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Activities

Talk About Abstraction

Douglas Portway (1922-1993) White Screen, 1970–1, oil on canvas, 101.6 x 127 cm. Estate of Douglas Portway.

  • Have look at all the works carefully in the gallery below, and knowing they are called “abstract” paintings, what do you think the term “abstract art” means?
  • What do these remind you of? Look at the images (ignore their titles for the moment), and then think about the questions below. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. These are your own, personal, subjective responses. However, you will have to explain your response by describing what it is about the image that evokes
    your answers. 
  • As you look at some of these abstract artworks, they might seem to transport you into their own world. Allow this
    to happen! 
  • Choose just a few of the works in this chapter. Apply all your attention to looking at them carefully. Does the picture change in any way, if you keep looking for long enough? Do different things appear to come to the fore, for example, and do meanings, or feelings, change? 
  • Do any of them seem to suggest a space or place? Do they seem to suggest a time – time past, or time in the future?
  • Do you think they suggest sounds, or even some kind
    of music?
  • Do any suggest a mood or state of mind – like fear, excitement, anger or ecstasy? 
  • Now consider the titles. Once you know the title, does it change anything about your looking? 
  • Laurence Scully (1922-2002) Red and gold cityscape, 1970, Screenprint, 76.2 x 50.8 cm. Johannesburg Art Gallery Collection.
  • Ernest Mancoba (1904-2002) Composition, 1951, oil on canvas, 61.5 x 51.5 cm. Gordon Schachat Foundation.
  • Bill Ainslie (1934-1989) Untitled, 1980, oil on canvas, 152.5 x 184 cm. Courtesy of SMAC Gallery, Cape Town.
  • Louis Maqhubela, Untitled, 1972, oil on canvas.
  • Louis Maqhubela, Symbolic figures, animals and forms, 1969, mixed media on paper, 51.5 x 61.5 cm.
  • Louis Maqhubela (1939-2010) Drift II, 2008, mixed media, 62 x 76.5 cm.
  • Douglas Portway, Abstract composition with Red Sun Form and Fish, 1973, oil on paper, 53.5 x 36 cm.
  • Douglas Portway, XV, 1976, oil on paper, 52 x 75 cm.
  • Marcus Neustetter (1976-) Steve Reich III, 2010, ink on paper, 13 x 21 cm.
  • Cy Twombly (1928-2011) Untitled, 1971, lithograph, 57 x 76.2 cm
  • David Koloane Saxophone no.1, 2016, Mixed media on canvas, 130 x 140cm.

Activities

Talk About Abstraction

Getting Started:

Abstract Art in South Africa

  • Artists: Douglas Portway
  • Artists: Louis Maqhubela
  • Artists: Bill Ainslie
  • Artists: Ernest Mancoba
  • Artists: Larry Scully
  • Activities: Talk About Abstraction
  • Go to the next section in this theme: Speaking in Colour

CAPS Concepts and Keywords:

  • expressing
  • listening
  • looking
  • responding
  • talking
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