(«Cuadro abstracto No. 44» Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
I know I have talked a lot about abstract art, and I am not even an abstract artist, but there is so much to say about this vanguard art movement of the XXth Century that I had to break it up into separate segments. Well, like I said many times before, there are basically only two types of art: Figurative and Abstract. So abstract art is everything that figurative is not and figurative is everything that abstract isn’t. Right?
Wrong…
Abstract art is that art which has no resemblance whatsoever to anything pertaining to the natural world we inhabit. But it does not mean that it cannot resemble all that we can imagine exists in our world or others. Abstract art cannot have anything in the composition that resembles a figure, if it does, it is not abstract. There are many paintings which appear to be abstract and perhaps confuse many people into thinking they are abstract but they are just figurative paintings that are stylised, surreal, expressionistic or whatever the artist wanted to do with them, but as long as they have a figure or something akin to one, they are not abstract.
Now, for today I just wanted to add that for me, as well as for many other figurative painters, abstract art has taught me how to create figurative art in a much wider fashion. It has taught me how to appreciate the great figurative masters of art history. If you stand before a masterpiece by El Greco, Velázquez, Van Gogh, Rembrandt or any other, you will see, sometimes hidden, but mostly openly, in their compositions a lot of abstract art.
Take a look. Look at the backgrounds. Look at the way some of the clothing is created. Look at the parts that are not figurative and you will see so much abstract art that if they would just take that out and create a new painting, they would have invented abstract art in the XVIIth Century.
(«The Traveller» original acrylic on glass by FBC/Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia/All Rights Reserved)
Wassily Kandinsky, even though we now know that he was not the inventor of abstract art, we do understand that he was one of the first, together with Piet Mondrian, to theorise about this art form. Abstract art was one of the art vanguards of the XXth Century. It was, or is, I would say, the most successful one.
In any event here is what Kandinsky had to say:
«Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.»
«The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural… The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white.«
«Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated.«
I think this last quote is a very interesting and important one for artists, and generally for lovers of art. Art is and has to be a child of its age. All art is at one time contemporary and it must reflect the reality of that age, the thinking and the styles common to that age. After all this the age wherein the artist lives, and where he understands better the feelings, emotions and the events that transpire and make history. Copying from another age might lead to technical perfection but without soul. The soul, the true spirit of art which renders it eternal comes from it being a child of its age, as Kandinsky so well said.
Of course there have been many other artists in art history who have theorised about art, abstract art as well. Let us see what Mark Rothko had to say:
«We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless.»
«Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness.«
«I insist upon the equal existence of the world engendered in the mind and the world engendered by God outside of it. If I have faltered in the use of familiar objects, it is because I refuse to mutilate their appearance for the sake of an action which they are too old to serve, or for which perhaps they had never been intended. I quarrel with surrealists and abstract art only as one quarrels with his father and mother; recognizing the inevitability and function of my roots, but insistent upon my dissent; I, being both they and an integral completely independent of them.»
In this last quote Rothko, a very spiritual artist indeed, speaks of surrealism and abstract art as being the «father and mother» of his work. Rothko traversed many types of art until he finally settled upon abstract. In his abstract art, huge canvases of colour, only colour, he placed all his philosophy, intention, theories and spirituality. And they are good. And as he himself said, «There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing.»
I am not an abstract artist, however, I do study the style, the genre and I find it to be very difficult indeed. Abstract art is not splashing paint on canvas, or anything else and then calling it a painting. Mark Rothko also enumerated, in 1958, what is necessary in a painting:
«There must be a clear preoccupation with death—intimations of mortality … Tragic art, romantic art, etc., deals with the knowledge of death. Sensuality. Our basis of being concrete about the world. It is a lustful relationship with things that exist. Tension. Either conflict or curbed desire. Irony, This is a modern ingredient—the self-effacement and examination by which a man for an instant can go on to something else. Wit and play … for the human element. The ephemeral and chance … for the human element. Hope. 10% to make the tragic concept more endurable. I measure these ingredients very carefully when I paint a picture. It is always the form that follows these elements and the picture results from the proportions of these elements.«
To create an abstract painting one must face the same problems as one would in painting a figurative one. There are issues of technique, form, style, composition, colour, size, et cetera et cetera et cetera… Art is not intuitive. It is a philosophical process that must be developed, cooked over a slow fire and allowed to simmer, then cool before spreading it on a surface.
(Foto de un atardecer en Miami, mirando desde Miami Beach hacia el oeste/de Francisco Bravo Cabrera/Derechos Reservados)
En Miami me empapé de la cultura de Cuba, de la verdadera Cuba, la española, la libre, la prospera, la que construyó un país que en la década de los años 50 tenía una economía igual a la de Italia y muy superior a la española. Un país que tenía una capital, La Habana, que fue considerada entre las cinco ciudades más bellas del mundo…
En Miami los cubanos hicieron todo lo que en Cuba el régimen le negaba a sus súbditos. Progresaron, crecieron, hicieron de un pueblo de campo una megalópolis internacional que hoy es una de las ciudades más grandes de EEUU y un hub internacional para deportes, cultura, política y economía. Eso es Miami…
Pero mi Miami fueron los recuerdos del Colegio Belén de los Jesuitas (claro, todos españoles) y de la buena gente que me hicieron sentir como en casa, o mejor. De criarme en Coral Gables y en Miami Beach, de estudiar, de hacer arte, de casarme, tener hijos, de vivir con aquellos iguales a mí que querían lo mismo, que amaban a su patria pero que sabían que la patria que anhelaban ya no existía…
Por esto, y por mucho mas, digo, junto a Willy Chirino (ese gran orgullo de Miami): “Yo Soy Cubano.”
(Image property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
You can get «Jazzy Scandals,» as seen above is in the form of a Framed Print, a Fine Art Print created for my artwork only through Fine Art America. Follow this link to my gallery at Fine Art America and support original art.
(«Sonitus» by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
«Sonitus» is the Latin term from which Spanish gets «sonido» and English «sounds»… It is a very important aspect of our life as our life exists in the light and in the dark in silence and in sounds. The preponderance of sounds create the interpretation we make of our world. Sounds exist everywhere in our Earth, even far down in the depths of the seas… Without sounds how would we know we could dance, sing, or play an instrument?
This new painting is now available through my agent: «By Guloshka» (Instagram @guloshka).
(Surreal-Expressionist JaZzArT by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)
Durante varios años, cuando Omnia Caelum Studios todavía estaba en la ciudad de Miami, Florida (EE. UU.), creé una gran colección de dibujos con grafito y tinta todos sobre el tema y la temática del Jazz tal como se puede aplicar al arte. Los llamé, naturalmente, «JaZzArT» y los dibujé a mi estilo único surrealista-expresionista, que es una forma de pintar, y de dibujar, que he desarrollado para crear una composición surrealista con elementos expresionistas. En este caso se refieren a músicos de Jazz y conjuntos…
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During several years, back when Omnia Caelum Studios was in the city of Miami, Florida (US), I created a huge collection of graphite and ink drawings all on the subject, and theme, of Jazz as it can be applied to art. I called them, naturally, «JaZzArT» and I did them in my unique surreal-expressionist style. A way of painting and drawing that I have developed to create a surreal composition with expressionist elements. In this case they refer to Jazz musicians and combos…
Today my friends, someone who I greatly admire, a fellow poet, Joni Caggiano, and wonderful friend, is releasing her poetry book «One Petal at a Time» and you can find it on Amazon! Joni is a phenomenal poet and I have had the extreme pleasure, and honour, of having been invited to participate in the book by creating the cover and providing art for its different sections. This is an incredible book, and the poetry is ripped right from the author’s soul. Joni’s aim is to reach all those who suffer and who have had a childhood in a dysfunctional family mired by alcohol abuse and unhappiness. The book is endorsed by Dr. Claudia Black, PhD, among other professionals in the field.
God bless you Joni and Scott and we all know this is going to be a smashing success! Cheers my friends!
JaZzArt en València 