Saturday, April 28, 2007

on abstraction



Allowing abstraction all its worth, art should not be just abstract without purpose. In giving up the subject with all its resonance, all its meaning, its possibilities for symbolism and connotation, we give up enormous expressive potential. Abstraction needs to heft something true, something of real value, something powerful, needs great beauty or gravitas to compensate adequately for all that it takes away. It takes someone of Diebenkorn's stature to give the non-subject a meaning that can compete with imagery.

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