In this essay I focus on the question of why we are attracted to abstract art (perhaps more accurately, non-representational or object-free art). After elaborating on the processing of visual art in general and abstract art in particular, I discuss recent data from neuroscience and behavioural studies related to abstract art. I conclude with several speculations concerning our apparent appeal to this particular type of art. In particular, I claim that abstract art frees our brain from the dominance of reality, enabling it to flow within its inner states, create new emotional and cognitive associations, and activate brain-states that are otherwise harder to access. This process is apparently rewarding as it enables the exploration of yet undiscovered inner territories of the viewer’s brain.
Art and reality
Over the course of human evolution, the phenomenon of art appeared some 30,000 years ago and humans became increasingly occupied with creating and appreciating works of art (Humphery, 1999; Solso, 1999).
Art works are sensed and perceived via the same neuronal machinery and anatomical routes that were primarily developed for interacting with, and comprehending, “reality”. These mechanisms evolved in order for us to acquire and analyse sensory information from the world around us and, consequently, to successfully and adaptively behave in an ever-changing environment (see the “Perception Action loop” theory in Tishby and Polani, 2011).
The visual system, which is the vehicle that processes visual art, is aimed at filtering, organising and putting (functional) order to the enormous amount of data streaming into our visual system. Interestingly, at early stages of visual processing, the visual scene is deconstructed into its elementary components such as spots of light, lines, edges, simple forms, colors and movement. At later (higher) stages, the system reconstructs these components into complicated forms and objects: a moving car, a face with blinking eyes, a pirouette of a dancer (Zeki, 1992; Hubel, 1998).
Being an efficient learning machine, our brain uses bidirectional (“top down” and “bottom up”) processing schemes and algorithms for visual scene analysis.
Namely, we first build (predict) a tentative model, an optional representation, of the visual world and this model is then verified and updated with increased accuracy against the “evidence” presented by the sensory stimulus (Hochstein and Ahissar, 2002; Bar, 2007; Tishby and Polani, 2011). These ongoing bidirectional processes enable us to make quick and effective generalisations and decisions about the world.
In contrast to the processing of daily objects, art is free from the functional restrictions imposed on the visual system during our daily life. Art is very often engaged in finding new ways to organise and represent objects and scenery. Artists are liberated to represent and to decompose depicted objects in various non-functional (non –“realistic”) ways. Examples are works by artists of the Cubist (e.g., George Braque and Pablo Picasso) or Surrealist (e.g., Salvador Dali and Juan Miro) movements. Artworks could also be only partially faithful representations of our daily visual experience, such as the monochromatic blue figures of Pablo Picasso or the blue horses of Franz Marc, and it can be “free” from obeying the laws of physics (e.g., the flying figures of Marc Chagall or the impossible objects of E.C. Escher).
Apparently we categorise some inputs as artworks while others as non-art. We make this distinction based on contextual, cultural and perceptual parameters. Interestingly, a major distinction between perceiving an object as piece of art or as part of the daily visual (non-art) experience, relies on the presence of artistic style (such as the brush work of the painter) and not only on the content of the scene (Augustin et al., 2008; Cupchik et al., 2009; and see also Cavanagh and Perdreau, 2011; Di Dio et al., 2011).
The above notion brings to mind the unique character of abstract art, which, unlike representational art and other forms of art mentioned above, does not exemplify objects or entities familiar to our visual system during daily life experience.
Still, as all visual information, abstract art is perceived via the same system that was developed primarily to functionally represent real-world objects. This places abstract art in a unique position within visual processing—far from the natural (“survival”) role of that system.
It is, therefore, intriguing to try and understand why we are attracted to abstract art (as demonstrated by the huge success of museum exhibitions of the abstract artwork, such as those of Jackson Pollock). This must mean that abstract art, which is a rather new human invention, offers something attractive to the viewer’s brain. So I would like to ask: what does abstract art offer to the viewer’s mind?
This article focuses on the two ends of a continuum between representational art and abstract art, and therefore not relating to the in-between category of paintings, i.e., semi-representational or semi-abstract works.
Neural and behavioural correlates of art/abstract art
A fundamental assumption of modern brain research is that each action in mental/cognitive/emotional realms is correlated with a corresponding specific brain activity pattern. Each activity represents and generates the resultant experience. It is therefore worth seeking for the neutral correlates of the abstract art experience and attempting to extract the principles underlying the neural processing of this form of art.
In an FMRI imaging study, Kawabata and Zeki (2004) demonstrated that different categories of painting—landscape, portrait and still life—evoked activity at localised and category-specific brain regions. In contrast, abstract art did not activate a unique localised brain region. Rather, brain activity related to abstract art appeared in brain regions activated by all other categories as well. Thus, when subtracting the fMRI signal generated by abstract art from signals generated by representative art of the various types (landscape, portraits, still life) then zero activity was observed.
This is surprising as one might assume that there would be neural correlates (i.e., specific brain activity) for the specific cognitive category recognition of abstract art. On the other hand, because abstract art does not consist of clear well-characterised objects, but rather is composed of basic visual elements such as lines, spots, color patches and simple forms such as triangles, one might expect the activity corresponding to these basic elements to also appear in other categories of brain activity.
In this case, we should not expect a unique brain activity related to abstract art as indeed was found by Kawabata and Zeki (2004) as well as by Vartanian and Goel (2004). To put it differently, it seems that we know that we view abstract art by realizing that what we view does not belong to any other specific category of art. Namely, we recognise abstract art by exclusion.
In addition to fMRI studies, abstract art was also studied by behavioural and by direct voltage electroencephalogaphy (DC-EEG) methods. Combining behavioral and low-resolution electromagnetic tomography analysis, Lengger et al. (2007) demonstrated that observers preferred abstract and representational paintings in an equal manner. Yet the abstract stimuli evoked more positive emotions.
Representational artworks were classified as more interesting, were understood better and induced more associations (as reported subjectively by the observers). Information about the painting (such as the title of the paining, the artist’s name, the technique used) increased understanding of each style (representational as well as abstract art), but it did not change other parametres of evaluations (i.e., preference, associations, emotions). Comparing brain activity in response to representational and abstract paintings revealed significantly higher activation for representational art works in several brain regions, predominantly in the left frontal lobe and bilaterally in the temporal, frontal and parietal lobes, limbic system, insular and other areas as well.
Increased brain activity in response to representational art was mostly attributed to the process of object recognition, and the activation of memory and associations systems. Introducing stylistic information seemed to reduce cortical activation, for both representational and abstract art. The authors concluded that information on artworks seems to facilitate the neural processing of the stimuli.
Source: Frontiers