STUDY TASK 6 DEVELOPMENT ESSAY QUESTION : How does abstract illustration communicate ideas to an audience? Discuss.
SEMIOTICS : To begin my project I researched into semiotic theories, reading ‘Visible Signs’ by David Crow. This gave me a fundamental understanding of how an audience may decode signs and symbols in abstract illustration. Here are some key quotes : ‘The meanings brought to the image are based on rules or conventions that the reader has learned’ , CROW, D. ‘Because conventions vary from one culture to another, it follows that the connotative effect of the conventions – the rules on how to read these images – will also vary between communities’, CROW, D. ‘Text on an image, according to Barthes, constitutes what he calls a parasitic message, designed to quicken the reading with additional signifieds’, CROW, D. ‘So much meaning comes from convention that signs with little convention need to be very iconic in order to communicate to a wide audience’ CROW, D.
DAVID LEMM : ‘Recently I’ve been exploring ideas relating to knowledge communication, specifically maps/diagrams, and our assumptions of truth based on abstract, symbolic representations of reality’ DAVID LEMM David Lemm’s illustrations links to the semiotic theories I have been researching – specifically in how people understand signs through learned conventions we gain based on our background and culture. His work exemplifies how this can be used in illustration and design to communicate more complex/abstract ideas.
SCOTT McCLOUD :
‘By stripping down an image to its essential ‘meaning’, an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t’ SCOTT McCLOUD
I have been reading Chapter two of Scott McCloud’s ‘Understanding Comics’ as it gives a different insight into semiotics and the simplification/abstraction of image in comics, which can be applied to contemporary illustration practices.
CHRISTOPHER NIEMANN :
‘Abstraction, for me, is this idea of getting rid of everything that is not essential to making a point’, CHRISTOPHER NIEMANN. I started to watch a Netflix series focusing on abstraction, each episode being a kind of interview with highly successful people in different areas of the creative industries - the first episode being about illustrator Christopher Niemann. He gave some interesting insight into what abstraction means to him when making of images and talked about he works with lego to play with the process of simplification, reducing key New York icons (where he lives) down to their most simple forms.
MONDRIAN : I watched a video on the Tate website of Mondrian’s work being discussed by co-curator Michael White. I found it really interesting how he tried to eliminate the evident relationship between colour and form in order to achieve a pure form of abstraction.
“It’s a really interesting question he’s posing himself here is that, can you use colour just as itself and not to stand for anything else? If you made yellow into a circle immediately people start making associations with the sun or something like that. So, he decides that the only way forward is to paint in areas of perpendicular relationships” MICHAEL WHITE
MATISSE :
‘When I put green, it is not grass. When I put blue a blue, it is not the sky’, MATISSE. Matisse also speaks of navigating around this relationship between colour and form in his work. Colour was one of the key aspects of his practice, being the main artist in the fauvism movement – which I would like to research into more…
NICOLAS BURROWS :
I think the work of Nicolas Burrows, particularly his zine ‘How it is…’, exemplifies the importance of colour and form in relation to each other when communicating ideas in illustration or design. Although we do have to consider the aid of the text in communicating the meaning of these images.
IDEAS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH : I need to find some different avenues of research. My essay being about abstract illustration, I think looking into other art practices would help me draw links between how ideas/concept are communicated in other forms abstract art and contemporary illustration. • • • • • • •
Impressionism Fauvism Cubism Abstract Expressionism Constructivism Futurism Surrealism
IDEAS FOR VISUAL RESPONSE: :
are some initial ideas I had for my visual response, based on my research These and understanding of the subject up to date. Investigate the relationship between colour and form – repeat the same form in different colours to see how this influences communication. Simplify and reduce subjects down to their simplest form in order to evaluate how much information is needed to communicate their meaning.