Art in the Abstract: a rant.

 You can't make an abstract painting of a cabbage.

You can't make one of a boat, a mountain, poppies, or the interior of a church, either.

You can have an impressionist painting of all these things, or a cubist or even a surrealist one (other schools of art are available) but not an abstract one.

You can have an abstract painting of hate, hope, a new beginning, or, indeed, nothing in particular (in which case you can call it Composition No 4, or Yellow Red Blue or something).

Jaune Rouge Bleu, by Wassily Kandinsky

Abstract art depicts something you can't actually see.

You wouldn't believe how many really quite competent artists do not know this.

Grr!

Word To Use Today: abstract. This word has been around in English since the 1300s. It comes from the Latin word abstractus, which means drawn off, or removed from, from ab- , away from, plus trahere, to draw.