1. Abstract Photography & Art

2. Representational and Abstract art
Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, 1601
Piet Mondrian, Composition in red yellow and blue, 1921

3. The Caravaggio composition consists of the arrangement of people and recognizable objects.
The painting clearly represents people sitting around a table – things that we could find in the ‘real’ world.
Works like this are called representational or figurative.

4. The Mondrian painting also involves a composition process, but in this case it is a composition of shapes, lines and colours (the visual elements).
The picture does not seems to directly represent anything which we would find in the ‘real’ world.
Artworks like this are often described as abstract

5. Film ‘stills’ from the film La Jetee.
Abstract or representational?

6. Pattern
Do you want there to be a center of interest in your photograph or painting, or would you prefer the image itself to become a pattern?
Jackson Pollock, Painting, 1948
How would you describe Pollock’s work, abstract or representational?

7. Abstract or representational?
Photogram by Lazolo Maholy-Nagy ( )
Abstract or representational?

8. Abstract or Representational?
Franz Hals, Laughing Cavalier, 1624

9. Whilst some works are clearly representational and others clearly abstract, many photographs or artworks seem to be representational and yet at the same time have an abstract quality
Photo by Paul Strand

10. Photo by Andreas Gursky
This is a photograph of a motor race track in Bahrain.
The pattern created by the track produces an abstract quality to the image.
Do you agree?

11. As a general guide:
Artworks where the subject is something that we would find in the ‘real’ world and which can easily be identified are usually Representational.
Artworks where it is difficult to identify the subject, or when the subject appears to be something that we would not normally encounter in the ‘real’ world are usually Abstract.
Rolf Harris had a ‘catch-phrase’:
“Can you tell what it is yet?”

12. When you view a completely abstract image it is usually meaningless to ask “what is it of?”
Many people today still believe that to qualify as ‘Art’, an image or artwork must be representational – it must be of something found in the physical world.
In the second half of the 19th century many artists began to break free of this constraint, attempting to produce art which was less of, and more about the subject.
This was due in no small part to the rapid development and popularity of photography – the perfect representational medium.

13. JMW Turner, Rain, steam and speed, 1844

14. Georges Seurat, Models,1887-88
‘Impressionism’
The impressionists wanted to paint scenes which conveyed the ‘impression’ of light, movement and the passage of time of everyday scenes, rather than an exact representation like a photograph.
Van Gogh, Saint-Rémy, France, (Starry Night)
‘Expressionism’
Expressionists painted in a way that included the artist’s emotions and feelings.

15. Claude Monet, Water Lillies, 1915-26

16. Extension work: ‘Medium Specificity’.
Photographers in the early 20th century (1900 onwards) started experimenting with the camera’s ability to ‘see’ in new and exciting ways; they began using startling viewpoints, close-ups, radical framing & cropping and unusual camera angles.
They allowed the photography to revel in those aspects of the medium which made it different to other artistic media, rather than trying to make their photographs appear like other forms of art, such as painting.
Extension work: ‘Medium Specificity’.
Steichen, The Maypole, Empire State Building, 1932

17. Photographs by Edward Weston, 1886-1958

18. John Baldessari
Abstract or representational, or a bit of both?

19. Tomatsu Shomei
How would you describe this image …
Is it ‘of’ anything?
Is it representational or abstract?

20. Photographs by Wolfgang Tillmans

21. Test your Learning
1. What are the essential differences between representational and abstract art/photography?
What might abstract photographs be good for?