Non-objective Painting vs Abstract Painting

By Larry Spear

I consider myself a Non-Objective painter and not an Abstract painter. Is there a difference between the two? These are my thoughts and definitions on the subject.

When painters like Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and many others started to question the purpose of art, they always took as their inspiration real objects and reduced them to intrinsic form. In other words, people, landscapes, and still-life objects were still used by the artists as the basis of their paintings. The real-life objects were abstracted. The painters used those shapes to construct compositions but were much freer in their use of the visual elements, such as color, shape, and line. These types of painters, with their compositional subjects still based on real objects, gradually became known as Abstract artists. That name is now synonymous with any art that does not try to imitate reality.

As we entered the modern era, artists were able to free themselves from the picture-making view of art and become something more akin to visual composers. They realized that beautiful and meaningful paintings did not require a link to a real object and could be composed solely using the visual elements. Just as a musical composer uses the audio elements of rhythm, harmony, tonality, tempo, and dynamics, the artist uses the visual elements of line, color, shape, value, and texture to create their compositions. These artists become known as Non-objective painters.

Non-objective paintings are created in a wide range of individual styles, ranging from meticulously planned to ones completely spontaneous. My work is in the spontaneous category, and I create my paintings relying on my skills in composing the visual elements. Because my work is primarily improvisation, I often compare my process to a jazz musician. I develop my compositions, reacting to and based upon what I have already painted. I try to develop passages within the painting and then knit them all together into a final composition.

So, to me, the big difference between abstract and non-objective art is the non-reliance of the latter on a subject link to real objects.