You've probably heard it in a museum, or thought it yourself: "My child could paint that." A square of blue. A few scribbled lines. Someone paid a fortune for it, and you're not sure why.
It's a fair reaction. Abstract art doesn't come with a subject to judge it by. But that doesn't mean anything goes. Here are three questions that help.
1. Does the composition hold together?
Squint at the painting, or step back until the details blur. Does it feel balanced, even when it isn't symmetrical? Does your eye travel around it, or get stuck? Good abstract paintings have a structure you feel before you can explain it: weight and lightness, busy and calm, tension and rest.
Hilma af Klint's work is a good example. A blue panel, a turquoise circle, a few looping letters, and yet everything sits exactly where it should.
Hilma af Klint, from the Eros series, 1907
2. Does it make you feel something before you think?
A painting without a subject has to reach you another way: through colour, scale, texture, movement. Notice your body. Do your shoulders drop? Does something tighten? Do you want to stay or leave? Any honest reaction counts, including irritation. Indifference is usually the only real sign that a painting isn't working for you.
3. Does it leave room for you?
The best abstract work doesn't tell you what to see. It gives you enough to start a story and then steps back. Ask yourself: what does this remind me of? A sound, a season, a place? If your answer surprises you, the painting is doing its job.
And no, your child couldn't (probably)
Children make wonderful, free marks. What they rarely do is make the same choices on purpose, again and again, until those choices hold together. That's often the difference. Though, as mark making shows, the free marks are worth making too.
For a broader method, here's how to read a painting in five questions.
A garden you're free to read your own way
My Tuileries prints are deconstructed images of the Jardin des Tuileries in spring. Some people see trees and statues; others see a ship on pink water. I've never told anyone they were wrong. Each print is hand-finished and signed, and comes with a meditation letter.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi