Representational Vs Non-Representational Abstracts

In prior posts, I have occasionally used the terms representational and non-representational abstracts. At times, I have been asked to define the difference between the two, and I thought I would do so with two examples of new work.

Representational abstracts are made when the image contains objects that are identifiable, though they have been ‘abstracted’ so that they don’t appear the way they do in real life. Take, for example, this image of a large room at the Carnegie Museum of Art. It is a multiple exposure to which blurs and textures have been added. Nonetheless, you can tell that it is an image of a large room. You can tell what the objects in the photo are.

“Waiting For The Emperor” © Howard Grill

In non-representational abstracts, there is nothing in the image (or at least no major parts of the image) that is clearly identifiable as a known ‘real-world’ object. For example, the main subject in this image is rust on the hull of a ship that was then brought into Photoshop and altered further. You can’t easily identify what the ‘real-life’ subject was and are free to interpret the image as you wish.

“Eruption” © Howard Grill

Personally, I enjoy making and experimenting with both types of abstracts.

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