Understanding Abstract Art

Abstract art is the most important development in the art of this century, yet there is no book that is exclusively about abstract art, and there has never been one that sets out to explain it in everyday language. Abstract paintings are discussed here both from the point of view of their creators and from the point of view of the spectator.

Then, the kind of question repeatedly asked about abstraction is asked and answered:

• By what standards can an abstract painting be judged?

• Does abstraction set out to disregard the public's expectations and wishes? If so, is it unique in this?

• Does the viewer contribute more to an appreciation of an abstract painting than to a more traditional work?

• Does any abstract painting have a message? If so, how does it express it?

• Is it necessary to know anything about the artist himself in order to fully appreciate his work?

• Does an abstract painting require more or less skill in its execution than a traditional work?

• Is there anything more to abstraction than novelty?

FRANK WHITFORD was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and the Free University, West Berlin. Fellow of Wolfson College and formerly a lecturer in History of Art at Cambridge, he is now a tutor at the Royal College of Art in London. His latest book is a biography of Kokoschka, and he has written extensively on German Expressionism and the Bauhaus. Japanese Prints and Western Painters won the Yorkshire Post Award for the best art book of 1977. He is known in Germany, the United States, and Australia as a university lecturer and he appears regularly on television.