adminritualistic or decorative purpose.
It is at this level of visual meaning that abstract art communicates. One can enjoy the beauty of Chinese calligraphy, Islamic calligraphy, Tonga patterns, Shona graphic symbols or Ndebele ideograms without being able to read it.
Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism were three art movements which contributed to the development of abstract art. Artistic independence for artists was advanced during the 19th century, and patronage from the Church diminished. Private patronage from the public became more capable of providing a livelihood for artists.
Occidental Abstraction developed in the early 20th century, uses a visual language of form, colour and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world, including painting, sculpture, and graphic art, which does not represent recognisable objects.
Western art had been, from the renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and the attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures other than the European — and especially indigenous African art forms had become accessible and showed alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist. By the end of the 19th century, many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and philosophy.
Abstract art seeks to break away from traditional representation of physical objects. It explores the relationships of forms and colours, whereas more traditional art represents the world in recognisable images. The sources from which individual artists drew their theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected the social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture at that time.
Abstract art, non-figurative art, non-objective art, and non-representational art are loosely related terms. They are similar, although perhaps not of identical meaning both geometric abstraction and lyrical abstraction are often totally abstract. Among the very numerous art movements that embody partial abstraction would be, for instance, fauvism in which colour is conspicuously and deliberately altered vis-a-vis reality, and cubism, which blatantly alters the forms of the real-life entities depicted — into cubes and spheres — negative and positive spatial relations.
Visual art, as it becomes more abstract, becomes more like music — an art form which uses the abstract elements of sound and divisions of time. Wassily Kandinsky, himself a musician and lawyer, was inspired by the possibility of marks and associative colour resounding in the soul. The idea had been put forward by Charles Baudelaire, that all our senses respond to various stimuli but the senses are connected at a deeper aesthetic level. Closely related to this, is the idea that art has “spiritual dimension” and can transcend “everyday” experience, reaching a spiritual plane.
In the 21st century abstraction remains very much in view. Its main themes being the transcendental, the contemplative and the timeless are exemplified by Barnett Newman, John McLaughlin and Agnes Martin, as well as younger living artists. Art as object as seen in minimalist sculpture and the paintings are still seen today in newer permutations — poetic, Lyrical Abstraction and the sensuous use of colour.
Zimbabwean contemporary artists who have been exploiting and experimenting in abstract formats for over three decades have not yet been collated or investigated as a school of thought, genre or alternative means of expression.
l Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Post-Modern Art Theory and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. He is also a practising artist, designer, art critic and corporate image consultant.
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