The Inspiration of Abstract Expressionism on Abstract Comics
Kristin Flowers History of the Comic Strip December 2, 2009 S. Fecho
Abstract comics, to most people, are elusive in their content. Comics are usually defined by text and pictures formalized on the page, creating a sequence in which the viewer can follow what is going on in the storyline. To understand abstract comics, we must first understand what abstract is. In 1900, the world was introduced to a new way of thinking about art. Pablo Picasso showed his new style of painting, stirring up the art world with his style of figures in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Picasso took art as we knew it then and “simplified it, stripped it down to essentials, to a very few blocks, stylizing it into something that was less and less naturalistic.” He neglected the professional approach to painting and creating art to take on a unique placement of color and line. His approach to painting the figures of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was not meant to represent any particular person. Picasso, in his art, was striving to understand both sides of art: the first being “the ideal coincidence of object and representation” and the second “the complete absence of any representation value.” For this one painting, Picasso created 809 preliminary studies, obviously thoroughly considering ever detail of this painting. He explored compositional possibilities and how to abstract the figure, influenced by an African art exhibit he had seen, to get to his final composition, noted as a major breakthrough in art history. (Warncke, 68-72). After Picasso’s breakthrough, abstract art began to show up in galleries everywhere. Beginning around the 1940s, a new style and idea about art began to emerge. They were a group of artists that came to be known as Abstract Expressionists. Among this group were the artists Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Wassily Kandinsky. Their work recorded the human psyche on a large scale. Most of their work
was monumental, filling the entire line of vision of the viewer, almost as if it were encompassing the mind. Stella Paul of The Metropolitan Museum of Art states that: “These artists valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process. Their work resists stylistic categorization, but it can be clustered around two basic inclinations: an emphasis on dynamic, energetic gesture, in contrast to a reflective, cerebral focus on more open fields of color. In either case, the imagery was primarily abstract. Even when depicting images based on visual realities, the Abstract Expressionists favored a highly abstracted mode” (Paul, 1). Abstract expressionism, for the most part, was nonobjective, meaning it has no subject matter that is recognizable. This style was a response to the art that was being made at the same time: Regionalism and Social Realism. Not satisfied with these styles, the Abstract Expressionist wanted to express the world around them; which was the war and the after effects of the human mind. One part of abstract expressionism is about gesture; the way a stroke of paint is applied to a canvas, or how a pencil is grazed across the surface of paper. In one single gestural line, one can tell the speed, preciseness, and spontaneity of the artist’s intent. The actual physicality of making the art means more than the product itself. “For Abstract Expressionists, the authenticity or value of a work lay in its directness and immediacy of expression. A painting is meant to be a revelation of the artist's authentic identity. The gesture, the artist's "signature," is evidence of the actual process of the work's creation” (Paul, 1).
Jackson Pollock developed a technique using drips and pours of paint across a large canvas. In Pollock’s own words, he describes how his paintings come to be: "When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well” (“Jackson”, 1). Many may say that Pollock’s paintings are child-like and randomly thrown together. In an article by Henry Adams, of the Smithsonian Magazine writes that in Pollock’s commissioned painting Mural does indeed have a structure. His wife noticed that he camouflaged his name, as an underlying structural compositional element on which to base the entire painting. When asked her opinion, Sue Taylor, art historian at Portland State University said: “Pollock would often begin with some sort of figurative device to which he would then respond—and eventually bury under layers of paint. Letters and numbers, moreover, frequently appear in works of the early 1940s” (Adams, 1). Willem de Kooning used large, aggressive marks of paint strewn across his canvas to convey his abstraction of human figures. Harold Rosenburg coined the term “action painting” for de Kooning’s work. He also described de Kooning’s work as “the making of a painting as a battle between will and fate, with the art object a record of the artist's anguished struggle” (Fulford, 1). A student of Cubism, de Kooning had shapes and contours that overlapped one another and referenced the old masters such as
Michelangelo and Ingres. He used large, violent strokes of paint, and had a unique, unparalleled eye for color, mixing colors that many others had never dared to undertake. (Fulford). In de Kooning’s painting Black and White (San Francisco), he carries us through a certain narrative, with sensual diagonals, until the last panel, where stark verticals end the “strip,” almost as a pun. (Molotui Abstract Anthology, 5). Wassily Kandinsky was a musician in his own right, which became evident in his paintings. His paintings sing and harmonize, like music. He also wanted to combine spirituality in his paintings. Michael Sadler said about Kandinsky’s art: “…it is impossible to put into words the whole of Kandinsky's ideal, partly because in his anxiety to state his case, to court criticism, the author has been tempted to formulate more than is wise. His analysis of colours and their effects on the spectator is not the real basis of his art, because, if it were, one could, with the help of a scientific manual, describe one's emotions before his pictures with perfect accuracy” (Kandinsky, 1). Kandinsky’s Composition VII was one of his most acclaimed works. He had over thirty preliminary sketches, watercolors, and oil studies. He erased all representative material in his paintings, although some of his preliminary studies did include less abstracted compositions. Reflections of themes from Reubens’ The Garden of Love, Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment, and others of the like also appear in the painting. Kandinsky said: "Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential” (Harden, 1).
What are abstract comics? In fine art, abstract means non-recognizable material. To apply this word to comics, it must be said that both the imagery and narrative content are non-representational. Abstract comics are more about why they were made, the emotive content behind it, and the play between shapes and composition, rather than a coherent sequential narrative. It relates to the same thought pattern expressed by the Abstract Expressionists; the idea that there is some sort of emotive content amongst the shapes, and that the process of making the comic, somehow, was of a therapeutic nature. The only difference is that the Abstract Expressionists were not concerned with creating a sequence, like comics. Mark Badger, on his blog, said: “…the issue of what abstraction is these days, what’s its’ value and how the heck do you bring abstraction to comics is a challenge. If comics are narrative then that means same size panels imply a structure but if you break a page into different layouts structures, it breaks that implication of time. Then you need the characters to carry the time from panel to panel. But if your characters are just shape and you crop and clip like a good Degas fanatic your shapes become not character and transforming and moving things” (Badger, 1). As far as composition and subject matter is concerned, you could say that abstract comics is basically taking the recognizable, such as people, inanimate objects, etc. and subtracting the unnecessary and simplifying to the basics of its existence, and portraying it as such. Much like Pop art artist Jasper Johns’ painting, Alley Oop, where he took a Sunday newspaper and glued it to a canvas and painted over it, only focusing on the large blocks of color (Molotui Abstract Anthology, 5). This, essentially, is abstract comics.
Also, like the Abstract Expressionists, abstract artists are trying to convey emotions through their art. In an interview with Adrian Kinnaird, Draw, an abstract comic artist, talked about his inspiration for his comics: “Kinnaird: What inspired you to create abstract comics? Draw: Emotions. In reading comics I was always struck how difficult it seemed to depict what people where feeling in representational narrative comics. Whether its European comics or Manga or US indie comics I always felt like they never where able to depict the complex and shifting emotional experiences of real life. So I turned to abstract comics to try and express these feelings. Clutter One, Four and Five where responses to this” (Kinnaird, 1). Scott McCloud, in his book, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, poses the question: “In truth, don’t all lines carry with them an expressive potential?” He discusses the different between a horizontal, vertical, diagonal line with variations of aesthetic value. The placement of a line can give the viewer a plethora of information, without a single word on a page. This basic simplicity of the narrative, speaking without words, is a characteristic of abstract comics (McCloud, 118-125). Because the barrier of narrative is broken, other elements deemed appropriate for other comics are also broken. The use of speech balloons, frames, etc plays a crucial role in abstract comics. Some have no frames, others have no speech balloons, and this is seen as normal. Mark Badger said: “By taking out the typing and representation you really have to look at what it is that make comics interesting. Fiddling with shapes is really what drawing is in a
primal way and to generate the shapes and play with the flow across a grid is the start point for me of comics” (Badger, 1).
Andrei Molotui, an artist, art historian teaching at Indiana University, and editor of Abstract Comics: The Anthology, said in an interview with Artforum that abstract comics are telling a visual narrative that cannot be otherwise expressed verbally. Words and text may be included in the comics, but they only contribute visually, like the imagery. Also, representational elements can also be included, but they must not combine together, creating a narrative (Rudick, 1). Molotui creates abstract comics himself, and has recently begun including animation as a part of them. In his comic, Wild Moon, he has a sequence of 24 panels, each with black blots across a white surface. Each contains a unique stroke or mark, but the color and organic nature of the marks creates the “narrative.” It is very much like Pollock’s paintings; allowing the marks and shapes to speak for the art, rather than a representational subject. He has allowed the art to take its own shape, not forcing it into something that the “paint” does not wish to be. It is as if the black is morphing across the panels, some marks slowly oozing across the surface, and others splattering across the surface with force and power (Molotui “You..”, 1). Henrik Rehr is a comic artist and illustration. Henrik Rehr, in his book Reykjavik, also uses black and white for his imagery. His delicate white lines are almost like lace, and the dark background gives it an ominous feeling. He has these delicate, swirling forms that fill most of the “panels”. They are almost like ocean waves, some crashing onto the shore with mist spraying, and others quietly meandering their way up to the
shore. His format for his graphic novel is diverse. Some are panels, others are full pages, and others break both boundaries, with small panels peeling away from larger panels, or overlapping each other, trying to gain the attention of the viewer (Rehr, 1). Warren Craghead III creates beautifully constructed collage drawings. His art is “spontaneous ‘without thinking’ narratives” that chronicle the life around him. He takes what is written around him and transposes it into pictorial form. When describing his technique he said: “In my process, I mix and transpose images and words, pictures and poetry, constantly sketching as a way of mapping what happens to me in a given day. Cubist and cartoony collage elements or texts from poets or myself are translated into multi-valent diagrams, whose glyphs, sentence fragments, and miniature imagery beg to be deciphered. I make numerous series of small drawings and arrange them sequentially, placing them in literary journals, comics magazines, or self-published books that I sell or give away on the web.” (Craghead III w craghead, 1). His collages are layered, like some of Rehr’s where the rectangles are layered on top of each other. He then draws over top of it with graphite, watercolor, and other material. Some of his imagery is representational, like the leg and shoe in his piece Chanson (after Apollinaire), as well as other drawn elements that are just mark-making on the surface. This piece is divided into four sections, or panels, each one containing its own panels. He allows the white in each panel to carry your eye from one section to another. He also forces you to not look at the subject matter, but at the marks on the surface.
Aidan Koch’s comics are full of brilliant color and interesting compositions. She combines abstracted forms in nature with abstracted figures. She has a poetic take to comics, allowing her colors and drawing with a carefully chosen word or two to convey a certain feeling. In an interview with Privelidge House, she was asked about her creative process: “Usually I start with an agenda for painting or drawing. What am I doing? What am I looking at? What is it for? If I'm just going at it, the color palette I'm using is the most important part in creating a piece I like… There's a lot of different feelings though that take hold of me and make me want to produce specific work. Sometimes they are simply circumstantial (being stuck in a location for an extended amount of time for instance) or I have a particular show coming up, or sometimes I'm really angry or hopelessly depressed, or sometimes I just don't know what else to do with myself.” (Shearer, 1). Her comic, Warmer, has a reoccurring female character. The scenes are short, and oddly cropped images of the woman, or other elements in the comic such as an envelope, mug, etc. They have an air of both mystery and intimacy. There are only two panels that contain words, them being “So now I’m here. I shouldn’t be” and “I should go out”. This comic begins with the idea of cold and ends with warm, changing the clothes from one sequence to another.
“The sequence is like a hesitation, a movement and then an undoing… Both of these paired concepts, cold/warm covered/exposed, could also be read
metaphorically into the implied communication/letter aspect of the narration and the mostly obscured relationship between narrator and narrate� (Badman, 1). Derik Badman of Madinkbeard reminds us that “comics can be narrative without being clear, character driven, or plot-based� (Badman, 1). The same can be said about the work of Abstract Expressionists. Both are abstract, elusive, and poetic in nature, deriving meaning from within the artist and onto a surface for others to read. The main lineage between the two types of art is the idea of an emotive release for the artist creating the work. It is evident that Abstract Expressionists paved the way for abstract comics, because without the forward thinking of such artists as Pollock, de Kooning, and Kandinksy and their willingness to create art that expressed emotive content rather than a concrete subject matter allowed for comic artists to be more willing to abandon the common practice of creating comics and take an alternate path in which the narrative story-telling is less important and expressive mark-making paired with an inner need to create these expressive works takes center stage.
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