Art: Techniques: Abstraction
At Home with the Glynns, Chapter 17:
“So that’s what I want to learn—you know, abstraction.”
“Abstraction,” he said. “We’ll have to have a talk about that. Come on.”
Robert Musil, “Black Magic,” in Posthumous Papers of a Living Author:
Is not art . . . a tool we employ to peel the kitsch off life? Layer by layer art strips life bare. The more abstract it gets, the more transparent the air is. Can it be that the farther it is removed from life, the clearer art becomes?
A primer, the second edition of David Anfam’s Abstract Expressionism:
See also:
Art, Play TG 5; Paint-by-Numbers TG 107, TG 108; Necessity of Transformation in TG 110; Doodling TG 165; Art Materials: Masonite TG 167; Art and Craft and Real Life TG 385; Art: Literature: Responding to: Sharing the Experience TG 367, TG 617; Conceptual TG 482; Commodification of TG 482; The Reciprocal Relationship Between the Artist and the Work TG 742; Painting: Rollers as Tools for TG 817; Subjects: Animals: Clams TG 818
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide. The Substack serialization of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed. The Substack podcast reading of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here.
You can listen to “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” complete and uninterrupted as audiobooks through YouTube.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of Little Follies, Herb ’n’ Lorna, Reservations Recommended, and Where Do You Stop? and What a Piece of Work I Am.
You’ll find overviews of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document), The Origin Story (here on substack), Between the Lines (a video, here on Substack), and at Encyclopedia.com.