Page 4 - TAG

TAG - Tubes Artists Gallery are delighted to welcome the highly
regarded art critic and author ‘Spike’ who has joined TAG from
painters TUBES magazine.

Spike’s article “abstract art - what’s so special about it?’ is the
motivation for this special issue of Tubes Artists Gallery, TAG#4.

This issue showcases both accomplished , acclaimed and
relatively unknown artists, all of whom create unique and
authentic abstract paintings.

abstract art
what’s so special about it?

The inter-relationship of twentieth century
poets, art critical thinkers, academics
and practising artists, have
contributed to what we now consider as Abstract painting.
Without first re-reading and with concentrated study of all these
considerable contributions, the total understanding of abstract
art and its development is probably not possible for the casual
art reader. The objective of this feature in TAG #4 is to give the
reader a sort of base-line for some of the reasoning behind the
choice of artists that create abstract paintings and to highlight
how contemporary art fits within contemporary society.

An argument that could be made is that all Art is
abstract by its very nature. What we see, as
individuals, is as different as we
are from each other, therefore what we
see is only one reality. With figurative (realist)
art there is a commonality of course. A tree, in
real life or painted on canvas, is still a tree and we all can
recognise it as such (refer to René Magritte - the treachery of
images series of paintings (1928-1929). Even an abstracted tree
(invented by the artist) is still a tree to the viewer of the image
that has been invented and visualised by the artist.

So what is abstract art and what is not abstract art? As Magritte
suggested, it is patently subjective. Quantifying contemporary
abstract painting is therefore a task of complexity. From an
historical viewpoint, there is no obvious starting point, no
middle and no ending that adequately provides the reader with
a definitive road map of its development.