Australian Abstract
Amber Creswell Bell
Australian Abstract
Amber Creswell Bell
There is no single neat definition of abstract art. It makes no attempt to represent reality; instead it has its own visual language using shape, colour and form with no rules. An explosion of creative expression and gestural force, Australian Abstract explores the constantly evolving genre and how it offers unparalleled artistic freedom, inviting deeply personal connection and interpretation from both artist and viewer. Works often straddle a mid-point between recognition and the sensed experience through the materiality of paint encompassing a pastiche of styles.
Drawing on extensive interviews Amber Creswell Bell examines the diverse practices of more than forty contemporary abstract painters, documenting a repertoire of styles, subjects, visions and philosophies. Some compare abstract art to music, particularly jazz; others are inspired by nature, science and geometry; and some simply relish the opportunity to express complex emotions in a way words cannot. What unites these extraordinary artists, however, is the conviction that this form of expression chose them.
Review
Zoë Croggon
The introduction to Amber Creswell Bell’s new survey of Australian abstract art begins by parsing a loose definition of the form. Abstract art is nonrepresentational, nonfigurative, nonobjective, a language for ‘the other’. It is a process that cracks open the parameters of representation, allowing a gestural, sensorial and intuitive form to burst forth.
Arshile Gorky claimed that abstraction allows one to see with their mind what they cannot see physically with their eyes, ‘abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an exploration into unknown areas.’
Bell proposes that the definition is as various as its forms, and it is with this breadth and generosity that she examines the practices of more than 40 contemporary Australian abstract painters. Following on from her comprehensive surveys of still-life artists, ceramicists, and landscape painters, Bell shifts her gaze to abstract artists including Aida Tomescu, Emily Ferretti, Louise Creswell and Lottie Consalvo.
Drawing from extensive interviews, Bell sketches warm and open profiles for each painter that feel led by the artist’s voice without being prescriptive or didactic. The vitality of the work rushes at you in a surge of vivid colour and movement; the book itself feels alive
and breathing.
This is a publication that bucks the cultural cringe of identifying with a movement or style, and instead memorialises Australian – and notably female – artists. An accessible and valuable publication.
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