Analysis Of The Works Of 20th Century Abstract Artists

In this essay, I will consider 20th century abstract artists such as Albers and Bass and others. Many of them lived at different times and in different places, but thanks to their work they became known. They both showed how important the art of experimenting with colours, shapes, lines. After all, through an experiment, you can identify a real work of art. And for some of them this was achieved, but the most interesting is that they showed how through simple forms it is possible to influence a person’s consciousness and perception. I will also compare their work and consider what unites them and what distinguishes them, and how abstract art influenced their work. Accordingly, I analysed abstract art, where it came from and how it influenced the worldview of people. Consider its main rules and what time influenced the appearance of this art and who were these people who discovered this type of art, what they wanted to show the world and what they wanted to tell the world through this abstract art. 

In general, the most important thing I want to show in my essay is how brilliantly the artists created their works, in which they used the simplest forms and colour scheme, which affects the perception of human consciousness and thereby causes the corresponding feelings in a person. Even artist could to show a certain plot in one picture as did it a Bass, he was innovator in his business. However, Albers to show how has affect a colour on a shape and how can evoke various feeling in the person.

Josef Albers 

Josef Albers was born in the German city of Bottrop; he grew up a versatile child with a love of drawing and literature. When he was younger, he worked as a teacher in the primary school, also he studied at the Royal School of Art, the Essen academic of Art. However, in 1920 he became a student of the Bauhaus. Unfortunately, the Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, the architect F. Johnson invited Albers to work in America at the newly opened Black Mountain College in Asheville where he worked as a teacher and after that in 1950 he headed the School of Arts at Yale University, where he lectured until 1960. 

Joseph Albers and his style aroused interest among representatives of various areas of American painting. However, in 1936, Albers joined the American association of Abstract Artists. Josef Albers showed how colour effects depend on factors such as the position of geometric shapes, the space, the amount and intensity of illumination. Ultimately, Josef Albers has influenced creators of such art as op art and this neo-avant-garde trend of abstract art arose in the 1950s and became widespread in Europe and the USA. 

In the main he had focused on the colour- it is the most important factor in the artist’s work. He even published a book “The Interaction of Colour” where he taught to students how colour interacts and affects the perception of the audience. Josef Albers conducted colour experiments on how colour in different combinations may create an illusion for the eye, for example he claimed that we do not perceive red as a pure colour we just observe different versions shades of red colour. He provided a lot of experiments with colour and shapes and he managed to prove that colour interaction can create the illusion. Through the artist’s pictures that I provided below; we can see how the colour changes its appearance under the influence of other colours. In this example, we can observe how the orange square changes colour under the influence of other colours, however, this is an overwhelming deception of the eye, on a blue background, an orange square seems lighter than on a light orange. Also, we can see the left-hand example is an experiment with dark and light colour; it shows the way the juxtaposition of colours can affect our perception of both the colours themselves and space. The dark purple colour around the rectangle creates a compressed space and gives the effect of reducing the grey object inside it. The light greenish colour around the rectangle gives affects that it expands the space and visually enlarges the object. These optical illusions had a significant influence on Op Art later.

 However, Albers’ idea was that only by observing colour in the push and pull of context can one begin to understand the nature of colour. Also, Albers characterized colour as “passive”, “deceptive” and “unstable” - he recognized that its behaviour was, to some extent, predictable. He did exercises which focused on colour in specific contexts, showing that if we put colour A next to B colour, or these colours put next to those, we could anticipate certain results. Further, he showed how to characterize colour with words, he used his abstraction thinking ability, thereby he gave visualization to colour, for example, colour could remind him of smell, emotions, landscapes, etc. 

For analysis we consider this image showing four colours. The colour palette is warm and incorporates red and orange shades. It is my opinion that image creates the illusion of a fall or unsteadiness that means cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is happening when I know, that I cannot fall into a picture but when I look at this image, I have a feeling of cognitive dissonance, because this picture does make me feel as though I am falling. Also, it reminds me looking down a stairwell. On the other hand, these colours look as if they are transparent and stacked on top of each other and convinces once again that colours are not absolute, that they change in varying circumstances, that they can be made to appear darker, transparent or lighter, that they can be passive, deceptive or unstable. Through Albers’s images we can develop our minds and our own vision. However are nowadays has very good example of artists where we can consider influence of Albers's artwork, one of this is Genis Carreras, absolutely unique graphic designer, it’s just my opinion, because I did research of his artworks and noticed that his work created of simple shapes but explain big ideas, his philosophies ideas it the similar ideas as Albers and Bass, all of them unites of one idea- to create design of simple shapes where has laid big ideas. 

Saul Bass 

Saul Bass was born in the Bronx, New York, USA and lived in the Los Angeles, he was a graphic designer and he created title sequences and film posters, and he also designed corporate logos. Bass won Oscars for his contributions to the films of other directors. He had worked with the famous directors from Hollywood as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and etc. 

Saul Bass performances were always accompanied by references to the Arts and Crafts and Bauhaus movements, whose aesthetics, according to Saul, could significantly affect society and have a positive impact on ethical standards. He discovered a unique way to convey information to the audience in simple geometric forms, In the 1990s he stated, “I’ve always looked for the simple idea”. He was able to put important information in a simple image of geometric figures and symbols. 

Bass believed that successful design involved great attention to content. He also believed that the design should be created simply, but that it should be able to evoke emotions and desire from the audience to reflect on what they saw. He knew how to tell the whole story through simple forms of design, which made simple ideas interesting. Bass was sure that the simplest and first idea that comes to his mind is the best idea he thinks of. However, Bass talked about simple ideas, but believed that the idea should not be so simple that it would be boring, all the same, the main thing is the content of the design, which is expressed in a simple form his comment – “We see the challenge in getting things down to something totally simple, and yet doing something with it, which provokes … If it’s simple, simple, it’s boring. We try for the idea that is so simple that it will make you think – and rethink”.

Saul bass lived in the era of postmodernism, which was reflected in his work, in his movie posters you can see cut out figures, and the material was the image has the appearance of an assemblage of cut paper elements. Art at this time was often raw and experimental, every artist had an experiment with art and Bass was no exception, he also tried to find his style where through a lot of experiment, which we can relate with shape, colour, all in the simple geometric form. All his work was filled with powerful messages. 

There is the poster of Bass form sequence of the film ANATOMY OF A MURDER. In this image we can consider a simple part of images, however Bass uses a simple element like a cut out of paper on a red background, through this element we can see a human body which reminds the position of the body is similar to human anatomy image. Because the body is fragmented so it conveys violence even though there is no blood, no screaming, no real body, also the text is red and looks almost carved onto the body it looks like a blood that it conveys violence too and the figure has no face, maybe this depersonalised the victim; we know nothing about him. We can feel a violence even without real evidence just through the influence of simple forms. There are similarities with Albers’ image, above if you look at both of their works, you will see how similar they are, because the colour of there is a similar choice of colour palette, and liberal use of space and basic shapes. Only in Saul Bass all geometric shapes are located next to each other. Josef Albers positions all the squares are inside each other, but the colour of the paints they used, it causes the same emotions as fear, trembling. Their style in visual language is intertwined with each other in their works. For example, if we compare one more artwork of Bass from the film “Vertigo” on this poster we observe that are represented by the black and white figures are represent the man and woman falling into the nucleus of the spiral. 

It's interesting that both artists have used a feeling of unsteadiness, I think that the cognitive dissonance I mentioned about Albers’ work is also a feature of Bass’ imagery. If we have look on the Albers’s image, we can Imaginate it’s like looking down a stairwell and can feel cognitive dissonance, accordingly if we have look on the Bass’s image we get a physical feeling a fall like from the stairwell, they both used an abstract method to send a message for audience through images to evoke the emotion, feeling. They both use colour to exert influence on the viewer, choosing tones that evoke fear or anxiety with both artists through their work we can observe a style in abstract art in which emotions and feelings are expressed through colours, geometric shapes, lighting, etc. 

Abstract Art 

Abstract art uses the visual language of form, colour and line to create a composition that can exist independently of visual landmarks. In order to better understand abstract art, we can divide this art into six main types. Some of these types are less abstract than others, but they are all associated with the separation of art from reality. 

• Curved abstract art
• Colour or light abstract art
• Geometric abstraction
• Emotional or Intuitive Abstract Art
• Gesture Abstract art
• Minimalist Abstract Art.

Ultimately, of the above all of bullets point I would be analysis the Geometric abstract art because it connects with the artists which I had chosen, also, many other artists relate to this art. For starters, I would like to consider this geometric abstraction in detail, this kind of abstract art appeared around 1908 but the early fundamental form was cubism, which rejected the linear perspective and the illusion of spatial depth in the picture. Also, geometric art is known as biased art and concrete art. Obviously is geometrical abstract it is characterized not by naturalistic images but, expressed through by geometric forms, such as circles, squares, triangles, rectangles and so on. Artists had following to more intellectual art, they are move away from reality to get more exploring art and environment through forms, a new technique in the art. 

Russia became one of the first sources of geometric abstract art and the first founder was Casimir Malevich and his famous artwork is the black square on the white background in 1915. Also, for this art we can includes artists who influenced or were fundamental in this area such as Piet Mondrian from New York, Theo Van Doesburg founder of De Stijl and Elementarism and include the Homage to the Square pictures by Josef Albers and Op-Art originated by Victor Vasarely and many others artists was who contributed to this art. Abstract art is a to move away from reality where people discover and show their inner world, which can categorically differ from each other and each one chooses how to express his inner world, and what techniques to take advantage of. In order to better understand what techniques are better for him that help express his vision of the world, for this they had experiment with paints, colours, shapes, lighting, so, there are so many kinds of abstract art. Geometric abstraction continued throughout the twentieth century. Abstract art that retains a prominent place in the creative search of many masters of contemporary art working in various techniques and types of art, including computer graphics. The artistic techniques created by the masters of abstract painting turned out to be interesting and fruitful for modern art culture. Today, these methods are actively used in the arts and crafts, design, photography ... 

Through an abstract work, the audience created by the artist can feel the emotions or cause the audience to imagine a picture association with something. Abstraction is an amazing form of art, as it goes beyond the outwards of primitive life and shows people a new level of human consciousness, because it was not for nothing that abstract art appeared at a time when the world was experiencing a crisis in creativity, this new phenomenon in art showed new possibilities of the human mind and its perception of the environment the world under a different look. We can clearly see this through the images of Albers and Bass, they could with the help of forms, colours affect the imagination of the audience that can even cause physical sensations like dizziness. This is quite a strong form of art through which you can influence the audience even if it is used for political purposes as propaganda, such was one of the outstanding artists in this art as Vasily Kandinsky. Kandinsky argued that the 'Age of Great Spirituality' requires a new, spiritual art. Therefore, he sought to depict not the objects themselves, but the essence of these objects, the so-called 'sound of things.' Rather, he foresaw the impending troubles in the future as a revolution and two world wars, but the Kandinsky did not want a coup commit, obviously he wanted a spiritual coup on the human consciousness, his idea was spirituality change. However, the country did not accept it and then he realized himself in Germany in the famous Bauhaus, where the Albers came from, by the way they have similar paintings and areas of abstract art, they both seemed to experiment with colour. 

In these two images from Kandinsky, where drawn circles with different colour combinations, and in the second image, we see artwork by Alberts with the image of flat square shapes, where a different colour combination is also used. at first glance, this images, they are very similar in that in both cases they used forms and a combination of colours, but the fact that the Albers created the colours as if superimposing each other with transparent textures of colours, thereby changing their colour, that make their artwork different. Nevertheless, this is another proof that at that time the artists influenced each other and each experimented to find their own style in this direction. 

Conclusion 

When analysing the research of the line, of the form, we pay attention to the fact that all systems of the new art from nearly 1900 as cubism, abstract, pop art etc. Have their own distinctive structure, texture relations, form and colour, a different principle, method and even worldview. 

Abstract art too showed that is a style of painting and art in general, rejecting the realistic reproduction of the world around. His followers depict simple and complex forms, play with colour, use lines, planes and other objects, combining them to create certain emotions in the viewer. In this, their approach differs from that used by masters who adhere to classicism and many other styles. The emerging style was, without exaggeration, the beginning of a new era in painting. 

This style has opened new facets of the consciousness of a person who expresses through painting. Obviously, each person has his own perception of the world that artists show through their work how they feel this world and how they see it. However, the most amazing thing is how through simple forms it is possible to express deep thoughts or show the whole plot as Bass did in his works. 

I believe that colours, shapes, lines and lighting can all affect a person’s consciousness, his perception, and mood. If artist skilfully learn how to handle art, you can even through art influence the consciousness of people and their perception of worldview. Also, artist might to inspire other artist and they are giving for us a knowledge about how colour influence on our mood and feeling, how shapes affect our perception.