THE EFFECT OF ABSTRACT AS A FORM OF EXPRESSION IN CONTEMPORARY TURKISH PAINTING

After a period of thousands of years as a form of expression in art, since the beginning of the 20th century, the forms have been simplified or changed and the images started to be interpreted differently within the space constitute the subject of this thesis. Research subjects of this article are the definition and features of the concept of space, the definition and characteristics of the concepts of abstract and abstraction, abstract painting uses space in its reflections on Contemporary Turkish painting. In contemporary Turkish painting, the abstract effects of the works of Adem Genç, Adnan Çoker, Adnan Turanî, Ahmet Dalkıran, Alaybey Karoğlu, Devrim Erbil, Hasan Pekmezci and Zafer Gençaydın are limited to examples selected for examination. While abstract and space create a common language in the works of the artists, there are differences in their way of handling the subject in terms of method and application. Qualitative research methods and techniques were used in the study based on the general survey model. The method of "literature research techniques" was used in the research process in order to obtain qualitative data. Keywords: Space, painting, abstract, abstraction, abstract art

Understanding the Creation of Abstract Concepts beyond the Intangible and Tangible Materials of Land Art

Background and objective: Understanding abstract art as an art form requires depth of thought. Moreover, understanding land art as abstract art is challenging, given its focus on the minimalism and abstract concepts. Much focus, research, and work were actively conducted in the 1970s, as it represented an abstract expression of minimalism. The characteristics of minimalism connote abstract meanings in the use of materials. Nevertheless, the original research of works or artists has often been mentioned, but few studies have analyzed the abstract language of land art materials. The aim of this study is to thus determine the abstract meanings of materials in land art from the 1970s to the 2010s.Methods: Art-based research was employed to address the aim. This study classified the land art materials into intangible and tangible materials, where intangible materials focused on lines, circles, and labyrinths, and tangible materials focused on the earth, stones, wood, and snow.Results: Intangible and tangible materials of land art conveyed various abstract meanings. Intangible materials were reflective of connection and symbiosis with nature, delivering abstract languages of ‘take-nothing,’ ‘reflection’ and ‘opportunity.’ Tangible materials reflected the abstract concepts of ‘intervention,’ ‘resistance,’ ‘unliving,’ and ‘change,’ and conveyed caveats. In other words, taken together, intangible and tangible materials were presented in symbiosis–and with caveats–and delivered messages for the present and the future. Interestingly, intangible materials inherently reflect symbiosis and communicate caveats in works based on a non-contextualized present and future.Conclusion: Interpretation of the abstract languages derived from intangible and tangible materials could imply a symbiosis between humans and nature, while conveying the message that caveats, to humans, are still ongoing. This relationship plays a significant role in an artist’s selection of a medium, which is reflective of abstract beliefs reflected in contemporary, nature-based works created on Earth.

Contemporary Art in Applied Dimensions: A Reflective Review of Art as Therapeutic Process

A common perception about contemporary art is the perception that it excludes a majority of people as being its legitimate viewers or judges, by virtue of the fact that it contains exclusive or encrypted messages. A small, privileged group of experts grant value, acceptance and endow public popularity of such works for the market and media. In this research we seek to provide an insight into a cluster of contemporary abstract art forms and show how such art forms anticipate closer and more common sensory and hermeneutic experience. Art like that of Hamish Fulton is built on experiences that enables us to connect with them, thereby redefining the concepts and ideas of these arts through an alternative phenomenological experience of their methods and processes of making art. Fulton’s art is based on a visual translation of his experiences of healing walks through mountainous terrain. We may build a personal, general methodology of interpretation by building personal synergistic links with the methods of creation – that could in turn generate therapeutic effects both in the viewer or in the interpreter of such art, through self-reflection and re-construction of the concepts proposed in the framing. Likewise, we will reflect briefly on art therapeutic projects that we studied for patients with ADHD. We analyze the expressions and suggest a method of therapeutic art creation based on similar processes as in Fulton.

The Role of Myths in Japanese Calligraphy’s Interpretative Process

The Role of Myths in Japanese Calligraphy’s Interpretative Process. This article illustrates the role of myths in the interpretative process of calligraphic works. Being considerably different from Western calligraphy, Japanese calligraphy (shodō) may seem at times visually similar to abstract art. However, calligraphic works – and shodō as art – are rich in meaning and abundant of myths. Focusing on both linguistic and visual elements of calligraphy, the article depicts how myths can be identified in a calligraphic work and how they provide a better understanding of the particularities of shodō. In order to illustrate how myths uncover new layers of meaning, the article incorporates an analysis of a calligraphic work created by Rodica Frențiu, underlining the process of accessing the transcendent meaning. Keywords: shodō, Japanese calligraphy, calligraphy, cultural semiotics, Japanese studies, kanji, myth, Zen, Buddhism.

MODUSI ESTETSKE OBRADE, PERFEKCIONIZAM I DIVLJENJE KAO PREDIKTORI UMETNIČKE VREDNOSTI

The aim of the research was to examine whether the perceived artistic value of the paintings can be predicted by perfectionism and awe, as well as with the modes of aesthetic processing (H - harmony and R - redundancy). The convenience sample was used and it consisted of 92 respondents (Nmale = 10, Nfemale = 82), with average age of 24.65 years (SD = 6.89). Following instruments were used: Scale of Positive and Negative Perfectionism, Awe Experience Scale and semantic differential scales used to assess harmony, redundancy and distance, as well as the perceived artistic value. Stimuli were paintings from nine artistic movements: Renaissance, Romanticism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Post-impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Abstract Art and Surrealism. For each of these movements three paintings of one most prominent representative were chosen (omitting the most famous pieces) in order for the quality of artwork to be uniform. Hierarchical linear regression was used for data analysis. Predictors in the first step were modes of aesthetic processing (H and R), perfectionism in the second step, and subscales of awe were added in the third step. The criterion is artistic value. The model composed of H and R explains 26% of the total variance of artistic value (p < .01). The suscales of perfectionism and awe do not make a significant contribution to prediction. A statistically significant single predictor is R, redundancy (β = .39, t = 2.59, p = .01). The potential existence of mediation was also examined; however, the results of the analysis indicate that there is no statistically significant mediator effect. Keywords: perfectionism, awe, modes of aesthetic processing, Harmony, Redundancy

The Contribution of Visual Area V5 to the Perception of Implied Motion in Art and Its Appreciation

Does V5, a brain region involved in the perception of movement, contribute to the aesthetic appreciation of artworks that depict movement? In the study under discussion, the authors asked participants to view abstract and representational artworks depicting motion. While they judged the sense of motion conveyed by the artworks and how much they liked them, the authors delivered transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over V5. They found that TMS over V5 reduced the sense of motion participants perceived and reduced how much participants liked the abstract paintings. These results show, first, that V5 is involved in extracting implied motion information even when the object whose motion is implied is not real. Second, they show that V5 is involved in extracting implied motion information even in the absence of any object, as in the abstract paintings. Finally, they show that activity in V5 plays a causal role in the appreciation of abstract art.

Is Artistic Composition in Abstract Art Detected Automatically?

Most artists who create abstract paintings place the pictorial elements not at random, but arrange them intentionally in a specific artistic composition. This arrangement results in a pattern of image properties that differs from image versions in which the same pictorial elements are randomly shuffled. In the article under discussion, the original abstract paintings of the author’s image set were rated as more ordered and harmonious but less interesting than their shuffled counterparts. The authors tested whether the human brain distinguishes between these original and shuffled images by recording electrical brain activity in a particular paradigm that evokes a so-called visual mismatch negativity. The results revealed that the brain detects the differences between the two types of images fast and automatically. These findings are in line with models that postulate a significant role of early (low-level) perceptual processing of formal image properties in aesthetic evaluations.

Aesthetic Liking Is Not Only Driven by Object Properties, but Also by Your Expectations

Aesthetic liking has traditionally been thought to be caused by specific object properties: symmetry, curvature, etc. One of the great insights of neuroaesthetics is the realization that expectations play almost as great a role in shaping liking responses. For example, by prefacing exposure to an artwork with information about its provenance it is possible to enhance or decrease liking. The article under discussion summarizes the results from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study where people were scanned as they rated abstract art they either believed belonged to a prestigious art gallery or to have been created by the experimenters.

Perceptual Organisation Affects Perception and Appreciation of Abstract Art: A Case Study with Black Square and Red Square by Kazimir Malevich

Perceptual organisation is hypothesised as a key in the perception and appreciation of abstract art. Here, we investigated how relational and compositional features affected the perception and aesthetic appreciation of Black Square and Red Square by Kazimir Malevich (1915). We studied how (i) the presence and obliquity of the red square and (ii) the relative configuration of the black and red square affected the detectability of the obliquity of the black square in this artwork. Results showed that the simultaneous presence and obliquity of the red square masked the obliquity of the original black square. The likelihood of the black square being incorrectly perceived as an exact square was always maximum in the original configuration and even slight alterations in the original configuration of the work resulted in the obliquity of the black square to be noticed. The original artwork was more aesthetically preferred compared to its alternatives. We argue that the artist may have intentionally set the configuration to mask the obliquity of the black square and maximise the aesthetic preference.

Deception and Reception in the Commemorative Landscape of Newcastle, Australia, 1970 to 2020

Contemporary reception of colonial monuments in Australia is informed by global debate on race, memory and representation in public space, typified in the decolonial and anti-racist movements Rhodes Must Fall and Black Lives Matter. While art historians and anti-colonial iconoclasts alike easily conceive of statues as objects for critique, non-figurative sculpture is no less effective when deployed as an ideological tool. Given the typically progressive politics of twentieth-century abstractionists, this study asks how comfortable these artists are with the nation-building function often ascribed to their work by political elites. Through a thematic survey of the commemorative landscape of Newcastle, NSW, this article describes a city punctuated by patriotic references to war, colonialism, and Indigenous absence, exemplified in modernist sculptor Margel Hinder’s (1906–1995) *Civic Park Fountain* (1966). Recounting its relaunch in 1970 as a memorial to Captain James Cook and its vandalism in 2020, the article examines changes in public reception of the fountain, from hostility towards abstract art and government spending to outrage at colonial symbols. Archival reconstruction of Hinder’s responses to local government demonstrates her silence on the fountain’s assimilation to colonial celebration. When contrasted with Hinder’s activities as a lobbyist and camouflage designer, this finding reveals a complex political biography. Without ignoring Hinder’s concern for Aboriginal rights, her attitude towards the instrumentalisation of her work is at best ambivalent. Beyond challenging the apolitical readings of Hinder’s work in existing scholarship, this study provides a key example of the ideological malleability of abstract public art. By producing “empty” signifiers to then “fill” with meaning, abstract sculptors and administrators together help to shape the semiotic and racial topography of urban space.