Abstract art is built on common language. It is a commonality by all that is made by a humans. Any mark, gesture, swatch of color holds a language. The color blue might elicit different feelings or thoughts in different people, but blue in itself speaks of human physiology/biology and our range of vision in the visible spectrum, as well as all the present manifestations of that color in life. An aggressive gesture mark might express anger, speed, the noncontinuous reality of time, or it could mean nothing at all. Abstract art can be an action, like a dance. It can be about the present, a moment immortalized in time. It can be just as readily about nothing. Something and nothing are opposing poles of the same dynamic. How far can you go in the direction of nothing, until you get back to something? If merit were only credited to meaning; how much meaning would a piece of art need to qualify? What level of insight has to be proven for praise? Everything is a sliding scale. Disgust, offense, repulsion, are just as readily explored in art. Art was never synonymous with beauty. Aesthetic language spans all language, even the negative. If art undermines the categories by which you set to access value, might art challenge those categories and question as to why you have them in the first place? Not understanding a piece isn't an attack on the viewer's intelligence. It might only be in conflict with where your values lay in art. Some people have trouble looking for meaning in abstract art. My question is why are they looking for meaning at all? What questions do you think art should answer? If a portrait painter painted a woman, with flawless technique; what would be the meaning in that? The beauty of women? Beauty of natural shapes or light? Is that enough meaning? Is that important meaning? Or maybe, just the skill, merits the praise. Thinking like, a child can do it, or I can do it, isn't a valid critique on talent. Someone who says this is scribble, is more than welcome to buy the supplies, scribble and try to sell it. The term Starving artist is a stereotype for a reason (representational or not). Do we know how long this man has been drawing? Did he go to school? How many has he made? I guarantee, if an art school graduate and someone who never draws were both to scribble; the art school student's scribbles would be more appealing in a variety of subtle ways. The marks would have more confidence, the way the line interacts with the available space, more considered, and the balance of mark making between compression and space would be thought out. Every man can throw a punch, but a trained boxer doing the same kinetic action yields a much different result. There is plenty of representational art that people would say is bad. A beautiful landscape may express the beauty of nature. But for a person that was ever lost in the woods, they would say this is a lie, saying that nature instead is brutal and unforgiving, impersonal and uncaring. Meaning can be vast or narrow. Graphic designers, for ads, work to have narrow meaning. They want to tell you what to think without variation from their purpose. Abstract art is vast. Every person approaches and has a different experience with it. This is why people collect together in galleries with wine, but don't collect around billboards. If you have spent your life trying to decode abstract art, maybe try the polar opposite and decide there is nothing to decode; that there is nothing to get which is sitting outside or your intellectual range. It can be something that you totally get because there is nothing to get, and in that nothing can be everything, if you decide that too. A beautiful flower tells you all it wants to say. There is no more to decode, than there is a sunset.
This comment is 6 years old but I happened to come across it today. It was truly beautiful to read, very well written and with great points. I'm glad you wrote this and I'm glad I could read it. Thank you
Matthew Collings is like your favourite Uncle explaining something tremendously confusing in a very understandable matter. Every time i watch him explain something, i would like to paint a canvas with him cause we are so complementary in our styles. Would be a great experience!
Photography changed everything. If you wanted something to look realistic, taking a photo was easier, faster and more realistic. Artists simply started painting things cameras can't see.
Actually Impressionists first started painting things that cameras could capture, but the eye couldn't, like action in media res. Artists were incredibly excited by the idea of the camera as sketchbook, and the camera was restricted to monochrome too, so artists started bigging up colour! Look at paintings of moving water, rivers, lakes, oceans, before the camera was invented, and the after! this went from a symbolic depiction to realistic. So many impressionistic paintings suddenly choose to depict boating lakes made "choppy" by a breeze, (Da Vincis sketch book are full of drawings of eddies and spirals, this is true, but that was him grappling with proto science not with realism) 101 ways artists loved cameras, finally expressionism and "sketchiness" and experimentation could be embraced, and that eventually, eventually meant abstract too. Yay for photography and Yay to what AI will bring us!
I think it's the only real art as it coming from the artists soul èven the artist is getting a glimpse of his true self and the life force within him A so called picture is more about technique this is how I see it
SpiralViper I very much DISlike how the captions are inaccurate, especially when they switch the gender of Collings’ painting partner, making HER fit neatly into preconceptions about which gender creates important art. She’s repeatedly referred t as “Mr.” Biggs.
@@63artemisia63 yeah that's frustrating, both men and women make awesome art. it is an algorithm though, so not much point caring about its mistakes IMO
I'm more of a portrait artist ability wise, but I kinda fell in love with abstract art after years of being an art instructor for youth & found it more accessible for some of them. Abstract art makes one focus more on the main elements of ART such as composition, contrast, complimentary colors, texture, movement, etc. It's a great exercise for ANY serious artist.
@@sadbadmac To be fair, we hear voices in our heads all the time. I mean, if you can 100% all the time choose every single thought in your head i bow down to you master.
@Stephanie Logan Wow, haha, I haven't heard about them. I usually go to the beach with my chihuahua, so I have perfect protection, she loves to chase birds, even if they are bigger than her.
I really ilke abstract thinking but if you look at early drawings of abstract painters you will realize that they are really good at drawing form nature and figurative painting. So in my opinion abstraction is a process where artist is trying to abstract the subject from it's visual reality and adds a new value to it by using new shapes which symbolizes the subject.
Something like that. Imagine you get so good at drawing or shooting a basketball. At some point it’s repetitive and boring. So you challenge yourself by making it harder for you. Paint or Shoot with your eyes closed or put obstacles in the way like working with restrictions of depiction.
Abstract artists are the embodiment of free creative spirit. However, "amid complicated and potentially confusing works there are hidden rules", especially when you take your time to decode it. Thank you for such insightful video series. If you're interested in taking a closer look at the artworks of famous Early Abstract artists, we've created the entire video for you to appreciate the deep meaning behind each piece.
I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary and video. I clicked the favorite and the watch again so that I can re-watch it and learn from everything you said through the repetition. I have not learned this much about art since taking "art appreciation" in school and that was all about Christian art in the early and middle ages. There turned out to be NO TIME for learning about any modern art in the private school I was attending at the time. I thank you SO much for sharing this.
Who are you? I am so curious. I have printed out your sentence and it is posted in front of me at my "Art Bar" in my home studio in NYC where I create my abstract art ("AA") as a constant reminder to get out of and get into my head. Your simple insight has inspired me. It keeps me moving forward. I thank you from my deepest most intimate subconscious.
My new path I think for this year. Just gotten into Abstract Art..in fact I got to obsessed with finding the stuff on the web about 5 weeks ago I was going to bed and lying there almost naturally hallucinating. I found altho I love colour, pen seems to be what my spirit prefers. I went wild when I found out about Kandinsky...what a charming and interesting series. Liked and saved.
I don't wish to comment on the content of the video, but here's a question to those who denounce abstract and 'modern art' in general. In music and movies, there are sounds which sound sad, scary or cosmic while in nature these sounds might be non existent. Then how come we have universally come to associate these sounds with certain emotions? The way jazz speaks to us even without vocals, lines, orientation, colors, shapes and space between them speak too. And while it might not say the same thing to everyone, it says something which is open for interpretation and that's the beauty of it.
She was listening to her family and friends in Spirit. None of us truly die; our physical body dies, but not our spirit. He is speaking of his own opinion. Klint was a medium, and I know of what she spoke.
I LOATHE that this commentator says there is no such thing as actual spirits. I am an artist and psychic. I balk when people who do NOT experience something feel they have a FACTUAL analysis ("spirits are projections of our minds") . Well, Monsieur -- I would argue that EVERYTHING is projected from our minds. Amen.
Abstract art is simply “ a person whom desires to create their own reality “ a way to control shapes and colors in reality and tell your story within those pictures and wanting to leave those feelings in a physical form ( reality) My opinion but who am I but a abstract artist........
To create is to express into existence what already exists . Therefore you know what to say before you say it. Talking without knowing what you are saying is an activitity that does not do anything but failures. I learn from your mistakes so please continue with it.
I learned 3 things after I discovered Abstract Art. Rule number 1 is that there is no hard rule. Rule number 2 is that whatever rational objectivity has created emotional subjectivity has imagined more beautiful. Rule number 3 is that colors that are in the soul are more real than those that are in the illusion of rational reality. After knowing the works of Kandinsky, Rothko, Hilma af Klint, Tomie Ohtake and Manabu Mabe I cannot look at a work from the Renaissance of Michelangelo, Da Vince or perhaps any realist work and think that they are more real than abstract works. Thanks thanks for posting this video
I love hearing people discuss abstract art. It reminds me of my parents trying to explain the crazy shit I did at school that they put on the refrigerator. Them: Our boy was really digging into his creative brain here, and expressing himself through the use of negative space. Me: I got bored and quit to play tag instead.
Explaining art, poetry or creativity is very stupid and done by the opposite kind of people that created it. Ones with a need to classify and organise the disorganized.
At some point, the artist asks himself a question. How far is his workshop habit with creation? Will his learned and established painting habits and tricks allow him to create new, fresh things? The state of freedom from habits is possible only when we allow us to reject all limitations. Compmaturism, a new direction in art transforms the emotions of the creator into works. There is no room for speculation, no corrections. No planning, only vivid emotions. That's why I love Compmaturism
There is nothing new about compmaturism as art or as a concept, you know what is new, that neologism, that's it! If you're gonna use YT comments for free publicity at least have the dignity to say "and by the way this is me bigging myself up, without any irony, using walls of "art bollox" as a confusion technique. At some point the artist asks himself the question ..
She puts an apron on him, mixes some paint and makes him stand around painting crappy art, detailed to her every whim. That's way more creative than the usual sub/dom thing. Have to give them that.
As an artist I cannot imagine having someone else pick out my colors...that's half the fun for me when envisioning/starting a new painting...as is sometimes me changing them as it goes along.
I see that this video has sparked a vibrant discussion of what is abstract art, and so it succeeds in the 100 yr discussion of what abstract art is. Must say that there were some entertaining moments when reading the subtitles. So many interpretations of the presenter's lovely accent, and they truly detracted from the quality of the video.
I find it funny that Mr. Collings's work , what I've seen of it, is rendered regularly by many friends and relatives of mine who quilt. So, who is feeding off of whom? Oh well, off to take a nap on what appears to be what Mr. Collings's designed, but my great grandmother executed.
Your granny did not live in a society with hordes of people moving to and fro. Squint - the main visual tool for artists working with hue and value - and you lose detail but shape hue, and value remain. Now, go up to a high building from which you can see a busy pedestrian street. Everything is reduced to a moving pattern of people. Now, squint. All you have is a moving pattern of shapes, hue and value. This painting is an abstraction of that IMO. Art is a language, and the artist isn't replicating reality. Rather he's communicating something he's understood about that reality. That's why it's abstract.
One of the best videos till date about spiritual insights in abstraction, abstractionist artists are connected to the Universal life source, Thanks for sharing!
This seems like such an interesting video but I find it difficult to watch since he keeps making unnecessary breaks in his sentences and now I can't stop reading the comments like it.
May be if you are a fast talking spewing verbal diarrhea American but for serious Art students and those on the Autistic spectrum, it is perfectly delivered with meaning and not in a fast food Mc donalds way. This documentary will only appeal to students who are highly intelligent and patient enough to really understand what is being said. So if Mathews narration is too slow then perhaps you all need to learn how to slow down and spend less time on social media and expecting things to be delivered instantly as seems to be the case with all the under 35's nowadays.
Klint also was a classically trained artist. The translation into spiritual beauty (balance, form, colour, light) to the beholding eye came from deep learning.
Wonderful learning experience. As a lover of abstraction I wish others to understand a type of sensing &connectivity that what ones sees or experiences - this form is another way of perceiving reality..that of the unknown being a major factor much of the time. Also basic elements such as line color shape etc become dynamic in a different way than realistic depiction.
Michael Wardrip Hello i believe that if she were working close she would lose the perspective of the whole. By watching the colours go on from a distance she’s looking at the entire painting 🖼 and this helps her decide what colours & textures to add where . But yes I understand your point!
Michael Wardrip She would have to change gender first, because clearly the CC person knows a woman can’t make art, since s/he keeps referring to her as “MR.” Biggs.
Artists can be well served by the basic studies/understanding of: Quantum Physics, Philosophy, and basic or intro to Logic, these serve to strengthen the Creative Juices, as the open the mind and support *"Infinite Possibilities" Spirit or Soul is *energy* and energy is eternal - Quantum 0hysics. Avoid limiting the possibilities. Quantum Physics also proclaims that "Thought proceeds Manifestation", therefore I proclaim, *"The Bang came 2nd"*... Limitless potentials when mind is truly - wide open.
After the invention of photography, many artists felt that they’d come to an impasse. Fundamental questions changed, from how well a painter reflected nature to “what now?” and “how do we stay relevant?” New ways of looking at art emerged from existential crisis, changing how we saw images, as a purely philosophical matter, as divorced or “abstracted” from nature. Soon Leo Stein, the brother of Gertrude Stein, who “discovered” Picasso, Braque, Matisse and others, began advising art speculators to “only buy art you hate.”
I have loved art as long as I can remember but when I was sent to art classes as a boy, I thought I had entered the twilight zone and dropped out. I was directed back into a College course years later and had the same problem and left once more and with a horrible uncomfortable feeling of dismay, because again, I thought I had left the world of sanity behind when I entered the art world. I am told that I am weird and I am okay with that, I have a lot of interesting interactions with people, I suppose a lot of my thinking is abstract but that's what comedians do, look at things in a different way and then show us the humour that we didn't notice before. at least with a comedic perspective, once we are shown it, we can see it because it actually is there to be seen. whenever I had drawn or made something my friends and family could see it and say what they thought about it, if they felt like saying anything. whenever I would do anything at all in an art class even things I had never tried before and threw my first attempt in the trash, my teacher would be going after it and raving about it and it would leave me confused and wondering if my art teacher knew anything at all or if I didn't even know what I myself was doing, if I couldn't even tell my own trash from my best attempts...... I am not the only one that has experienced this, I know a sign painter who does calligraphy and does small jobs here and there but no paintings to sell and it's for the exact same reason. She had become unsure and insecure about the reaction to her art from people talking like this orator here, attributing a hundred different qualities and artistic meanings to her work which had never entered her head as they had never entered mine when I was experiencing the same .... pretentious garbage being spewed about something I had done in the middle of the night when I woke up from a drunken stupour remembering that I had a project to complete for the next day and whipped up something from trash around my room.... I was embarrassed and couldn't go along with the wild interpretation of my crap..... I have run into this each time I tried to learn to do what I enjoy, just paint or draw......this video is really making me uncomfortable because it sounds like these people are self deluded and I believe that there's good money in going along with them......but wouldn't your stomach just churn all day if you did? mine would...... I actually can see and understand and even do something abstract but if it's really art it has to be in tune..... I compare some of these pieces to someone blowing a trumpet and no matter what racket they produced someone is there telling them that the noise is the most amazing jazz piece they have heard to date.....it isn't just random shapes and colours or notes at any interval and Volume.... there's Ballance and symmetry which don't necessarily have any meaning, beyond the producer of them was simply expressing a whim to make a noise or play with the colours......right now I am listening to this guy talking about the white canvas with the black lines and the blue rectangle in the top left....... I actually thought that it was something I did when I was bored and had a roll of electrical tape and two little tubes of paint..... about forty seven years ago.....my mother put it on the wall and I hated it.......it wasn't even run to do and was so limited that I saw it as evidence of my extreme boredom..... without enough to amuse myself, which takes very little......for me, the guy talking about the "art" here and the last few artists , especially the woman with the red canvas with the yellow zipper up the center are in serious need for someone to throw a net over them and drag them off for reprogramming.
Why do you think you need to take art classes? What is there to understand? Embrace your inner weird and do what you want. Step outside the box. Don't over think everything, just do it.
That's exactly what I always loved about abstract art. For me abstract art revokes feelings. And since everyone in the world was brought up differently (has different memories etc) everyone feels something different when looking at certain colors or shapes because it reminds them of something. (Sorry English is not my first language. I hope I could explain that correctly)
@@lorythmem230 Reading your comment about "abstract art [revokes] I understood that English is not your native tongue. The word you were looking for is 'evokes'. Revoke means 'to cancel or take away' while evoke means 'to bring out' as a thought or emotion. Not being critical, just trying to help.
Remember watching this many years ago. It's still the only other person I've been aware of with the identical spelling of my surname, apart from family of course. Greetings from Hertfordshire.
The term 'abstract' may not yet have been applied to art in 1907, but to say that it did not exist before that time is... a pretty bold, and demonstrably inaccurate statement.
You are absolutely correct. Almost any work of art is an abstraction of a thing or concept. One simple example is that a flat painting of an animal is an abstraction because the actual animal is 3-dimensional.
Most cultures across the world made abstract art for ages before then. Since they weren't European or white, they aren't taken into consideration! Very sad.
@@ImmaBeastx2 There is a massive body of abstract cave art in Europe, done by ancestors of modern white Europeans. Ignored by you and your bigoted views
My other dilemma is that when I did start selling my artwork as a student… I didn’t photograph all of my pieces, I sold at least 30 or 40 that I didn’t document which is my fault but I also didn’t ask for much because I don’t believe art shouldn’t be only for the wealthy… I believe art should be for everyone… even if you have to buy a high-quality print… I guess that’s the way to make money these days is to digitize and duplicate thousands of thousands of times over and over for 10 or $20 apiece… It’s really sucks but that’s what people are doing.
Interesting... but so many points to disagree with. Rules may exist, but many artists, whether working in a non-representational or representational style, rely heavily on their instincts in their use of color, composition, etc. People may only glance at a Mondrian, yet his works are among the most widely appropriated for product packaging and other uses. The illusion of layering in the work by Popova (squares morphed???) is acheived not so much by the 'angles' or the juxtaposition of the forms, but by the use of strong contrast between the white form seen as 'floating' on top of the image and it's wamer color. This white is warmer than the white used as the 'background' color in this work (and is also warmer than the white Mondrian usually used as a 'ground' color in his paintings).
+Jefferdaughter - How could an artist who is also a critic miss the use of warmer versus cooler whites to help creat the illusion mentioned above (in the Popova painting of geometric shapes which appear to be layered over on another)? Abstract art obviously existed before the era mentioned, if not in the recognized tradition of Western art. More importantly, the role of representational art - not just as what was 'acceptable to most people' - but as illustration in the service of the Church or wealthy patrons, was not mentioned. Abstract art, and other forms or art less concerned with 'how things really look' such as Impressionism, came into ascendancy as the photograph replaced the need for artists who could accurately record the appearance of people, places, and things.
Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, most subtitles are digitally generated nowadays, and aren't edited by a human being any longer. Blame Neoliberal politics around the BBC.
This video introduced me to "Brock", the famous cubist painter. And I learned that Helmet of Clint also goes by pseudonyms "Hilma Afghan" and "African". Yeah Hahaha, this documentary made my day! :D
Jimmy Wrayge....!!! it's maybe the best work you've ever done! Not that I am an expert but I was greatly moved! Just amazing, beautiful ~expressing AND evoking so much emotion. Deft, powerful and delicate strokes. You KNOW I just love my "Children Banned from music lessons in Iran"....and even tho it looks great in my apartment. .... I'd sure love to live with one of these new pieces for a good long while!. How about a swap 😉 But seriously ...wow! Congratulations, it's a wonderful collection and I'm coming in soon to see if live!
It´s interesting that nobody, it would seem, have cared to explain to Matthew, that the name "Hilma af Klint" actually means "Hilma from the cliff", or " off the cliff" directly translated into english, if one knows anything about scandinavian languages. Just like say.. Hieronymus Bosch, having been born in a small town called ´s-Hertogenbosch, means "Hieronymus from the woods" or Leonardo da Vinci means "Leonardo from Vinci". So that it is both an indicator of a birthplace aswell as a family name. For those who give a shit..
"Latentwisdom," I find it hard to believe that Matthew did not know this because I`m not an art historian, and not particularly intelligent either and I find your comments to be well known, generic knowledge - known to just about everyone.
Don't waste too much ofyour time... Artists are born, not made. And, this documentary only shows how it has all gone downhill! If this inspires you and not disgusts you then you are not an artist! Maybe it is just a hobby of yours...
Abstract art is built on common language. It is a commonality by all that is made by a humans. Any mark, gesture, swatch of color holds a language. The color blue might elicit different feelings or thoughts in different people, but blue in itself speaks of human physiology/biology and our range of vision in the visible spectrum, as well as all the present manifestations of that color in life. An aggressive gesture mark might express anger, speed, the noncontinuous reality of time, or it could mean nothing at all. Abstract art can be an action, like a dance. It can be about the present, a moment immortalized in time. It can be just as readily about nothing. Something and nothing are opposing poles of the same dynamic. How far can you go in the direction of nothing, until you get back to something? If merit were only credited to meaning; how much meaning would a piece of art need to qualify? What level of insight has to be proven for praise? Everything is a sliding scale. Disgust, offense, repulsion, are just as readily explored in art. Art was never synonymous with beauty. Aesthetic language spans all language, even the negative. If art undermines the categories by which you set to access value, might art challenge those categories and question as to why you have them in the first place? Not understanding a piece isn't an attack on the viewer's intelligence. It might only be in conflict with where your values lay in art. Some people have trouble looking for meaning in abstract art. My question is why are they looking for meaning at all? What questions do you think art should answer? If a portrait painter painted a woman, with flawless technique; what would be the meaning in that? The beauty of women? Beauty of natural shapes or light? Is that enough meaning? Is that important meaning? Or maybe, just the skill, merits the praise. Thinking like, a child can do it, or I can do it, isn't a valid critique on talent. Someone who says this is scribble, is more than welcome to buy the supplies, scribble and try to sell it. The term Starving artist is a stereotype for a reason (representational or not). Do we know how long this man has been drawing? Did he go to school? How many has he made? I guarantee, if an art school graduate and someone who never draws were both to scribble; the art school student's scribbles would be more appealing in a variety of subtle ways. The marks would have more confidence, the way the line interacts with the available space, more considered, and the balance of mark making between compression and space would be thought out. Every man can throw a punch, but a trained boxer doing the same kinetic action yields a much different result. There is plenty of representational art that people would say is bad. A beautiful landscape may express the beauty of nature. But for a person that was ever lost in the woods, they would say this is a lie, saying that nature instead is brutal and unforgiving, impersonal and uncaring. Meaning can be vast or narrow. Graphic designers, for ads, work to have narrow meaning. They want to tell you what to think without variation from their purpose. Abstract art is vast. Every person approaches and has a different experience with it. This is why people collect together in galleries with wine, but don't collect around billboards. If you have spent your life trying to decode abstract art, maybe try the polar opposite and decide there is nothing to decode; that there is nothing to get which is sitting outside or your intellectual range. It can be something that you totally get because there is nothing to get, and in that nothing can be everything, if you decide that too. A beautiful flower tells you all it wants to say. There is no more to decode, than there is a sunset.
So well explained
This comment is 6 years old but I happened to come across it today. It was truly beautiful to read, very well written and with great points. I'm glad you wrote this and I'm glad I could read it. Thank you
Remember watching this 2 years ago and being taken aback by Klint's work, so pleased to have finally seen them in the flesh, absolutely amazing!!
I also saw a large Af Klint retrospective a while ago. It was kind of breathtaking,.I hadn't realized how massive scale and scope of her works are.
Matthew Collings is like your favourite Uncle explaining something tremendously confusing in a very understandable matter.
Every time i watch him explain something, i would like to paint a canvas with him cause we are so complementary in our styles.
Would be a great experience!
Photography changed everything. If you wanted something to look realistic, taking a photo was easier, faster and more realistic. Artists simply started painting things cameras can't see.
Actually Impressionists first started painting things that cameras could capture, but the eye couldn't, like action in media res.
Artists were incredibly excited by the idea of the camera as sketchbook, and the camera was restricted to monochrome too, so artists started bigging up colour!
Look at paintings of moving water, rivers, lakes, oceans, before the camera was invented, and the after! this went from a symbolic depiction to realistic.
So many impressionistic paintings suddenly choose to depict boating lakes made "choppy" by a breeze, (Da Vincis sketch book are full of drawings of eddies and spirals, this is true, but that was him grappling with proto science not with realism)
101 ways artists loved cameras, finally expressionism and "sketchiness" and experimentation could be embraced, and that eventually, eventually meant abstract too.
Yay for photography and Yay to what AI will bring us!
I think it's the only real art as it coming from the artists soul èven the artist is getting a glimpse of his true self and the life force within him A so called picture is more about technique this is how I see it
I like how the subtitles are sometimes inaccurate and say "yeah" now and then out of the blue. The video itself is abstract art
SpiralViper I very much DISlike how the captions are inaccurate, especially when they switch the gender of Collings’ painting partner, making HER fit neatly into preconceptions about which gender creates important art. She’s repeatedly referred t as “Mr.” Biggs.
@@63artemisia63 yeah that's frustrating, both men and women make awesome art. it is an algorithm though, so not much point caring about its mistakes IMO
yeah
@@63artemisia63 I'm afraid you're being needlessly sensitive, something the less polite people might call, a 'snowflake'.
Your comment is art.
I'm more of a portrait artist ability wise, but I kinda fell in love with abstract art after years of being an art instructor for youth & found it more accessible for some of them. Abstract art makes one focus more on the main elements of ART such as composition, contrast, complimentary colors, texture, movement, etc. It's a great exercise for ANY serious artist.
... emotions. Abstract art is pure emotion on canvas. If you have a student who paints portraits too sterile, you now how to set them free...
Yea, colors bring out the beauty
It is a sensational art with its own rules.
Ive never felt so visually connected to an artist as an artist myself, hilma af klint, a kindred spirit.
She shows clear signs of schizophrenia... I'd be careful listening to those foreign voices in your head lol
@@sadbadmac To be fair, we hear voices in our heads all the time. I mean, if you can 100% all the time choose every single thought in your head i bow down to you master.
@@ezicarus8216 Are you dumb? Voices in your head means you talking to yourself..
What a horrible artist!
@@sadbadmac lol
I love that idea of abstract being a way of a soul to express its human experience in simplicity, you can see it in a lot of the art shown
Could be
Great video :) Spirits are all around us and in us. You can feel them each time you get lost in the music, fall asleep at the beach or paint.
@Stephanie Logan Wow, haha, I haven't heard about them. I usually go to the beach with my chihuahua, so I have perfect protection, she loves to chase birds, even if they are bigger than her.
This video too funny! Comments below enhancing the mirth. What joy it brings tonight. Gratitude for cast and commentary.
I really ilke abstract thinking but if you look at early drawings of abstract painters you will realize that they are really good at drawing form nature and figurative painting. So in my opinion abstraction is a process where artist is trying to abstract the subject from it's visual reality and adds a new value to it by using new shapes which symbolizes the subject.
Very well said..
BINGO!
Agreed.
Something like that. Imagine you get so good at drawing or shooting a basketball. At some point it’s repetitive and boring. So you challenge yourself by making it harder for you. Paint or Shoot with your eyes closed or put obstacles in the way like working with restrictions of depiction.
Yea, exactly
It is Experimental and Improvisation...
Hello from India 🇮🇳.
I love the comments! Thank you everyone! Truly inspired! Liked the documentary too! ❤️ thank you!!!
0:54 "black square" is clearly hung upside down. They need to fix that mistake.
Stephanie Logan Easy. I was standing on my head.
I know, right? I saw the same thing right away.
It s not upside down, it is hung on its side. It needs to be rotated once, to the left. 😂
Its actually facing the wrong way, it should be hung the other side facing outwards.
@@thesauce57 Hahahaha!
Abstract artists are the embodiment of free creative spirit. However, "amid complicated and potentially confusing works there are hidden rules", especially when you take your time to decode it. Thank you for such insightful video series. If you're interested in taking a closer look at the artworks of famous Early Abstract artists, we've created the entire video for you to appreciate the deep meaning behind each piece.
I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary and video. I clicked the favorite and the watch again so that I can re-watch it and learn from everything you said through the repetition. I have not learned this much about art since taking "art appreciation" in school and that was all about Christian art in the early and middle ages. There turned out to be NO TIME for learning about any modern art in the private school I was attending at the time. I thank you SO much for sharing this.
Beautiful concept - to look for some visual metaphor that is great enough to touch on the feeling of reality
Great Documentary !!!
Helmet of Clint, one of my favourite artists.
you mean Helma Af Klint ?
@@Lijanah I think they were making a joke about the subtitles. It's captioned as helmet of clint instead of Hilma Af Klint
I'm still trying to work out who the hell Suzanne is...
@@Beth1300 bahahaha
bahahaha, exactly....
What a wonderful documentary !
Abstract art is a direct reflection of one's deepest most intimate subconscious.
Who are you? I am so curious. I have printed out your sentence and it is posted in front of me at my "Art Bar" in my home studio in NYC where I create my abstract art ("AA") as a constant reminder to get out of and get into my head. Your simple insight has inspired me. It keeps me moving forward. I thank you from my deepest most intimate subconscious.
@@gayapalmer7158 I paint without being here. You can't reach me if you talk to me when I am painting, I'm not holding the brush.
Carl Jung
My new path I think for this year. Just gotten into Abstract Art..in fact I got to obsessed with finding the stuff on the web about 5 weeks ago I was going to bed and lying there almost naturally hallucinating. I found altho I love colour, pen seems to be what my spirit prefers. I went wild when I found out about Kandinsky...what a charming and interesting series. Liked and saved.
Mellia Boom Bot follow ur heart it knows best
My brother gifted me a large Kandinsky print as a kid - it has hung in my room for decades now and I still find new things in it. Truly a master.
I don't wish to comment on the content of the video, but here's a question to those who denounce abstract and 'modern art' in general. In music and movies, there are sounds which sound sad, scary or cosmic while in nature these sounds might be non existent. Then how come we have universally come to associate these sounds with certain emotions?
The way jazz speaks to us even without vocals, lines, orientation, colors, shapes and space between them speak too. And while it might not say the same thing to everyone, it says something which is open for interpretation and that's the beauty of it.
She was listening to her family and friends in Spirit. None of us truly die; our physical body dies, but not our spirit. He is speaking of his own opinion. Klint was a medium, and I know of what she spoke.
It’s his opinion. I respect his opinion. You can disagree and yet be respectful. Try it sometime.
What does it mean, to respect an opinion you disagree with?
I LOATHE that this commentator says there is no such thing as actual spirits. I am an artist and psychic. I balk when people who do NOT experience something feel they have a FACTUAL analysis ("spirits are projections of our minds") . Well, Monsieur -- I would argue that EVERYTHING is projected from our minds. Amen.
Abstract art is simply “ a person whom desires to create their own reality “ a way to control shapes and colors in reality and tell your story within those pictures and wanting to leave those feelings in a physical form ( reality) My opinion but who am I but a abstract artist........
thanks RR - best simple statement about the form i've come across...
Rule Number One: There are No Rules.
+ArcturusGold That is the beauty of it.
Rule number one of abstraction is: You do not talk about abstraction
Rule 1: The Doctor lies
Or rather, once you have learned the rules only then you can break them.
Uh ... could you please repeat that ...?
The 'painting ' at 2:20 is a quilt! My Granny made them!
To create is to express into existence what already exists . Therefore you know what to say before you say it. Talking without knowing what you are saying is an activitity that does not do anything but failures. I learn from your mistakes so please continue with it.
Abstract art is just an extension of the artist's thoughts, emotions and feelings.
@vattenträdgård 👍🏻💓
I learned 3 things after I discovered Abstract Art. Rule number 1 is that there is no hard rule. Rule number 2 is that whatever rational objectivity has created emotional subjectivity has imagined more beautiful. Rule number 3 is that colors that are in the soul are more real than those that are in the illusion of rational reality. After knowing the works of Kandinsky, Rothko, Hilma af Klint, Tomie Ohtake and Manabu Mabe I cannot look at a work from the Renaissance of Michelangelo, Da Vince or perhaps any realist work and think that they are more real than abstract works. Thanks thanks for posting this video
Wow, amazing art. I remember when I visited France many years ago and saw Mona Lisa. I've always wondered if she smiles or not...
I'm loving the abstracts shown: first, fourth & fifth.
Painting with the spiritual voice is the intuition within
Abstract art = creativity , hunting for the infinite. Question reality . Great video
great rap, man
I love hearing people discuss abstract art. It reminds me of my parents trying to explain the crazy shit I did at school that they put on the refrigerator.
Them: Our boy was really digging into his creative brain here, and expressing himself through the use of negative space.
Me: I got bored and quit to play tag instead.
Explaining art, poetry or creativity is very stupid and done by the opposite kind of people that created it. Ones with a need to classify and organise the disorganized.
You're both pretentious as fuck.
At some point, the artist asks himself a question. How far is his workshop habit with creation? Will his learned and established painting habits and tricks allow him to create new, fresh things?
The state of freedom from habits is possible only when we allow us to reject all limitations. Compmaturism, a new direction in art
transforms the emotions of the creator into works. There is no room for speculation, no corrections. No planning, only vivid emotions. That's why I love Compmaturism
There is nothing new about compmaturism as art or as a concept, you know what is new, that neologism, that's it!
If you're gonna use YT comments for free publicity at least have the dignity to say "and by the way this is me bigging myself up, without any irony, using walls of "art bollox" as a confusion technique.
At some point the artist asks himself the question ..
She puts an apron on him, mixes some paint and makes him stand around painting crappy art, detailed to her every whim. That's way more creative than the usual sub/dom thing. Have to give them that.
G Note : I do believe they both wear aprons.
Yeah, this is like some weird fetish couples version of Andy Warhol. Have someone else make a bunch of crap for you.
lol, that's hilarious
Lmaooooooo
Lol
As an artist I cannot imagine having someone else pick out my colors...that's half the fun for me when envisioning/starting a new painting...as is sometimes me changing them as it goes along.
thanks for your page, always waiting for new great docos. Lovely to see Collings back with something new. Bravo
I love this man 😍
Bonus Rule: Many people aren't going to watch something with a commercial before and then every following 3 minutes.
Adblock Plus, Extension for Chrome ✌
Rules of Abstraction ? Planned chaos ? The end result mostly looks exactly like that. Perfect though to cover the chicken coop !
Abstract art has been around for thousands of years - it's decorative.
What is it decorating?
@@Doppe1ganger The space it's in.
I see that this video has sparked a vibrant discussion of what is abstract art, and so it succeeds in the 100 yr discussion of what abstract art is. Must say that there were some entertaining moments when reading the subtitles. So many interpretations of the presenter's lovely accent, and they truly detracted from the quality of the video.
I find it funny that Mr. Collings's work , what I've seen of it, is rendered regularly by many friends and relatives of mine who quilt. So, who is feeding off of whom? Oh well, off to take a nap on what appears to be what Mr. Collings's designed, but my great grandmother executed.
Your granny did not live in a society with hordes of people moving to and fro. Squint - the main visual tool for artists working with hue and value - and you lose detail but shape hue, and value remain. Now, go up to a high building from which you can see a busy pedestrian street. Everything is reduced to a moving pattern of people. Now, squint. All you have is a moving pattern of shapes, hue and value. This painting is an abstraction of that IMO. Art is a language, and the artist isn't replicating reality. Rather he's communicating something he's understood about that reality. That's why it's abstract.
So grateful of the uploads!
Abstract art is about how you feel and less of what you see so look within yourself.
We say the same thing, we should look within ourselves and we dont want to see the abstract art bullshit
@@gudguy97 Then don't look, no one is forcing you
except for the morons who enforce their views that abstract art is a real art
One of the best videos till date about spiritual insights in abstraction, abstractionist artists are connected to the Universal life source, Thanks for sharing!
Connected to aliens lol
This
seems like such an
interesting video but I
find it difficult
to
watch since he
keeps making unnecessary
breaks
in his
sentences
and now
I can't stop reading
the
comments like it.
Oh gawd now I can't unhear it
Fuck ing...hell.
lol i . thought it. was. just me.
May be if you are a fast talking spewing verbal diarrhea American but for serious Art students and those on the Autistic spectrum, it is perfectly delivered with meaning and not in a fast food Mc donalds way. This documentary will only appeal to students who are highly intelligent and patient enough to really understand what is being said. So if Mathews narration is too slow then perhaps you all need to learn how to slow down and spend less time on social media and expecting things to be delivered instantly as seems to be the case with all the under 35's nowadays.
😂😂😂😂😂 better to watch and read at the same time
Klint also was a classically trained artist. The translation into spiritual beauty (balance, form, colour, light) to the beholding eye came from deep learning.
Thanks ever so much for uploading and sharing this documentary!
THAT IS IMPRESSIVE EXPLAINATION OF ABSTRACT ART..FEELING AND THOUGHTS ARE EXPRESSIVE THROUGH SHAPS AND COLORS
He just said “art isn’t made from visions” and threw Hilma af Klint’s art out the window and now I can’t watch the video!!!!!
He said, "Art isn't made JUST from visions."
You stopped watching a video because YOU missed a word he said.
Rule #1: "There are No Rules"
Freedom is a Choice. Art is expression, from within, and always there's choice.
Whats with the " YEAH" subtitles ? LoL
yeah
😂
Yeah, huh?
The music put on these kinds of documentaries distorts the impression of what you see.
"Whoever heard of rules in a knife fight?" - Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.
you don't speak about the knife club
Art Documentaries & Matthew Collings, good job. Together we are stronger! :) :)
Wonderful learning experience. As a lover of abstraction I wish others to understand a type of sensing &connectivity that what ones sees or experiences - this form is another way of perceiving reality..that of the unknown being a major factor much of the time. Also basic elements such as line color shape etc become dynamic in a different way than realistic depiction.
What wonderful creativity - a joy to view! Sending my support 🔔
I love you for posting these, I love you so much
Acquavallo Thanks..Love U2..
Acquavallo I LOVE YOU AS WELL MY DEAREST! LET US HAVE LUNCH AND HUG!
HUGGSSS!!!
Acquavallo 7
Aisle of view two.
Beautiful thx 😊
The background 'music' sounds like a murder is about to happen. It was so distracting, I had to turn down the sound.
Me too. Horrid, especially around 6 minutes. Bleah. Otherwise SUCH a great educational video. Pity!
This video very cleverly promotes and normalizes occult practices.
I so agree.
Im so confused... tell her to pick up a paintbrush and do it herself.
remoobko
Michael Wardrip
Hello i believe that if she were working close she would lose the perspective of the whole. By watching the colours go on from a distance she’s looking at the entire painting 🖼 and this helps her decide what colours & textures to add where . But yes I understand your point!
It's probably his name that sells art. Remember the TV show Remmington Steel?
Michael Wardrip She would have to change gender first, because clearly the CC person knows a woman can’t make art, since s/he keeps referring to her as “MR.” Biggs.
Lynn Duvall It’s not M.R. Biggs??? Omg.
Kandinsky is my favorite artist.
I have several of his prints in my home.
Helmet of clint? Some of the mistakes in subtitles made me giggle a little bit :-D
Artists can be well served by the basic studies/understanding of: Quantum Physics, Philosophy, and basic or intro to Logic, these serve to strengthen the Creative Juices, as the open the mind and support *"Infinite Possibilities"
Spirit or Soul is *energy* and energy is eternal - Quantum 0hysics.
Avoid limiting the possibilities.
Quantum Physics also proclaims that "Thought proceeds Manifestation", therefore I proclaim, *"The Bang came 2nd"*...
Limitless potentials when mind is truly - wide open.
That whole theosophy segment screams occult
After the invention of photography, many artists felt that they’d come to an impasse. Fundamental questions changed, from how well a painter reflected nature to “what now?” and “how do we stay relevant?” New ways of looking at art emerged from existential crisis, changing how we saw images, as a purely philosophical matter, as divorced or “abstracted” from nature. Soon Leo Stein, the brother of Gertrude Stein, who “discovered” Picasso, Braque, Matisse and others, began advising art speculators to “only buy art you hate.”
I have loved art as long as I can remember but when I was sent to art classes as a boy, I thought I had entered the twilight zone and dropped out. I was directed back into a College course years later and had the same problem and left once more and with a horrible uncomfortable feeling of dismay, because again, I thought I had left the world of sanity behind when I entered the art world.
I am told that I am weird and I am okay with that,
I have a lot of interesting interactions with people, I suppose a lot of my thinking is abstract but that's what comedians do, look at things in a different way and then show us the humour that we didn't notice before.
at least with a comedic perspective, once we are shown it, we can see it because it actually is there to be seen.
whenever I had drawn or made something my friends and family could see it and say what they thought about it, if they felt like saying anything.
whenever I would do anything at all in an art class even things I had never tried before and threw my first attempt in the trash, my teacher would be going after it and raving about it and it would leave me confused and wondering if my art teacher knew anything at all or if I didn't even know what I myself was doing, if I couldn't even tell my own trash from my best attempts...... I am not the only one that has experienced this, I know a sign painter who does calligraphy and does small jobs here and there but no paintings to sell and it's for the exact same reason. She had become unsure and insecure about the reaction to her art from people talking like this orator here, attributing a hundred different qualities and artistic meanings to her work which had never entered her head as they had never entered mine when I was experiencing the same .... pretentious garbage being spewed about something I had done in the middle of the night when I woke up from a drunken stupour remembering that I had a project to complete for the next day and whipped up something from trash around my room.... I was embarrassed and couldn't go along with the wild interpretation of my crap..... I have run into this each time I tried to learn to do what I enjoy, just paint or draw......this video is really making me uncomfortable because it sounds like these people are self deluded and I believe that there's good money in going along with them......but wouldn't your stomach just churn all day if you did? mine would...... I actually can see and understand and even do something abstract but if it's really art it has to be in tune..... I compare some of these pieces to someone blowing a trumpet and no matter what racket they produced someone is there telling them that the noise is the most amazing jazz piece they have heard to date.....it isn't just random shapes and colours or notes at any interval and Volume.... there's Ballance and symmetry which don't necessarily have any meaning, beyond the producer of them was simply expressing a whim to make a noise or play with the colours......right now I am listening to this guy talking about the white canvas with the black lines and the blue rectangle in the top left....... I actually thought that it was something I did when I was bored and had a roll of electrical tape and two little tubes of paint..... about forty seven years ago.....my mother put it on the wall and I hated it.......it wasn't even run to do and was so limited that I saw it as evidence of my extreme boredom..... without enough to amuse myself, which takes very little......for me, the guy talking about the "art" here and the last few artists , especially the woman with the red canvas with the yellow zipper up the center are in serious need for someone to throw a net over them and drag them off for reprogramming.
Why do you think you need to take art classes? What is there to understand? Embrace your inner weird and do what you want. Step outside the box. Don't over think everything, just do it.
That's exactly what I always loved about abstract art. For me abstract art revokes feelings. And since everyone in the world was brought up differently (has different memories etc) everyone feels something different when looking at certain colors or shapes because it reminds them of something. (Sorry English is not my first language. I hope I could explain that correctly)
@@lorythmem230 Reading your comment about "abstract art [revokes] I understood that English is not your native tongue. The word you were looking for is 'evokes'. Revoke means 'to cancel or take away' while evoke means 'to bring out' as a thought or emotion. Not being critical, just trying to help.
@@brainlessidiot5322 yes! Thank you for pointing that out! I must've mixed both words up. 😅
Some are crappy artist ... Saw one lol garbage , no wonder nobody bought her shit
Remember watching this many years ago. It's still the only other person I've been aware of with the identical spelling of my surname, apart from family of course. Greetings from Hertfordshire.
"this work is by lube off pop over" I'm dead :D
@Stephanie Logan And Cézanne written as SUZANNE??!!
You know, when you "lube off", you later "pop over", like that.
I'm trying to clean off the soda I spewed all over my monitor...OMFG!!!
Lmaoo
very interesting doc..
The subtitles are pretty abstract too..
what a great partnership in co-creating 💜
The term 'abstract' may not yet have been applied to art in 1907, but to say that it did not exist before that time is... a pretty bold, and demonstrably inaccurate statement.
+Jefferdaughter If you really stretch the definition you could say the impressionist movement was abstract at least compared to the realists.
Critique isn't about saying who's right or wrong. It's about defining what's relevant and excluding the extraneous.
You are absolutely correct. Almost any work of art is an abstraction of a thing or concept. One simple example is that a flat painting of an animal is an abstraction because the actual animal is 3-dimensional.
Most cultures across the world made abstract art for ages before then. Since they weren't European or white, they aren't taken into consideration! Very sad.
@@ImmaBeastx2 There is a massive body of abstract cave art in Europe, done by ancestors of modern white Europeans. Ignored by you and your bigoted views
holy shit her work is amazing
Its safe to say that any one at any age can do this, I think the hard part is finding a sucker to pay you for it.
My other dilemma is that when I did start selling my artwork as a student… I didn’t photograph all of my pieces, I sold at least 30 or 40 that I didn’t document which is my fault but I also didn’t ask for much because I don’t believe art shouldn’t be only for the wealthy… I believe art should be for everyone… even if you have to buy a high-quality print… I guess that’s the way to make money these days is to digitize and duplicate thousands of thousands of times over and over for 10 or $20 apiece… It’s really sucks but that’s what people are doing.
Interesting... but so many points to disagree with. Rules may exist, but many artists, whether working in a non-representational or representational style, rely heavily on their instincts in their use of color, composition, etc. People may only glance at a Mondrian, yet his works are among the most widely appropriated for product packaging and other uses. The illusion of layering in the work by Popova (squares morphed???) is acheived not so much by the 'angles' or the juxtaposition of the forms, but by the use of strong contrast between the white form seen as 'floating' on top of the image and it's wamer color. This white is warmer than the white used as the 'background' color in this work (and is also warmer than the white Mondrian usually used as a 'ground' color in his paintings).
+Jefferdaughter - How could an artist who is also a critic miss the use of warmer versus cooler whites to help creat the illusion mentioned above (in the Popova painting of geometric shapes which appear to be layered over on another)?
Abstract art obviously existed before the era mentioned, if not in the recognized tradition of Western art. More importantly, the role of representational art - not just as what was 'acceptable to most people' - but as illustration in the service of the Church or wealthy patrons, was not mentioned.
Abstract art, and other forms or art less concerned with 'how things really look' such as Impressionism, came into ascendancy as the photograph replaced the need for artists who could accurately record the appearance of people, places, and things.
great points Jeffer
love the weird subtitles. ... its kinda a work of art in itself this weird video
Abstract art is visual thinking / 5 / 29 / 17
Very interesting and informative
Who on earth wrote the subtitles for this programme? Not someone from the BBC, I hope!
Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, most subtitles are digitally generated nowadays, and aren't edited by a human being any longer. Blame Neoliberal politics around the BBC.
@@BigHenFor not the BBC but the owner of this channel which is not owned by the BBC lol
This video introduced me to "Brock", the famous cubist painter. And I learned that Helmet of Clint also goes by pseudonyms "Hilma Afghan" and "African". Yeah
Hahaha, this documentary made my day! :D
Just what we need. A lecture on spiritual art by an insincere, materialistic atheist.
Jimmy Wrayge....!!!
it's maybe the best work you've ever done!
Not that I am an expert but I was greatly moved!
Just amazing, beautiful ~expressing AND evoking so much emotion.
Deft, powerful and delicate strokes.
You KNOW I just love my "Children Banned from music lessons in Iran"....and even tho it looks great in my apartment. .... I'd sure love to live with one of these new pieces for a good long while!.
How about a swap 😉
But seriously ...wow!
Congratulations, it's a wonderful collection and I'm coming in soon to see if live!
Thank you for this. You educated me on Hilma af Klint. Up until today I had never heard of her. She's one of a kind, isn't she?
I AM TRIPPING BALLS ON ACID WATHCING THIS THANK YOU
It´s interesting that nobody, it would seem, have cared to explain to Matthew, that the name "Hilma af Klint" actually means "Hilma from the cliff", or " off the cliff" directly translated into english, if one knows anything about scandinavian languages. Just like say.. Hieronymus Bosch, having been born in a small town called ´s-Hertogenbosch, means "Hieronymus from the woods" or Leonardo da Vinci means "Leonardo from Vinci". So that it is both an indicator of a birthplace aswell as a family name. For those who give a shit..
"Latentwisdom," I find it hard to believe that Matthew did not know this because I`m not an art historian, and not particularly intelligent either and I find your comments to be well known, generic knowledge - known to just about everyone.
Thanks for sharing. Just now finding out about Hilma AF Klint. Shocking.
where is the rest of this doco!
Really like this abstract. Great fun. I do like the black and white best. Thankyou
Imo abstract is like poetry. It doesn't matter what it was about for the artist, it's all about what it means to you.
That’s what Joan Mitchell said about her work.
🏆
absolutely grateful for this series of documentaries! thank you!
This is so inspiring. I’m ready to paint 🙌🏽
Don't waste too much ofyour time...
Artists are born, not made. And, this documentary only shows how it has all gone downhill! If this inspires you and not disgusts you then you are not an artist! Maybe it is just a hobby of yours...
incredibly engrossing and enriching documentary on such a mysterious trend in art:)