Context Abstract Art - Myth, Memory And Ritual

17/10/14

Abstract Expressionism

In this lecture we looked at how ritual, myth and memories are present in abstract expressionist art. 

As i mentioned in my previous lecture essay, the abstract movement was moved from paris to america. America was becoming seen as the original place for this art and was becoming interesting and 'cool' in the way that people were starting to see it with regards to art and advertisements etc. This created some myth about abstract art as america was seen as the place where american artists were creating these unique and interesting works of art however in some cases this was not entirely true as many jewish artists actually fled europe during ww11 to america and starting creating their art works. Jackson Pollock was one of these artist and his work shows lots of american iconography and symbolisms such as his painting of wagons being pulled by horses showing the journey people made to california to live 'The America Dream'.

His later more abstract paintings he made using paint drips were inspired by native indian sand drawing and dances. The way he made these painting was even inspired by this as he had the canvas on the ground so he could move around and inside the painting like how the indians would with the sand drawings. This is creating a myth of his origins and where he came from etc. 

Memory was shown in abstract expressionism by artists such as Arshille Groky who was trying to remember the place he used to live as a child 'Armenia' and was creating abstract pieces to represent the place and the feeling of the place. Lots of works like this have been made. Memories can become foggy and disjointed and so when an artist embraces these factors an abstract painting would be more representative of this memory and even loss of memory in order to portray what they are feeling and trying to recall. Sigmund Freud had a theory that the subconscious mind is shown in dreams. Many artists also embraced this idea of painting dreams swell and the memory of dreams all creating ver abstract pieces.