Motion and Spatiality: Material Illusions in Abstract Painting

Abstract

This practice-led research investigates the continuing role of abstraction within contemporary art through a painting practice that involves collage, works on paper and paintings on canvas. The project is focussed on testing ways in which devices historically associated with illusionistic painting could be applied to an abstract picture space. The painting process and accompanying exegetical reflections together explore the implications of adapting and translating illusionistic techniques, such as those as of the trompe l’œil and Baroque traditions, into a contemporary idiom, and how this affects the ways we view, experience and interpret abstract paintings. Original material research is central to this project, and is pursued through a sustained technical exploration of the properties and potentials of contemporary acrylic paints and mediums, the development of improvised tools, and the application of a range of supports and modes of presentation. These are tailored to extend the means and visual effects of acrylic painting processes in generating illusions as abstractions. This results in four bodies of work, each exploring the oscillating relations between the eye and the body, illusion and materiality, stasis and motion, flatness and spatiality. This thesis has been informed by Hanneke Grootenboer’s reflections on trompe l’œil, Angela Ndalianis on the Baroque, Christine Poggi on Cubism, and Barbara Rose and Lucy Lippard’s work on Abstract Illusionism. The project is further contextualised by reference to commentary on recent developments in abstraction and current issues in painting by Arthur C. Danto, David Reed, Bob Nickas, Jan Verwoert, Katy Siegel and Laura Hoptman.