abstraction

Both brains and slugs use the same chemical mechanisms to develop abstractions, general rules to guide their hosts through the chaos of moment-to-moment experience.

At the same time the image is simplified to the point of abstraction.

It isn’t only because dramatic realism is broadly appealing to a public in ways modern abstraction isn’t.

In Monet’s views of the Palazzo Ducale seen from a gondola, the pale wall of the building and its block of rosy reflection threaten to become an abstraction.

His people take on the pared-down faces of Léger’s own figures; abstraction creeps in and geometry becomes a major consideration; color appears in broad strokes and washes, unifying bustling scenes and roiling elements.