a sense, is trying to avoid reality.
I love paintings of all genres - except the majority of abstract works. I have been going through videos explaining the purpose and interpretation of the abstract to me. Why do I feel fascinated by a few and completely turned off by the majority others. I am intrigued by those which invite me to interact. To look and relate; to interpret something; some purpose; some place; some experience or some view of the human, or even possible alien condition. But those 'lazy' abstracts with their creators waffling about their childish circles, stripes, blobs; squiggles and smears are simply making excuses for taking the very lazy, easy option. It is so easy to replicate their work. So difficult to connect with any real talent.
Chris Reynolds difficult to know what you are talking about. Who are the lazy ones, who make you interact? There is lots of derivative and even bad art about, much of it so called abstract. However, some people are intensely moved by spatial relations of marks on canvas, the subtlety of colours juxtaposed to each other. After all, the pictures you like do not invite you. It is your eyes, your mind that make you feel drawn in. If geometric shapes don’t do it for you, that is your loss, but there is nothing childish about Malevichs black square.
@@nommh Abstract Art is often less accessible than Hyperrealism, for example, but the payoff can be immense. It's also a lot easier to fake.
@@nommh I liked Malevich paintings . Red square and others .
@@ezicarus8216 why people don't answer back ?. Write a comment and disappear
The word is "phesophy"
Again Mondriaan! Not Mondrian. But at least you are consistent in the errors.
The Superblur Art Movement is heavily influenced by De Stijl
Why? And what is "Superblur"?
I don't know. The more I listen to this, the more I hear nothing but babbling. Maybe that's just the minimalist in me. Art to me doesn't need this much descriptions, explanations or even words.
The ONLY excuse for explaining art. Is being blind.
You're missing a lot. Art is infinite and fascinating
The Nazis dislike of Klee’s work is a fine example of fascists being tortured cowards terrified by disorder, chaos, the abstract. The problem is reality, the universe functions with chaos at its core. For me, abstract art is a wonderful way to attempt to see the beauty and power of the universe as it is - and get beyond our basic ideas of what chaos and order are.
There seems to be some censorship of Klee even today. The sound was cut to avoid KZhead issues
Thank god they wrote a manifesto.
KZhead "Censored" 5:12 - 6:05 (This is unEthical and unConstitutional)!
Sorry! "Pheosophy"
9:06 no? no they did not have a point about distortion wtf lol
11:18 I think she is over analyzing it.
Haha, shuut me!
That is fuckery...excellent series still
yes. they are monks sitting on our face. they say 'eat me' in the weight of in/action. we can shove them off... but there is an infinite queue awaiting the privilege. monks to priests to soldiers to kings. love them or hate them. i think i find the materialist rationalists funnier than the spiritual starters. act cat. cat act. mousey mousey. rat rat.
''distorted reality''? ........ reality is a multiplexed distortion assembled, believe it or not , in a purposeful way... for us and our betterment. this is precisely the work of abstract art. however presented. what appears as 'chaos' is actually quite real... only not yet understood.
"light theh, dahk theh... " and people are starving to death
Okay what the fuck. He keeps saying 'phiosophy' but at 14:21 he finally says 'philosophy'! Why hasn't he been saying that the whole time?! D:
theosophy.
How does the BBC manage to make everyone talk the same way? It put me off right away.
abstract art is how well can you sell a bullshit.
Some abstract art is quite interesting, but for the most part, it bores me.
You are obviously not intelligent enough.
I’m the opposite for the most part. Some I like, some I don’t, but I’m never bored.
John mcclean makes bad looking stuff lol
seems to take a long winded view of abstract art, simplify
You were expecting a dumbed down version?
Repetitive patterns literally give me nausea
This weird guy Matthew Collings is painting geometric shapes under the guidance of another artist and the paintings are signed by the two of them. It'd be totally unacceptable for myself to do something like that. Gosh how much gibberish can we take from abstract painters?
What you mean ???
This series is as pretentious as the 'art' of abstraction.
that word. i don't think it means what you think it means
I think he knows exactly what it means
W.A M.P its amazing that you even know how to spell