ALL ABOUT ABSTRACT LANDSCAPE ARTWORK
By Kathleen Karlsen, MA
Introduction to Abstract Landscape Artwork
Landscape artwork is the most popular genre of paintings worldwide. Peopel around the globe all share the ocean, the mountains, the plains and the sky. The universal appeal of landscape artwork is a given. Since the subject is painted so often, artists often strive to give their own unique vision to a landscape they are depicting. Most abstract art actually has its roots in landscapes--the familiar horizontals of land and the verticals of trees and cliffs.
The abstract landscape artwork genre also includes seascapes and, more recently, cityscapes. The lure of the sea and the excitement of the city yield nearly infinite materials for the visual artist. Some artists make a statement about the scene they are depicting through brushstrokes and color choices. Cityscapes may depict the glories of tall buildings and the colorful streets below or they may decry the slums and filth that are invariably a part of large cities. Likewise, the sea can be a source of harmony and comfort or it can be frightening and wild.
Each of the elements in nature in art can be depicted individually as well as in a landscape or seascape to focus attention on the power of water, fire, earth, trees, the sun and moon or the cycles of the days and years. The Chinese five element philosophy holds that when we have the basic elements--water, fire, earth, metal and wood--in harmony, there will be balance in our lives and we will experience the true meaning of health. Sometimes we can help to balance our environment with nature in art by using images of a single element such as fire or water. Focusing on a single object sun as the sun or a tree can also help to reveal details we may not notice when observing a landscape as a whole. Even a single leaf or rock can be the subject of a painting.
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History of Abstract Landscape Artwork
The term landscape in Chinese comes from "shan shui" and consists of the characters for mountain and water. In the West, American landscapes have evolved significantly over the past few centuries.The earliest landscapes in colonial America were either backgrounds in portraits or rural images painted for Europeans interested in the New World. By the 1820s, the vast landscape of America had come to represent the boundless promise of America, the opportunity for prosperity and the presence of God in nature. As America became more settled, artists also depicted homey scenes of farms and rolling hills.
There are also unmistakable landscape elements in most modern art. The shimmering of aspen trees of the glitter of sun on waves are elements that fascinate and attract us in both realism and abstraction. Abstract landscape artwork can use natural elements with imaginative colors to give a fresh new interpretation to an age old theme: the beauty of the world around us.
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The Healing Power of Landscape Art
More recently, images of landscapes have been the focus of a number of studies (Ulrich, Simons and Honeyman, 1979,1986, 1987) that have demonstrated that nature scenes reduce negative emotions such as fear, anger and sadness. Views of nature also produce positive physiological effects such as reducing muscle tension and blood pressure. Studies that track brain activity suggest that more alpha frequency brain activity (wakeful relaxation) occurs during nature exposures.
Research in hospitals has shown that landscape and nature images reduce the need for pain medication and increase recovery rates for patients. Other studies of individuals in confined settings such as students, prisoners and those in high stress work environments indicate the same positive effects from views of nature, whether these are actual views through windows or artistic images of nature.
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Symbolism in Abstract Landscape Artwork
Symbolic art is a universal cultural phenomenon. The symbolic significance that man assigns to external objects may reflect more about him than about objective reality. Ultimately all visual objects can have symbolic significance. Symbolic abstract landscape artwork can remind the viewer of resolutions or goals, inspire particular feelings and emotions, and harmonize attitudes and relationships. Carl Jung writes in Man and His Symbols, "The history of symbolism shows that everything can assume symbolic significance.... In fact, the whole cosmos is a potential symbol."
The meaning of symbolic imagery in abstract landscape artwork may depend on the age and gender of the viewer as well as the cultural context. Abstract landscape artwork can be chosen based on its symbolic significance with the intention of invoking particular feelings or emotions in the viewer. Abstract landscape artwork can also be chosen to remind the viewer of resolutions or goals.
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Abstract Landscape Artwork Symbols: Sun & Moon
Landscape symbolism is probably the most universal visual language in art. The symbolic meaning of abstract landscape artwork is related to the natural elements present in the scene depicted. The sun or circle is the most basic symbol in existence. For example, the sun is the source of warmth and life. Plato viewed the sun as symbolic of the psyche. The colors associated with the sun are yellow and gold. The sun is the masculine principle and is related to time. Many religions have used the image of the sun as a symbol of spiritual illumination and wholeness. Other cultures view the sun as a symbol of the masculine principle or God Himself.
The moon is usually represented in abstract landscape artwork as less than full and is symbolic of the hidden aspects of life. The moon also has sinister connotations and is related to the unconscious dream world. The colors associated with the moon are yellow and silver. The moon is often associated with the feminine prinicple.
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Abstract Landscape Artwork Symbols: Water & Earth
Water is also a significant element in abstract landscape artwork. Water has always been symbolic of the highest good in life and the source of life. Agricultural people have worshipped water in the form of rivers, clouds, mist and rain. In the West, water is symbolized by the colors blue, teal and aqua. In the East, the colors black and navy blue symbolize water.
The earth is symbolic of physical matter and the body. The earth is feminine, as in Mother Earth and Mother Nature. The colors associated with the earth are brown, green and other earth tones such as rust, sienna and umber.Similarly, mountains, rocks, trees and flowers all have symbolic meaning.
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Abstract Landscape Artwork Symbols: Mountains & Trees
Other specific elements associated with abstract landscape artwork are mountains (symbols of strength and inspiration), rocks (symbols of safety, protection and refuge) and trees (symbols of strength and courage). Nature scenes including trees and forests contain multiple mythic and symbolic qualities. The deep-rooted meaning of trees is apparent in common metaphors such as the Tree of Life and our ancestral heritage depicted in family trees. In Vedic philosophy, wood is viewed as the primal material of the universe. Christians see Christ as the cosmic carpenter and His ultimate sacrifice is represented by a wooden cross.
Specific trees in abstract landscape artwork also have their own meanings. The oak is the mightiest of trees and symbolizes strength and courage. The ancient Romans thought oak trees attracted lightening and connected the oak tree to the sky god, Jupiter and his wife, Juno, the goddess of marriage. Thus, the oak is used in abstract landscape artwork as a symbol of conjugal fidelity and fulfillment. The oak tree was regarded by Socrates as an oracle tree. The Druids likewise ate acorns in preparation for prophesying. In addition, the Druids believed the leaves of the oak tree had the power to heal and renew strength. Learn more about tree symbolism in our Pictures of Trees article.
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Abstract Landscape Artwork Symbols: Geometry & Colors
Other images replete with symbolic meaning in abstract landscape artwork include geometric forms and colors. More sophisticated levels of symbology are inherent in most traditional religious works and icons. Understanding artistic symbolism can deepen your experience of the visual world and greatly enhance your enjoyment of art. When it comes to decorating your home or office, the ongoing popularity and proliferation of abstract landscape artwork gives you virtually unlimited choices for decorating your home or office. Learn more about geometry and color in abstract landscape artwork in the article on cityscapes below.
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Cityscapes in Abstract Landscape Artwork
For many modern artists, one of the most potent symbols of man's dislocation and separation from nature is the cityscape. For others, the cityscape symbolizes man's new freedom from the drudgery of agriculture. By the 1930s and 1940s, images of the cityscape had begun to replace landscape art. Additionally, the view from the airplane, or from the Eiffel Tower, or from any of the growing number of skyscrapers around the world, had revealed a flat, patterned cityscape where recession, depth and naturalistic perspective had once reigned supreme.
The slums and wretched conditions were a part of virtually every cityscape and had inspired a new generation of architects to search for ways of building and a means of town planning which they believed would bring about positive social change. The machine was here to stay, and eventually individual artists as well as the influential and socially committed Bauhaus art school proclaimed their positive attitudes towards man's new cityscape environment filled with both vehicles and machines.
Technology had also created new materials for the architect of the cityscape including steel, concrete and sheet glass, which would result in drastically different designs for public buildings and private homes and grant the much sought-after freedom from the past. Perhaps the anti-individualistic aspects of machine-produced objects could prove to be beneficial rather than harmful. After all, the collective individualism of national pride had resulted in a catastrophic war. A universal, supranational and anti-individualistic style for the new cityscape might help to unite man in a utopian brotherhood.
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Materials of the Modern Age
The materials of the modern age and the new cityscape style went hand-in-hand. Steel frames provided a modular grid which gave an almost unlimited verticality to the new architecture. Reinforced concrete allowed for expressive forms, and sheet glass permitted the creation of pure reflecting prisms described around the world in mystical terms.
The lack of ornamentation in prefabricated designs played a major role in the formation of an art which attempted to become a vehicle for universal values. This lack of ornamentation was further proclaimed as essential for the establishing of the newly spiritualized world order. Adolf Loos (1870-1933), ornamentation's most virulent critic, insisted that this stylistic change alone would remake society.
According to Loos' theory, the labor formerly wasted on ornamentation would be unnecessary. Less work would result in higher wages and a shorter workday. Class lines would ultimately be abolished. The simplified designs suitable for mass-production would return the machine to it's rightful place as man's servant. The cities of the world would be clean and orderly, with cityscapes built of rectangles and squares.
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Cubism and Abstract Landscape Art
The aesthetic of mechanical simplicity and right angles in architecture had a direct counterpart in the sphere of abstract landscape artwork. Piet Mondrian, a native of Holland, began his mature work with a variation of Cubism which was based on images in nature: the sea, sand dunes, the sky, and trees. Mondrian's desire to contribute to the spiritualizing of civilization grew in part from his Theosophical leanings. Like the architects of the International Style, he, too, sought the centrality and essence of an art stripped of peripherals. Beauty was not heavy and monumental like the ponderous public buildings and over-worked paintings of the past, but practical, light and ephemeral.
Mondrian's striving for spiritual clarification in his abstract landscape artwork led him to a grammar of shape based strictly on horizontals and verticals. By this means, he achieved a remarkable degree of energy and vibrancy in his art. Mondrian was not threatened by the advent of the machine. The machine had not completely dehumanized man as other artists had prophesied so emphatically. Furthermore, the cities created by industrialization, especially Mondrian's beloved New York, were not dysfunctional but dynamic and liberating.
Mondrian was part of an idealistic group of artists in the Netherlands known as De Stijl or "the style." De Stijl's creed was a combination of total abstraction, a minimum of creative terms, and restriction to the primary colors of red, yellow and blue and the non-colors of black, gray and white. Mondrian's missionary zeal for a higher level of harmony in art had taken him beyond the bounds of Cubism.
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Mondrian's Abstract Landscape Artwork
One of Mondrian's last pieces of abstract landscape artwork, "Broadway Boogie Woogie" (1942-3), a large oil on canvas, exemplifies many aspects of his masterful technique. Only the title reveals the reference to the external reality of the cityscape. Mondrian's interpretation of the New York street grid is joyful and colorful. In Mondrian's abstract landscape artwork, the loose spontaneity of other modern artists has been rarefied and ordered.
Man no longer looks at technology as an omnipotent, mystical savior. On the other hand, the dark phantom of man disfigured by his association with the machine has also vanished with the light of the new era. Man has achieved balance and creativity on a higher level. He is no longer dependent on either the natural world or the manufactured one. Mondrian's vision in his abstract landscape artwork is one of abstraction resulting in the revelation of a type of universal electricity which supersedes both organic and mechanical energy.
Mondrian's grid fills the canvas, but also contains large amounts of space and air. Perhaps the disciplined rhythm of the machine, modern life and the cityscape holds within itself an even greater freedom than the prior vicissitudinous cycles of agrarian living. The rhythm of Mondrian's abstract landscape artwork is accelerated and syncopated, but doomsday fears of life driven out of control by the frenzied pace of the machine and man numbed by repetition, monotony, and noise have not been realized. Man has has adapted to the technological environment and is alive and thriving after all.
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The Message of Abstract Landscape Artwork
Mondrian's composition in this abstract landscape artwork is balanced with almost mathematical precision. The space has now been completely flattened. Yet somehow Mondrian's rectangles and squares flash continuously with a voltage born of almost gymnastic geometry. Are the squares in "Broadway Boogie Woogie" intended as symbols of cars or buildings or sidewalks or traffic lights or flashing neon signs? No matter, man has mastered all of the various aspects of his new, technological life. Like a child confidant in a now familiar environment and his own well-developed skills, man can build the future he envisions with the colorful building blocks of his mind and imagination.
Mondrian has reduced life and abstract landscape artwork to the bare essentials. Variations on a single shape are combined with only three colors and white. He has omitted even the black and gray of other De Stijl artists. Mondrian's ability to triumph artistically in spite of these restrictions sends a clear and reassuring message of hope. Although technology has impacted culture irrefutably, the creativity and genius of man has been able to flower even within the narrowest of confines. Technology and subsequent rise of the city has neither destroyed man nor been his savior, but has instead acted as an impetus for the refinement of his ideas about life and his own nature as expressed in abstract landscape artwork.
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