Abstraction, Cont'd - Sullivan

Narrative art is art that represents recognizable images of places, people or things, either as wholes or as parts. Viewers can make sense of the images and will develop their own stories or explanations of what is happening in the piece.

 

Non-narrative art does not present any recognizable figures. The marks, colors, and shapes in the work cannot be read as known objects; therefore, viewers will struggle to impose stories on the images.

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In order to define figuration and abstraction, I think I have to alter my definitions of narrative and non-narrative art.

Narrative Art - art that causes the viewer to assign a story to it

Non-narrative Art - art that does not cause the narrator to create a story about it

Figuration - the representation of recognizable figures (places, objects, people) 

Abstraction - art that does not contain recognizable figures; can be derived from abstracted or distorted figurative images, or be the result of pure mark-making

Most of the time, figurative art is narrative, and abstract art is non-narrative, as in the images above. I think it's theoretically possible to create figurative but non-narrative art, but I have never seen it done. On the other hand, abstractions can often be at least slightly narrative, although they usually don't cause viewers to reflexively invent a story in the way that figurative art does.

This image, for example, suggests an environment--perhaps a fancy carpet, or a room full of dancers as seen from above. The colors suggest time of day, time of year, and mood. It definitely has narrative potential, at least.

As I thought about how these definitions applied to my eye images for the scratchboard project, I realized that I might actually have an example of non-narrative figuration. Most of the eyes that I've found suggest narrative when taken in their entirety, but there's one--an especially bland stock photo--that does not. Sure, you could attempt to create one for it, but it requires the same sort of effort as assigning a story to an abstract image. Yet the eye is very clearly an eye. (My abstract eye textures, unsurprisingly, do not create narrative.)