Abstract Art as a Universal Language?

Author(s)
Hanna Brinkmann, Laura Commare, Helmut Leder, Raphael Rosenberg
Abstract

The concept of abstract art as "world language" became famous after documenta II (1959). Abstract art was considered as universally comprehensible and independent of cultural, political or historical contexts. However, this was never explicitly tested empirically. If these assumptions were true, there should be higher intersubjective coherence in perceiving abstract paintings compared to representational art. In order to test this hypothesis, the authors recorded the eye-movements of 38 participants and collected information on their cognitive and emotional evaluations. The results suggest that the concept of abstract art as a universal language was not confirmed and needs to be revised.

Organisation(s)
Department of Art History, Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology
Journal
Leonardo
Volume
47
Pages
256-257
No. of pages
2
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_00767
Publication date
06-2014
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
604019 Art history
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Engineering (miscellaneous), Music, Visual Arts and Performing Arts, Computer Science Applications
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/abstract-art-as-a-universal-language(39a2f8be-bdb9-4564-83a1-54639b84126e).html