![[Art on the Net]](/images/artnet_button.gif)
by Samia A. Halaby, April 1995
Abstraction is just as connected to nature and reality as is illusionism. It too relies on reality as its only source. I disagree with historians and critics who claim that it is based solely on mental formulations.
Even though the representation of nature may seem more direct in an illusionist painting, its role as the basis of the work is not more significant than in abstraction. While illusionist painters view nature in order to capture a reflection of it from a single point of view, abstractionists seek to extract and depict general principles of motion. They cohere visual knowledge of things from multiple encounters, and contemplate similarities to other formations and patterns in nature.
To paint the morning, Monet painted a cathedral bathed in light from one point of view. He captured the morning colors of a specific season and place. To paint the morning an abstract painter, on the other hand, may select any one of numerous palettes which would describe morning, use the shapes more likely to be seen early in the day, and as much variation of rhythm and detail of texture as would communicate flavors of things. Thus while the illusionist captures particulars, the abstractionist captures the general essence of things. Impressionist painting is, of course, itself a great advance in painting, a first step in escaping particulars and ascending to the general -- really one of the first steps towards abstraction.
Because abstract representations deal with general principles, their content excludes the imaging of particular objects and specific people. This frees the artists from the burden of illustrating any one nation's mythological and propagandistic agenda. As a consequence, they transcend national boundaries more readily. It makes sense, then, that in the history of the early twentieth century, abstraction began with the international spread of Cubism and Constrctivism and the revolutionary fervor which gave them their ambiance.
Chapter I ... Grandmother, ... Chapter II ... Beisan, ... Chapter III ... Jerusalem, ... Chapter IV ... Sabah, ... Chapter V ... Yafa, ... Chapter VI ... Khader, ... Chapter VII ... Vera, ... Chapter VIII ... Students, ... Chapter IX ... Taxi, ... Chapter X ... Doctor, ... Chapter XI ... Hasan, ... Chapter XII ... Sari Khouri, ... Chapter XIII ... Kafr Qasem, ...