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A Stress Free State Of Mind

There is a silence in the early morning and late at night. It empowers your creative mind to step into the drivers seat without doubt or anxiety. It’s there naturally before sleep and when awakened, and can exist throughout your normal daily activities if you let it. Science calls this silence the theta state. Brain waves during theta state are free flowing and occur without censorship or guilt. When performing a task in the theta state you are mentally disengaged. Actions are automatic and intuitive, giving you a stress-free state and allowing you to focus and imagine with ease.

Appreciating Abstract Art

Technology and the modern industrial world is embedded into our society and operates at a busy pace. There is not much that we can do to escape it. We tend to mentally engage in the processes of our lives all too often without ever letting the relaxed state of mind take its course. This practice is actually a destroyer of a precious balance with the creative mind and the theta state.

 

Many artists reacted to our modern society by creating abstract art in the intuitive theta state, consciously or unconsciously. And understanding this very basic cultural reaction will give you a greater appreciation for abstract art and the artist. The action of painting for an intuitive abstract artist is a natural creative process that does not involve a great deal of thought. By not “trying” and just “doing” the art becomes the experience, the experience becomes the art.

 

In this sense abstract paintings are reminding us that it is healthy to mentally disengage, and even much needed in our current world. The artwork and the artist say without words that we should be free to express and explore our creativity without defining and categorizing things all the time.

Contemporary Abstract Art - Modern Abstract Painting - Large Abstract Wall Art Art For Sale
"Mind Expansion" Abstract Art by Jaison Cianelli

Claude Monet - Impressionism - "Mueles"- 1890
Claude Monet - Impressionism - "Mueles"- 1890

Modern Art

Let us start with modern art.  Modern art is a classification of an art period that includes artwork produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s. 

It’s important to note that within the modern art period many experimental and expressive styles exist.

The modern art period was started by artists that had an experimental spirit for expressing new ideas and methods.  They explored beyond traditional techniques and pushed the boundaries of art. 

Impressionist Claude Monet and post-impressionist Vincent van Gogh were key figures. 

According to art scholars and historians the modern art movement ended around the 1970s when the term postmodern started to be used and pop art became the new thing. 

However, there is a grey area here because in general most people will use the term to describe art being created today if it has the same characteristics of new experimental expression.  And this makes sense because the word modern means “relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past.”

Abstract Art

And that brings us to abstract art.  You might be thinking, what is abstract art?  And, is abstract art modern art?

Abstraction is a painting style classified within the modern art movement in the early 1900s. So yes, it is a type of modern art.  Abstract was a truly revolutionary style and a way for artists to create a departure from reality.

Wikipedia states: “Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete.”

Within the abstract style are many different spectrums and classifications of abstraction.

The earliest known abstract style was Cubism which started in 1908 and was developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques. This abstract technique reduced the forms into basic geometric shapes.

Eventually, the abstract art style included art that did not try to represent reality at all, and this was called non-objective abstract painting. Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky is generally credited with creating the first purely non-objective abstract painting in 1910.

And in America, abstract art was not known until 1940 when the expressionist style of Jackson Pollock caught the eyes of the world.

And because abstract art is a style of painting and not a classification of an art period, abstract paintings are still being created today.

Wassily Kandinsky - Abstract Art - Untitled - First Abstract Watercolor -1910
Wassily Kandinsky - Abstract Art - Untitled - First Abstract Watercolor -1910
Wassily Kandinsky - Abstract Art - Black Grid, "Schwarzer Raster" -1922
Wassily Kandinsky - Abstract Art - Black Grid, "Schwarzer Raster" -1922
Jackson Pollock - Abstract Painting - Number 31 - 1950
Jackson Pollock - Abstract Expressionism Painting - Number 31 - 1950
Pablo Picasso - Abstract Painting - "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon" -1907
Pablo Picasso - Abstract Painting - "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon" -1907
Pablo Picasso - Abstract Painting - "Girl With Mandolin" -1910
Pablo Picasso - Cubism Abstract Painting - "Girl With Mandolin" -1910

Contemporary Art

Finally, that brings us to the current day.  Right now, we use the term contemporary art to define art as being created in our lifetime or in the current present moment.

So any artwork being created right now is technically contemporary no matter what the style.

But what has happened is that people use contemporary art to describe unique art created in new and different ways from the 1970s until now.

It is important to know that contemporary art refers to all art produced today utilizing the many technological advances – and that includes paintings, digital art, sculpture, photography, installation, performance, and video art.

Andy Warhols - Campbells Soup Can's Painting - 1962
Andy Warhols - Campbells Soup Can's Painting - 1962
Damien Hirst - Spot Painting
Damien Hirst - Spot Painting