Abstract Art (Movements in modern art) by Frederick Gore

Abstract Art (Movements in modern art)

by Frederick Gore

Original Price: ¥1200 Discount: 10%

¥1080 ~~¥1200~~
ART: HARDCOVER: used - acceptable
ENGLISH

When I was twelve years old I joined my mother at Drew University (Madison, NJ) where she was taking a three-day workshop for Sunday school teachers. She took me to the college bookstore and told me I could pick out a book. This was to be my very first book I would purchase at a bookstore! I scanned the bookshelves and saw a series of small books on various types of art. I chose a book with a cover that fascinated me on two counts. First, the picture: the combination of colors and shapes: all perfect geometry - orange circles, black half circles, purple and cream rectangles, large dark green squares and a black square in the middle. Second, the type of art: Abstract Art. The world `abstract' resonated with me, a word starting with that bold A and having such an otherworldly sound, a word with an A matching the A in art.

When I returned to my dormitory I turned the pages both fascinated and mesmerized by all the paintings. I didn't bother reading any of the commentary. The next day I played sick so I wouldn't have to go to the church classes. I remained in my room with paper and crayons doing my best copying the art in the book.

At the end of the day, when one of the Sunday school teachers returned to the dormitory, I proudly showed her my drawing and my book. She promptly belittled my efforts: "You don't have this black spot in the right place," Your colors don't match what's in the book at all." She was furious I did what I did.

My reaction to all of this was not to be upset, but to be pleased. I enjoyed being transported to this special, different world of art. And how this world could trigger such a violent emotional response in an adult.

Now, in retrospect, I can only smile at the encounter - a boy's entering into the world of abstract art and communicating his love to a Sunday school teacher. Now wonder she was so mad! And, predictably, she countered with all the judgment and outrage she as spokeswoman for the conventional and average and mundane could muster.

Turns out I am writing this review a few weeks after I took the artwork on the cover, a painting by the French artist Auguste Herbin, and made an enlarged copy that I have hanging on a wall in my den. Now, fifty years later, abstract art still resonates with me and I still love this little book. - Glenn Russell

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