The Appeal of Abstraction

In general terms, abstraction is defined as the “absence of concreteness.” Consequently, abstract art is not concerned with a concrete depiction of our visual world. Instead, it relies on shapes, colors, lines and tones to transmit its effect. 

With its origins in the 19th century, abstraction in art didn’t find its footing until the early to mid 1900s, perhaps due to the increasingly popular use of photography as THE art form that could depict reality with pristine accuracy. Since its inception, abstract art has created a divide between its lovers and its “frown-uponers.” And while personal opinion hinges on things like background and life experiences, there are common elements to its perception that can similarly affect all of us.

As proposed by Nadal and Chatterjee in their paper Neuroaesthetics and Art's Diversity and Universality, “Each encounter with an artwork engages flexible neural networks that are modulated by context, expectations, emotional states, goals, and experience. Because these factors change from one occasion to another, each encounter with art has its distinct flavor. Repeated encounters with art over the course of a lifetime lead people to develop personal preferences for art, as the network connections become strengthened in unique ways.” This is perhaps the most scientifically accurate explanation of why our emotional responses to art vary so widely. 

As infants, our brains lack perceptual knowledge; we don’t understand what we’re seeing. Our eyesight is rudimentary because we have not experienced enough to understand what we’re seeing. What we see consists of fundamental shapes, the sum of which will gain meaning as we grow and our brains develop to understand what we’re seeing through the coordination of our senses called intermodal perception. This helps us navigate our world and assigns meaning to our experiences. I can’t help but notice the similarities to our first experience when viewing an abstract work.

Roughly, we perceive 80% of our world through our eyes, thus vision can be described as the discovery of what’s present in front of us. Our eyes collect the information and pass it on to the brain, where the image is interpreted and a meaning to what we’re seeing is assigned. In turn, the meaning will evoke an emotional and physical response to what we’re seeing. 

Evolution has steered our brains in the direction of trying to understand exactly what we’re seeing as a means of survival—the quicker you understand a visual scene, the quicker you can deem it to be safe or unsafe, and act accordingly. By relying on the most fundamental elements that form our visual world (shapes, colors, etc.), abstract art achieves its effect of keeping us engaged on the scene in front of us, as an attempt to assign an understanding to what we’re experiencing. 

It’s fair to say then that, unconcerned with a concrete presentation of the information, abstract art leans heavily on our imagination to find meaning, which at its core represents the most fundamental reason for its appeal.