For one extra point: what would be the point of understanding the Arp painting shown below?
Constellation with Five White Forms and Two Black, Variation III by Jean Arp Back to the blackboard I thought that I might gain some clues to the appreciation of abstract paintings by looking at semi-abstract ones, given that there is a continuum of increasing degrees of abstraction, and that historically abstraction arose in a gradual manner. Unfortunately, I soon realised that I dont know how to interpret semi-abstract works either, or even purely representational works, for that matter. The Mill by Jacob Rembrandt We can identify the content of representational art, such as in pictures by Dali, Rembrandt or Monet, but does that mean we understand this art or appreciate it? I think not. It merely gives us the comfortable feeling that we know what is going on, because we know what the painting is about. All we really lose when we move from figurative to abstract art is this surface level of the painting is a depiction of xyz. We only lose the story, and the story is not necessarily th
