Question

Identify and explain three reasons that an artist would elect to present content through abstract or non-representational form, referring to a different work or artist as an example for each of the reasons you have identified.

Answer 1

There are at least 3 reasons why an artist would represent their ideas in abstract form. First, they may try to show the essential form or shape of the subject matter as in some paintings of the Group of Seven or Emily Carr in Canada in portraying snowy mountains or forests for example. Then, they may show disfigured people and horses screaming their outrage and dismay at being bombed like the painting of Guernica by Picasso to show outright rejection of the terrible bombing of Guernica in Spain by the Nazis in WWII. Also, color in an abstract painting can show the emotions of the painter such as in dark forests by Emily Carr to capture the feeling of being inside a dense forest of being closed in yet surrounded by wonderful vegetation.