Abstract Realism – what is it?

Abstract Realism – what is it?

Abstract Realism can best be explained as Realistic art as in what you can see; similar to photography, meets Abstract art which exists through shapes, colours, textures and line form. How much of each type of art you see in each abstract realism artist work depends on the individual artist. It is their choice. Of course, the viewer can also decide how much abstraction they see in the painting.  Therefore, when these two methods of painting, realistic and abstract art are combined to create an abstract impression, the result is abstract realism. In the paintings shown here you can see the realistic elements – the impression of flowers and grass but the imagination can also comprehend the abstract elements as well. The realistic shapes and colours of the grass and flowers tells my brain I am viewing an outdoor scene but my imagination is also capable of viewing the other aspects of abstraction in for example, the sky and know it is the sky! In addition, the ability of an abstract realism painting to extract emotions upon viewing the painting is important. The story it can tell. 

Abstract Realism – the start

In my view, Abstract realism started in the late 1800s when artists turned away from accurately depicting scenes to develop more imaginary paintings. Several artists at the time could be mentioned by I am going to give Vincent Van Gogh as an example. His series of paintings completed in 1889, in which he painted olive trees along with The Starry Night could be regarded as abstract realism. The abstract like sky together with the realism of the olive trees could arguably be classed as the beginning of abstract realism. Although many experts will use this series as examples of Spiritualism etc. There is no doubt that there was a lot going on in the art world around the late 19th century and early 20th. Abstract impressionism is somewhat similar to abstract realism and other themes of Surrealism began to develop. Therefore, Abstract realism can also be traced to Surrealism as well through the artwork of  Salvador Dali and Henri Rousseau who was a French Post-Impressionist.

Abstract Realism Landscape paintings

In the painting shown above, there are aspects of abstraction as in the sea and sky as well as realism shown with the impression of wild flowers. The sky does not look like any sky you will see on any given day but we know it is the sky because it’s where the sky should be in a landscape type of painting. It’s the same with the sea. It is blue, like we always associate the sea to be that colour. There has been no attempt to show waves, crests etc.  The beach is where you would expect a beach to be and again no attempt to make it realistic. But the viewer knows it’s a beach. The wild flowers change the abstract painting into an abstract realism artwork. The impression of wild flowers growing next to the shoreline begins to make this painting realistic. However, again there has been no attempt to accurately depict actual flowers. The painting has been created not to show what you would see but to appeal to your emotions and imagination of being back to a place where you felt happy and content.