The latent profundity of abstract art
Karachi: Abstract art uses a visual language of form or colour to create a composition which may exists with a degree of independence from visual references. Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance colour and form in ways that are conspicuous, could be said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no traces of reference to anything that could said to be recognizable.
Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in the depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation could be partial or total.
What we call abstract art goes way beyond what is seen. It is really contemplative work where the artist empties out his feelings. You empty out what is inside you. You determine as to what your place, your location is in respect of, say, a mere dot in a painting. In a very subtle way, it is supposed to represent feelings, turmoil. It is not mere shading. It goes much beyond that and is deliberately contemplative.
One such exhibition is currently running at the city’s Koel Art Gallery. The show, which began on Thursday, runs up until December 8. It is an exhibition of abstract paintings by Ayessha Quraishi, titled, “Letters from an underground vein read”. It is a graphically strong work, a peculiar trend in contemporary art. So far as the content is concerned, in the words of the artist, it is “Letters from an underground vein read”.
The show is based on 44 paintings, mere shades of black, grey, and white blending into each other, no images, no recognizable forms, just shading. This is just Latin to a connosieur of conventional art but a little contemplation and one does make head or tail of it.
All that is required on the part of the viewer is a superlatively fertile imagination. That is an indispensable ingredient. In this case, these shades of black, grey, and white could be said to be letters, reflective of one’s innermost feelings. Actually, each painting is supposed to represent a letter. The paintings are oil on paper, acrylic on paper, and acrylic on timber.
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