IRISH
FINE ART
For the history of painters,
see: Irish Painting.
For the story of 3-D art, and
biographies of sculptors,
see: Irish Sculpture.
For details of the Irish
arts infrastructure,
see: Ireland Visual Arts.
TOP PRICED IRISH
ART
For details of auction records
set by artists from Ireland,
see: Most Expensive Irish
Paintings.
What exactly is the meaning of the term "abstract art"? Or, to put it another way, at what point does a work of art (a painting or a sculpture) become "abstract"? Hard to say, isn't it? - never mind the difference between semi-abstract and wholly abstract!
Theoretically, abstract paintings and sculptures are defined by the absence of anything recognizable in their composition - by a lack of naturalistic representation. And purists will argue that a truly abstract work cannot resemble or contain any naturalist shapes, but only artificial man-made shapes derived from geometric motifs. However, most spectators who look at a painting without recognizing anything in it, almost always describe it as "abstract", whether or not it has a naturalistic squiggle or two.
Sometimes, however, it can be difficult to say whether a work is abstract or representational. Take landscape art, for instance. Many contemporary landscape paintings - despite having some faint similarity with elements of the natural world - are really abstract works. Yet their artists may object to the idea of being described as abstract painters, and may insist on being called landscape painters. Still life painting can also be tricky. For example, how should one describe William Scott, one of Ireland's greatest still life painters? Is he an abstract or a minimalist painter? The answer isn't clear.
