I once watched a gathering of small children react to a group of Philip Guston�s 1962 abstract canvases.  The exhibition was in a big, open space in the Bronx Museum and I was the only other viewer present.  They behaved the way kids would if they suddenly found themselves on a beautiful beach on a bright, sunny day.  They danced in response to the paintings; they were joyful in a way that I�d never seen before.  The teachers, respectful of the children�s autonomous experience, let them enjoy the paintings for a long time before initiating any discussion.

A really successful work of art, whether it is abstract or representational, engenders all kinds of associations, which in some way evoke our earliest experiences in trying to make sense of the external world in relation to ourselves.  Art provides us with access to a shared world of symbols.  Mark Rothko�s statement that �Every shape becomes an organic entity inviting the multiplicity of associations inherent in all living things� indicates the concern he has for the viewer.  When you look at his abstract paintings of the 1950s, you can experience the formal elements of the painted surface as it�s content; those aspects which give evidence of the painting�s procedural making.  You can also experience an illusionistic space, a kind of fictive  landscape which one can almost fall into.  At other

times, those soft, blocks of transparent color feel like segments of an upright body, an abstract semblance of a human figure which mirrors the viewer�s own body.

During a recent viewing of Henri Matisse�s early (1907-1913) sculptures, I realized, once again, how exciting it is to experience both abstract and figurative aspects of expression in a single work of art.  It is, in fact, the oscillation which occurs, as the eye and mind perceive these alternating aspects or factors, which is so interesting and liberating.  We have the mental capacity to appreciate this counterpoint.  It is, after all, a function of thinking and of language.  Language, when articulated in any form of artistic expression, will incorporate commonly shared components of communication and signification.

When we are educated to think in a polarized, either/or manner, all sorts of blocks and closures accumulate in the mind.  It is very important to be on guard against the kind of doctrinaire thinking which will, for reasons that are ultimately political, trying to impose negative limitations on the human mind�s positive propensity to exercise it�s innate capacity and desire for freedom of invention.

Copyright 2000 Susanna Tanger