Reading, Understanding, and Practicing Abstract Art
- Mestan Tekin
- Jul 31
- 10 min read
Approaches, demands, perceptions
Abstraction in art is neither an escape from reality nor an aesthetic whim. I am convinced that it represents one of the major adventures of modernity. Refusing to depict the visible does not mean refusing reality. Abstraction simply proposes to explore another layer of the real, in which rhythms, structures, and invisible forces organize the world.
As both a teacher and an artist, I have long asked myself how to explain abstraction. How to frame it. How to present it in a way that fosters understanding, and transmits to the student the desire to experiment with it and perhaps master it. Here is a compilation of my notes that seem the most relevant.
Historically, abstraction does not arise from a brutal break. It is rooted in ancient practices such as the Eastern calligraphy I am deeply fond of, symbolic patterns in early art—like those in certain prehistoric or proto-Hellenic caves—and the decorative compositions of Byzantine or Islamic art. Even in European painting, Turner and Whistler paved the way, not by renouncing figuration, but by seeking the essence of forms, the vibration of light, the dynamics of gesture. We now perceive abstraction in Turner, whereas he saw in it the essence of the world’s forces.
In the 20th century, abstraction takes on an autonomous status. Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich assert that art need not reproduce nature, but can instead dedicate itself to its own internal laws.
For Kandinsky, painting becomes a visual language akin to music, capable of eliciting inner resonance without figurative support.
For Mondrian, geometric abstraction aims to express universal harmony by reducing form to its necessary minimum.
For Malevich, the black square on a white background is a kind of pictorial zero or radical starting point for a new language.
t is therefore essential to understand that abstraction is neither a rejection of rigor nor mere formal freedom. It is the demanding search for a coherent plastic system capable of impacting human sensitivity without relying on partial or total imitation of reality.
I’ve chosen a very personal structure for this article, which is primarily addressed to my workshop students, to art lovers, or professionals.
What does abstraction demand from the artist?
What does it demand from the viewer?
How can abstraction be practiced?
Abstraction and its challenges today.
I’ve also added a sheet of practical exercises and some mistakes to avoid.
What Abstraction Demands from the Artist: Rigor, Mastery, Awareness
One of the great misunderstandings I often encounter is the belief that abstraction is a “free” domain where academic or optical rules no longer apply. Far from escaping the fundamentals, the abstract artist must master them even more, since they no longer have the model to justify their choices.
The rigor of plastic fundamentals
Composition, contrast, value relationships, mass balance, rhythmic tension, spatial management… These are the elements that hold an abstract painting together.
Example: Nicolas de Staël. Beneath the apparent harshness of his impasto and flat areas, each color segment is meticulously weighed. The tension of masses, distribution of tones, and breathing between forms reveal the eye of a demanding composer. Nothing is left to chance.
A figurative painter can sometimes mask compositional weakness through narrative or realism. In abstraction, this mask disappears.
Awareness of
In gestural abstraction, the gesture is not a mere spontaneous outpouring. It is the translation of inner intensity, a considered rhythm.
Example: Cy Twombly (about whom I really hope to write an article one day), often dismissed as “scribbles” by the uninitiated, actually developed a language of gesture charged with historical references, emotional tension, and calligraphic reminiscences. Each mark results from a process where instinct blends with culture.
Constant self-critique
Abstraction imposes heightened vigilance on the painter. Where figuration offers points of comparison (likeness, proportions), abstraction relies solely on the artist’s internal standards.
Example: Zao Wou-Ki tirelessly reworked his large formats, seeking the perfect balance between fluidity and structure. He did not hesitate to revise, cover, erase, until the painting rang true—with no judge but himself.
The artist’s gaze must become both ally and censor. Cultivating a sharp sense of internal coherence, accepting doubt and self-questioning: that is what abstraction demands.
What Abstraction Demands from the Viewer: Openness, Sensitivity, Patience
Faced with an abstract work, the viewer no longer has the usual cues of figurative reading. No scene to decipher, no characters to identify, no narrative to follow. This absence, far from disarming, invites another kind of relationship with the work: a direct, sensitive, immediate one—but not a passive one.
Abstraction offers the viewer an open-ended experience, where reception does not rely on prior knowledge but on an inner disposition. It requires what one could call visual listening, akin to musical listening.
Example: In front of a Rothko, some people feel deeply moved, others remain unmoved. It’s not a question of skill or knowledge. The artwork either acts or doesn’t, depending on the viewer’s availability.
The viewer is thus invited to let the work pass through them, without trying to understand in an analytical sense, but instead accepting to feel sensations: of color, rhythm, tension. This experience does not always occur instantly. Abstraction often works over time. The gaze, initially hesitant, adjusts and begins to perceive balance, imbalance, breathing.
Example: Soulages’ large formats, with their deep blacks, demand time. As one looks, light reflects, nuances appear, and the painting responds to the viewer’s movements.
Abstraction demands no less of the viewer than a figurative work. It simply demands differently: patience, fine attention, and the ability to suspend immediate judgment.
Practicing Abstraction: Exercises, Methods, Work Ethic
Abstraction cannot be improvised. While it allows for freedom, that freedom only finds meaning within a rigorous, structured, and conscious practice. For an artist, entering abstraction first requires committing to the plastic work in a methodical way. Here are some concrete directions to explore in the studio and on your own.
Work through ranges and variations
Imposing constraints of format, color, or form paradoxically frees creativity.
Exercise: Create a series of ten studies using only three colors, with no figurative forms, varying only surface distribution and rhythms. This approach teaches you to sense internal balance without the aid of a motif.
Study rhythm and dynamics
Abstraction is not a juxtaposition of effects. It is based on tension and the circulation of the gaze.
Exercise: Compose line rhythms—diagonal, horizontal, vertical—and study how the eye moves from edge to edge. Seek breathing, density, and emptiness.
Work in series
Abstraction benefits from temporal development. Working on the same theme over multiple supports allows you to move beyond the first, often predictable, ideas—as often happens during the first hours of abstraction classes. Trust the process and intelligent repetition.
Exercise: Make ten variations on a basic composition, modifying scale, rhythm, color, gesture. The series becomes a lab for exploration.
Work in large format
Many abstract artists use large formats, not for spectacle, but because gesture, material, and rhythm express more fully at that scale. The studio may not allow full-group engagement with huge formats, and class time is aimed at understanding and experimenting in smaller ones—like artistic viewfinders. But for those who can, on their own or during open studio time, largeness is a key to gestural freedom.
Example: Zao Wou-Ki and Joan Mitchell deployed their energy across canvases several meters wide, engaging their entire bodies in the act of painting.
Confront external feedback
It’s essential to expose your work to an outside eye: a teacher :-), a peer, or even an informed viewer, to refine your judgment. Others’ perspectives often reveal imbalances, inconsistencies, or unexpected strengths. Tuesday’s abstraction class is your opportunity to share experiences and exchange viewpoints.
Abstraction Today: Stakes, Recuperations, Authenticity
In today’s art world, abstraction holds a paradoxical place. On the one hand, it remains a space of freedom, experimentation, and sincere inquiry. On the other, it has become a market product, an aesthetic commodity often stripped of content.
We thus see a proliferation of so-called “abstract” works made for decorative markets: large, colorful canvases, pleasing and mass-produced, that rely on effect without real plastic research. This drift doesn’t condemn abstraction—but it forces the artist to remain vigilant about their own position.
For instance, the inflation of large, often monochrome or semi-gestural abstract formats promoted by some commercial galleries reduces abstraction to a surface effect.
Yet many artists still nourish abstraction through real inquiry. They situate their work in dialogue with history, with political, social, or philosophical issues.
Example: Julie Mehretu combines gestural abstraction, urban cartography, and reflections on power; or Mark Bradford, whose abstract works incorporate humble materials and question social dynamics.
What separates sincere abstraction from its commercial caricature is the density of the process—that is, how deeply the artist engages with plastic research, with rigor, honesty, and sometimes doubt.
The challenge for the contemporary artist is therefore to remain faithful to this standard. To resist the temptation of beauty emptied of meaning. To embrace complexity, risk, and the unpredictability of abstraction.
Conclusion
Abstraction is neither a refuge nor a shortcut. It is a demanding language, one that asks the artist to master their tools, the viewer to sharpen their gaze, and both to embrace the adventure of doubt.
For the one who practices it, abstraction offers an infinite path of exploration, where every form, color, and rhythm becomes a site of research, dialogue, and poetry.
For the one who observes it, abstraction offers a singular aesthetic experience—made of sensations, resonances, and silences. A meeting with what painting holds most essential: its power to move us, beneath or beyond the visible.
Bridges exist today between abstraction and figuration. An infinity of possibilities allows figuration to be touched, deconstructed, or enriched.
Starting in September, abstract painting classes resume every Tuesday at 3pm. You can also explore abstraction during collective classes in your respective techniques. Don’t hesitate to ask me if you have any questions.
Complete Pedagogical Sheet
Practical Exercises to Begin and Progress in Abstraction
This series of exercises is designed to structure your approach to abstraction, help you understand fundamental visual principles, sharpen your eye, and free your gesture—while maintaining the necessary rigor.
If anything is unclear or you’d like more guidance, feel free to speak with me during studio sessions.
1. Explore Color through Constraints
Create series with a limited palette
Goal: Learn how to build color balance without scattering your efforts.
Instructions:
• Choose exactly three colors (for example: red, blue, yellow).
• Create a series of 10 small studies (A4 format), without using any figurative forms.
• Vary the distribution of colors: sometimes a dominant, sometimes balanced, sometimes a clash of all three.
• Try to feel how the colors interact and what their balance or imbalance produces in the eye.
2. Work on Visual Rhythm Using Simple Lines
Goal: Understand how the eye travels across a surface thanks to lines.
Instructions:
• Use only black lines (pencil, fine brush, marker).
• Create 5 different compositions experimenting with:
• One with horizontal lines,
• One with vertical lines,
• One with oblique lines,
• One combining multiple directions,
• One playing with empty and filled spaces.
• Observe how each direction affects the rhythm of the composition.
3. Break Preconceptions through Series of Variations
Goal: Go beyond the first idea by exploring all possibilities around a single theme.
Instructions:
• Invent a very simple base composition (for example: two shapes and a diagonal).
• Create 20 versions, changing each time:
• The format,
• The colors,
• The rhythms,
• The gestures.
• Aim to surprise yourself and push further than your initial impulse.
4. Understand the Relationship Between Gesture and Format
By going from small to large
Goal: Feel the difference between a restricted gesture and an expansive one.
Instructions:
• Make a small study in A5 format.
• Then redo exactly the same composition in A2 format or larger.
• Observe how your gesture evolves, how the composition breathes or transforms.
• Note how you feel when moving between formats.
5. Explore Painterly Material by Playing with Textures and Effects
Goal: Understand how material impacts the reading of a work.
Instructions:
• On a solid support (cardboard, wood, rigid canvas), make a series of 5 small studies.
• For each study, use a different material or texture:
• Thick impasto,
• Transparent glazes,
• Scraping or scratching,
• Brushing or rubbing,
• Dripping or splattering.
• Observe how the material interacts with color and composition.
6. Step Back by Exposing Your Work to Others’ Eyes
Goal: Learn how to receive feedback and sharpen your critical eye.
Instructions:
• Show your studies to a teacher, fellow student, or any kind and attentive viewer.
• Ask them what they perceive:
• Strengths,
• Weak points,
• Tensions,
• Unexpected effects.
• Write down their comments and analyze them without taking it personally. It’s part of learning.
7. Keep a Visual Journal to Track Your Discoveries
Goal: Record your process, your feelings, and your avenues of development.
Instructions:
• After each session or exercise, take 5 minutes to write:
• What you felt,
• What you learned,
• What you’d like to revisit.
• This notebook will become a precious tool to help you progress consciously.
8. Stimulate Creativity with Bonus Solo or Group Exercises
Goal: Break habits and trigger new ideas.
Instructions:
• “5-minute challenge”: create an abstract composition in under 5 minutes.
• Non-dominant hand: paint with your left hand (if you’re right-handed), or use an unusual tool (toothbrush, spatula).
• Music + gesture: paint while listening to music and let your gesture synchronize with the rhythm.
9. Understand the Impact of Value Contrasts in Composition
Goal: Master visual balance between light, mid, and dark tones.
Instructions:
• Work only with black, white, and a mid-tone gray.
• Create 5 studies where you aim to:
• Create tension through contrast,
• Find balance or deliberate imbalance,
• Observe how the eye reacts to light or dark areas.
10. Take Inspiration from a Figurative Work to Extract an Abstract Language
Goal: Learn to capture the structures, rhythms, and colors of a figurative image without copying it.
Instructions:
• Choose a figurative work that inspires you (painting, photo, drawing).
• Create 3 abstract studies inspired by its masses, dynamics, colors—but without reproducing its forms.
• Search for what remains of the spirit of the image once the motif disappears.
Important Reminders: What to Avoid
• Don’t copy without reflection.
• Don’t aim to make something “pretty” or decorative.
• Don’t settle for unfinished or unanalyzed work.
• Don’t confuse freedom with carelessness.
These exercises are not meant to produce finished works, but to train your eye, your gesture, and your ability to feel and understand the visual mechanisms behind an abstract composition. Through repetition, analysis, questioning, and conscious work, your practice will refine itself.
To your palettes!
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