Anarchy to Abstraction

How to Produce an Abstract Image II - From Anarchy to Abstraction
By Tim Seaward

I want to go into a little more detail of the different ways you can approach the enigmatic task of producing an abstract.

In this article we will look at the Anarchist and the Abstractist.

If you have an anarchistic attitude within you then abstract art is for you. You will never run out of ideas - in fact even if you had NO ideas then your temperament alone would find a most fundermental mood swing or dark (and maybe on more rarer occasions - light) moment to enrap you within its aggressive drama and painful colours. Willem de Kooning's "Gotham News" is a good example of anarchistic abstraction - just look at this: www.albrightknox.org/ ArtStart/sKooning.html. Wild movement mixed with such vigorous aggression. Anarchists tend to be wildly demonstrative in their approach to ... everything! They have the potential to be able to utilize almost anything at hand that might provide them with contradictory ideas and totally original materials.

However, there is a big "down" side to what might be seen as the almost perfect abstract artist. An Anarchistic attitude tends to come from a tremendous sense of lacking in many areas. So things like confidence can be a very fearful barrier to the power of a creative flow. Therefore I believe that by working on some of the practical ideas written below obstacles like shyness and fear can slowly be weakened until finally the real artist begins to rise out from the depths of darkness or light in an increasingly "louder" manner.