Abstract Realism

•What Is Abstract Realism?

abstract realism: a threefold approach to making art. It encompasses (1) a
figurative, i.e., true to life, depiction of some image—whether photographed
or experienced; (2) non-figurative, abstract, design elements—line, form,
texture, process, etc.—in which to render that real-life image. And most
importantly (3), the ineffable gestalten experience resulting from the
counterpoint of (1) and (2).
 ABSTRACT
REALISM: 5
INTERCONNECTED
REASONS BEHIND
ITS POPULARITY
1 . T H E A B S T R A C T PA R T O F A B S T R A C T
REALISM: ALLOWING FOR AN ENDLESS
VA R I E T Y O F S T Y L E & E X P R E S S I O N
In addition to the artwork’s real-life model, the subject of an abstract realist
artwork is the way it is painted, sculpted, photographed, etc.

It's as if the mind of the artist is split into two separate tracks.

On the one hand is the accurate depiction of something—a person's face, a vase of
flowers, a mountain overlooking happy little trees, whatever.

On the other side of the artist's mind is the purpose for making the artwork in the
first place.
The artist expresses meaning via the
method in which the face or flower or
mountain is created.

These meanings are as infinite

as the methods that stand for them.
 Some Famous
Abstract
Realism Artists’
Abstraction
Styles
Andrew Salgado
combines
alternative paint
application with the
entire color wheel
at peek saturation.
Robert Delaunay’s
accurate large-scale
proportion offsets a
complete freedom of
color and edge.
Step back twenty feet

Franz Cline uses the

fewest, most basic
strokes possible for
making an accurate
face—at least from afar.
 Here
Gerhard
Richter
uses motion
to unify the
subject’s
shapes and
colors—not
a line to be
found.
 FRANK AUERBACH

GIVES UP SOME
CONTROL TO
PROCESS ART’S
U N P R E D I C TA B L E
CHAOS—PUDDLES,
SMEARS, AND A
DISTRESSED
C A N VA S .
Infinite abstract
minutiae is utilized by
co-opting natural
processes—gravity,
fluid dynamics,
chemistry.
 Chuck
Close
divides a
portrait into giant
pixels.
No need to
frame modern
portraits when
the art itself is a
frame for
hundreds of little
abstract
paintings
 2 . T H E R E A L I S M PA R T O F A B S T R A C T
REALISM: JUST AS REAL AS
HYPERREALISM
If the first track, or stream of thought, behind
an abstract realist work is some fanciful
method of creation, and likely a deeper
meaning behind that method, then the second
track is, of course, that elegantly simple
realism track. That is, while the artist devotes
half his mind to abstract expressionism, the
other half grounds the work in some aspect of
reality. It serves as a parallel anchor.
 But what some people fail to see, is that
abstract realism is often just as accurate as
any photograph or hyperrealism artwork.This
is because realistic representation
happens at different scales and by
different design elements.
For example, when seen from up close, a line or shape might
communicate some specific emotion—flowing peaceful
tranquility, or frenetic agitation, or the fall of communism in the
former Soviet Union. But after the viewer steps back, only then
can they see the exact precision of a line in relationship to all
the surrounding lines. And, given the artist, they might
perfectly match the geometry found in real life.

The next time you look at an abstract realism landscape or

portrait, squint your eyes a bit. If the artist’s realism anchor
was the subject’s large-scale ratios, the blurry version seen
while squinting will be indistinguishable from any
M Y A B S T R A C T PA I N T I N G ’ S
LARGE-SCALE GEOMETRY
SERVES AS ITS “REALISM
ANCHOR.”
BUT OTHER ARTISTS MIGHT
ALSO USE:

•PERFECT HUE AND

S AT U R AT I O N
•PERFECT EDGES AND
TEXTURE
•PERFECT SHADING (A.K.A.
VA L U E )
•MYRIAD I CAN’T THINK OF
(BUT COULD BE THE BASIS
O F S O M E G R E AT N E W
I N N O VAT I V E S T Y L E )
 3. THE TRANSCENDING
COUNTERPOINT BETWEEN #1 & #2

You walk into a gallery or living room.

When you first see the artwork from across the room, or from the
corner of your eye, it looks like a photograph.
But then you step closer.
Your mind reflexively looks deeper. What was first an accurate, yet
blurry, face is now revealed to be what looks like a satellite photo of
alien storm clouds. Or is it a maze of silicon logic gates? The
pyroclastic matrix of molecules within a cell.
It’s both the real-life face, the fantastic details, as well as some third
stranger thing.
If you simply take a look back at your own mind while observing abstract
realism paintings, photos, or sculptures, you'll find this third stream of
thought.
You’ll see a kind of counterpoint of melodies happening. The mind jumps
from one perspective, the first realism line of thought, over to the second
abstract line of thought. Back and forth. And from this interaction comes
the third thing.
It’s vertical. Like some kind of mental music, it’s not unlike the musical
harmony resulting from two or more independent melodies.
 In between a viewer's two simultaneous lines of awareness—
(1) seeing the artwork's smaller abstract pieces, and
(2) the realistic ratios between the artwork's larger forms that those
pieces make up—exists the tension between the two.

But no matter where you're from and no matter how much experience
you have looking at fine art, just being a human makes you a relative
expert. We humans are expert lookers. We look at things good. All day,
every day, every one of us are practicing the skill of looking.
Yes, some people buy art for the cognitive recreation, consciously
putting more effort into abstract pattern recognition. But even for those
who aren't, our visual lives are still the equivalent of having a Bach fugue
playing in the background during every waking moment!
 The portrait painting’s
greenscreen helps turn a
boring selfie into an
interesting self-portrait. It lets
me more fully understand the
abstract shapes and textures
I’d otherwise neglect using just
the realism-seeing part of my
mind.
 4 . T H E “ R E A L I S M PA R T ” E S C O R T S
U S T H R O U G H T H E “ A B S T R A C T PA R T ”
abstract realist visual art has it’s own built-in method of introducing
an artist's more challenging experimental ideas to audiences, even to
people who don't necessarily spend all day thinking about visual art.The
realism part is abstract realism’s built-in gentle teacher.After a work's
realism aspects capture and draw a viewer in—giving real-life starting
reference points—the work's abstract aspects then get a chance to slowly
work their magic. This chance is not so easily given to pure abstract
artworks.It takes time—years sometimes—to get used to, understand, and
enjoy any abstract artist's newly developed approach. But connections to
our shared reality help buy the abstract realism artist more time
before a viewer gives up.
 A BRUSHLESS
ABSTRACT
REALISM
APPROACH TO
CHILD-PORTRAIT
PA I N T I N G T H AT
WOULDN’T BE SO
ACCESSIBLE
WITHOUT REALITY
STEPPING IN AS A
GUIDE.
 5 . T H E C O N S O L AT I O N O F A B S T R A C T
R E A L I S M I N T H E A G E O F I N F O R M AT I O N &
SOCIAL MEDIA

We don’t own our ideas. They’re more like dust in a storm,

passing between us. You could end up being captivated by the
watercolor landscapes of some great teacher, or a visit to the
right museum at the right time might send you to Holland to
study oil portraits. But in the end, it’s hard to say whether you
had hunted down and caught your ideas, or they had claimed
you.
JUST LIKE WITH THEIR STYLE,
CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT
ARTISTS’ CHOSEN MEDIUMS
A L S O R E F L E C T T H E I R TA K E S O N
R E A L I T Y: O I L O N T O P O F T H E
GLASS—CHAOTIC AND
U N P R E D I C TA B L E ; A C R Y L I C
U N D E R N E AT H T H E G L A S S — P U R E
AND BASIC.