Karen Usborne: What is Abstract Art?
Abstract art opens the mind and allows your imagination to take over. It’s become very popular and well-known in the art world to create with your mind rather than just what’s in front of you. It presents many different interpretations in the eye of the beholder and that’s what makes it such an interesting field for artists. The creativity is astounding and gives free rein to the one holding the paintbrush.
Karen Usborne takes pride in her abstract art and lives for it. Her sensory awareness shines throughout each piece of art she creates. If you’re a lover of patterns that don’t necessarily have a clear-cut meaning behind them, Karen Usborne’s work belongs in your home. You may be unaware of what abstract art is, and the science behind it is amazing. Below you’ll learn more about why abstract artists have chosen this field, and you may fall in love with it yourself.
About the Artist
Karen Usborne is a London-based contemporary artist, mainly focusing on abstract pieces. Although this wasn’t the field she first chose to work in, it’s always grabbed her attention. While exploring different art styles, she didn’t want to delve into abstract expressionism whilst it was so popular. Admiring Pablo Picasso, one of the established abstract expressionist artists, paved the way for her to take the leap. She adapted her style into abstract expressionism by playing with contrasts and portraying her visions. There’s often not a subject matter in her art, opening it up to your interpretation. Building on from Freud’s theory of the ‘unconscious mind’, she believes we aren’t aware of our own decisions. This is reflected in her art, which plays with sight, light, and perspectives. When admiring her art, you’ll have to look beyond the surface, and you may find you have more imagination than believed.
What EXACTLY is Abstract Expressionism
The word ‘abstract’ directly means to separate or withdraw something from something else. Its aim is not to represent something real in the world, but rather to draw from elements using shapes, colours, and forms. Abstract expressionism has other terms such as concrete art, non-representational art, or non-objective art. There’s no external visual reality but rather it’s based on either an object, figure, or landscape. You often won’t look at a piece of abstract art and say, ‘that’s a mountain’. You have to open up your mind to different experiences and let the piece take you away. Abstract expressionism can be portrayed through two or three-dimensional art, making it a broad field. It often expresses some form of morality, such as order, purity, simplicity, and spirituality.
The History of Abstract Art
Abstract expressionism has been around for over a century where it’s pulled a depiction away from any literal points in the world. The origins of abstract art can be seen within many earlier movements such as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Cubism. Arguably, some say that even the cavemen used abstract tones within their drawings. Russian-born painter, Wassily Kandinsky has been credited by several art historians as the first artist to create abstract paintings. During the First World War, other movements popped up such as de Stij in the Netherlands and Dadaism in Switzerland. These movements helped widen the spectrum of abstract art. After World War II, abstract expressionism emerged and has been widely practised since 1950.
As you can see, abstract art has been popular for a while. It has so much in-depth meaning behind each piece of art that’s created. You’ll see the main values of abstract expressionism shine through each piece that Karen Usbourne creates. You can be guaranteed this art would make a great addition to each home. Even better, discussing what the hidden meaning could be, may be a great topic of conversation at dinner parties.
