In order to keep up with the pace of life while being imprisoned by this de trop pandemic, building a chasm between the new air of weariness and our zippy old lifestyle had become very crucial. Before boredom could take over our sane minds, we came up with a list of to-dos to add impetus to our lives, avoid stagnation and escape constancy.
After scratching off our first to-do which was to stop being minimalist in this lockdown, we were ready for our next task – To redecorate our house. Oh! What a mess we made…. Curtains were pulled down, drawers were out, books scattered, couch upside down, cushions piled up. Well, in our defense, before every pleasing immaculateness there once existed an eyesore untidiness.
While cramming old bills in a dusty jar, I immediately came in confrontation with an empty wall that loomed over me as if it appeared to have come to existence out of nowhere. I took a quick coffee break and sat there staring at this plain wall which for sure was pleading to be noticed. The screams from the mess begging for orderliness was not as loud as the one from this wall. And that’s when I decided to abandon the redecoration and started browsing, for the first time in my life, to get a suitable painting for my lonely wall.
Things got interesting when I started scrolling through the galleries. I came across one the biggest battles that is ON in the art world. Battle between Abstract Art and Classic Art. I quickly pored over a few articles by renowned artists who do not believe abstract art to be a real art. Well why should they? Here they are with their portfolio where every oil piece is revered in their heart to be their own personal masterpiece. While it certainly carries the investment of their emotions and their efforts, it's not unusual if they are confused when they see a canvas that just has few splashes and some random strokes placed beside their work. It's obvious in any viewers eyes that there could never be a comparison of an artist who adds just three large strokes on a canvas and call it a complete work to the one who takes pain and pleasure painting the shades and selvages of fabrics, not missing out the minute details between every crinkle of eyes and every trickle of tears, who creates an air of homeliness on canvas by adding life to every inanimate objects like straws of wicker baskets or folds of cozy blankets.
Now let’s say there are three 4-year-old kids in 3 different corners of the world, standing in front of a blank canvas and some cans of paints. They open the cans and start spilling the paint all over the canvas. At this point no one can be sure if the kid is a prodigy and is intending to make something beautiful which got turned into a mess (coz of their untrained chubby clumsy cute hands) or if the kid wanted to just explore things unsure and created a mess.
Now if the Dads walks in let’s examine their different reactions-
Dad 1: “Oh! What a beautiful art you have made!” and joins the kid in sploosh-splash of paint.
Dad 2: “Oh! What a mess you have made!” and cleans the sploosh-splash.
Dad 3: “Oh! So, you love art! Let me get you some brushes” and corrects the sploosh-splash.
Surely the first kid is encouraged to continue the spilling and splashing, the second might never come near a canvas and the third is forced to use his imagination and create a real artwork. Now in the tender age of this new generation if a sploosh-splash is being called an art in front of them, they are encouraged to continue the spilling and they try to find beauty in mess. What a pity, they are being snatched away from knowing what a real art is and before they try a hand at it, their mess is being sold for millions of dollars and then people like me end up being disappointed every time we look for some exciting pieces in the abstract category. I wonder why they did not create a new category for these kind of pieces.
The truth is, a splash, a dot, a bunch of cubes, patch works, are just an experimentation or you can also call it a way of engaging yourself in something that only you can understand. Like some sort of mental exercise or a healing exercise. But that cannot be categorized under abstract. This category is being misused, a bunch of mess is being added to it and a viewer is criticized when he is unable to infer a meaning out of nonsense.
Everyone has liberty to depict their feelings on canvases or use art as a way to tap your unconscious. But if you want whatever you have created for your own engagement to come out in public's eye then the box you have chosen to dump your pieces actually does not specify the assumptions you made about independent art. Your work definitely do not qualify under Classicism or figurativism, you know that, and since you do not find a third box, you choose to corrupt the real specifications of abstract box and have an advocate argument backing up with some unmatched, confusing title to your work and somehow find a place in art world. Well, Surrealism can be illogical. But wouldn't it be good if it really encrypted an interesting meaning inside it which invite the predictions of others as well? Rather than that being your own personal depiction whose decryption key is impossible to access by others.
The real abstract work involves efforts. Also Hyperrealism and automatism need not be mutually exclusive (in fact it would turn out to be mind blowing). There is independence for an artist to use novel styles as this Abstract category promises which is also a key sale factor for buyers to expect something interesting in this category. But they end up being shocked (inside) and still decide to keep quiet or sometimes say something rather than nothing for they do not want anyone to criticize their deducting abilities. And sometimes, after hours of staring they might also end up convincing themselves that the splash of something on that canvas (could be a paint, a coffee, or a poop) is something beautiful and they buy it to make their choice meaningful.
Sure, there are some millionaires who really fall in love with a sploosh-splash. But why? And how? To understand this obvious question, we might have to investigate the grand collections of these millionaires. You will find halls and halls, walls and walls of classic works which sit in a familiar lonely air of boredom and another piece of classic will just be another piece, just a reward of more pie in a pie eating contest. Those halls and walls need fresh air. So evidently, a dot, a bunch of lines, a splash is a fresh air that will at least induce ‘confusion’ to the viewers who are ‘bored of being in awe’ after appreciating the rest of the masterpieces. But, look at me… I am not that millionaire and for sure I do not own a big private collection. I rarely decide to buy a painting and for that I look for a real, beautiful artwork. No, I don’t want the only piece of art sitting in my living room to be some meaningless splash of poop. Unfortunately, there are still some people who tend to copy millionaires without giving a thought and spend their hard-earned money for something that the artist himself didn’t care to invest more effort, emotions or imaginations. I continued redecorating my house, moved my couch facing away from the wall and towards the scenic balcony. Now my view is filled with pigeons, their treasured sticks and an ice-cream stall. Well.....if there is an empty pocket, there remains an empty wall. ☹
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