The metamorphosis of pictorial space (as experienced in a painting practice)

Abstract

This practical and written research investigates abstract painting and its intrinsic relationship to pictorial space throughout the course of Modern Art. Influenced by the spatial and decorative qualities of Eastern art, the early Modernists made the discovery of several key concepts that culminated in twentieth century abstraction and the flattening of picture plane. Ambiguities between figure and field, depth and flatness, abstraction and representation continue to be ripe for exploration within painting and this research charts the development of several pictorial devices and how they began to metamorphose in practice. A context is provided for the ways in which painting procedures may instigate doubt, uncertainty and ambiguity; and how materials can have implications for a painting’s facture and imagery. There is often a refusal within contemporary abstraction to pin-point specific sources and a preference for imagery that evolves through an iterative process without pre-conception, naming and categorisation. Painting, in this case, begins as being about something and moves towards the consideration of painting as something. Many contemporary commentators on art adopt phenomenological modes of inquiry that focus on intuitive knowledge, lived-experiences and sensations rather than an objective appraisal of the image. The slowness of studio production is also a factor in gleaning of this knowledge, as the passing of time heightens awareness of the ordinary objects, textures and events that surround us. These themes are explored in tandem with the project’s own development and outcomes are evidenced in the documented paintings.