Modern Abstract Art

When we design a room, or a home, we often talk about “feeling”.  The way a room, or a living space, feels:  its tone, its timbre and its atmosphere.  Furniture plays a large part in this – the shape, colour and material of a room’s sofas and chairs dictate its purpose, as relaxing, comforting, homely or modern.  Decoration, too – the vases on the tables, the art on the walls, all add up to create the space’s raison d’etre, its overall “being”.  Some art, in this kind of space, is very directional, “pointing” an inhabitant towards a particular feeling (put a giant reproduction of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in a room, for example, and it can’t help but be sunny).  Modern abstract art works differently, allowing multiple interpretations and a more fluid emotion into a room.

Modern abstract art is a home designer’s dream.  Unlike representational art, which directs a viewer’s response by presenting a definite object or scene, modern abstract art triggers vague sensational responses.  Nostalgia, peace, vibrancy:  inchoate feelings that are allowed much broader interpretation than, say, the obvious fear intended by one of Brueghel’s depictions of the mouth of Hell.  Because of this, the same piece of modern abstract art can elicit different responses from different people, which means it can “work” across multiple rooms with hundreds of different “feelings”.

Example:  put a piece of modern abstract art, mostly coloured red, in a plush room decorated in reds and purples.  The modern abstract art, in this case, serves mostly as a swatch tying the disparate shades of the room into a unified whole.  Put the same piece of modern abstract art in a room whose shades are pale and light (yellows and whites, say), and it becomes a visual shock:  a centrepiece, a deliberate departure from the overall tone of the rest of the room.  Representational art can’t do that:  Van Gogh’s Sunflowers are Van Gogh’s Sunflowers whether they are in a yellow room or a black one.  Modern abstract art, with its indeterminate “primal” colouring and undefined shapes, changes its meaning as its setting varies.

The uniquely non-representational nature of modern abstract art allows an interior designer to incorporate it into a room’s design much more thoroughly than a “normal” painting.  When a person creates a living space, he or she might say “I’d like something like X to fill this space” – X being an indeterminate, yet-to-be-found image that goes with the rest of the room –:  finding a representational picture to fit the bill is almost impossible.  It’s more common to fit a room around a representational piece of art (so, for example, you’d build a room in which to house Sunflowers) than it is to find a piece of representational art to fit a room.  Modern abstract art, on the other hand, can be specified in advance.  Build a warm-toned room and you’ll be able to say that you want “this kind” of picture:  modern abstract art is perfect, because it can be classified in tones, sizes and shapes. 

It’s worth considering.  Why spend years looking for the perfect image, when modern abstract art can invest any room with the perfect feel?