RAGE THE NIGHT: Let's talk about how you're using the word "Abstract" wrong

If you're anything like me, you've probably been operating on the incorrect assumption for a very long time that abstract art means art that doesn't look like anything at all. Unfortunately, this is tragic result of a confluence of events and definitions occurring at the New York school of art in the middle part of the 20th century.

This piece of art, (the big pink one) by Barbara Howell,
which I have hanging on my own wall, is not abstract.

Jackson Pollock is not an Abstract artist. He is an Abstract Expressionist.

First off, let me try to explain what Abstracting actually means.

To abstract something means that you are PULLING AWAY from the image in front of you, to give a more vague interpretation of the thing.

LET ME TELL YOU

WHAT WE MEAN

BY ABSTRACT:

Original

Representational

Abstract

When something becomes Abstracted, it means that it has become simplified in its form. It still presents mostly as the thing that you were originally observing, but the game is to see how far you might be able to abstract a thing before it becomes unrecognizable.

To create an Abstract work of art - you need it to be something. It does not always have to look like that thing, but it still has to have the original INTENT of being a thing.

If a painting was never made to look like anything at all,
then it is called Nonrepresentational. Salvadore Dali made a lot of these.

AND ALONG CAME THE FUCKING NEW YORK SCHOOL AND SCREWED THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Now that we know what "Abstract" actually means - we can delve a little bit deeper into what the fuck "Abstract Expressionism" means, and why you should ALWAYS use the full title when referring to Jackson Pollock.

Here he is, that interesting fellow called Pollock. Very famous picture right here. The art that he is creating is called Abstract Expressionism.

Why can't you call it Abstract?

Because there's nothing in it but feelings. This is not a painting of a chair, or a lamp, or a pear, or a vamp - it is an idea, a feeling, an expression.

To be an Abstract Expressionist - you are ABSTRACTING AN EMOTION. ABSTRACTING A FEELING. ABSTRACTING SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE NO WORDS FOR.

Think about this: If I had merely described the images of the Canon Cameras above - you would have known relatively what I was referring to, without having to see the images.

But sometimes we just don't have the words to describe how we feel. And that is what Abstract Expressionism is.

SO. Stop using the word wrong, you fucking assholes.