The Week 2 assignment says it is due Friday the 26th, which isn’t a real time… so I hope this is ok!
Most of the artwork that was in the Paleo and Neolithic exhibits were not what I’d think of as ‘modern abstract’ art which tends not to be representational at all and instead plays with pure form, shape, color, etc. However it seems fair to me to say that there is a high level of abstraction present in the ancient artwork. The Lion Man obviously does not actually exist and the images of women overemphasize their breasts, bellies, and hips in a way which leaves reality behind. Also with the animals being rendered in composite perspective, showing their eyes strait on, but their head in profile. I think that the people who were creating the art knew that what they made was not ‘photorealistic’ and knew what a real animal looked like, but they were creating a representation which captured the relevant details about what they were trying to portray. That these details resulted in a image that looks less like the actual object I think is what abstraction is all about. I personally like taking and emphasizing the aspects of an object which are important because for me, that is what art is about – revealing the significance of a particular aspect of reality. All art is ultimately abstraction.