# data[].attributes.body
Hij gaf inzicht over hoe abstractie als betekenis vanuit een mannelijke witte elite onstond

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De essays geven inzicht over hoe greenberg tegen abstracte kunst aankeek. Hij had grote invloed

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Zen in the Fifties, Helen Westgeest, 1997

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Zen in the Fifties, Helen Westgeest, 1997

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Dit boek gaf goede informatie over hoe flow verband houdt met het zenboeddisme en hoe dit invloed had op de kijk op abstracte kunst.

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Ai heb ik in het onderzoek gehanteerd om te zoeken naar goede passende bronnen en het reflecteren op samenhang in het verslag.

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Zelfexpressie is goed voor je mentale gezondheid

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Zelfexpressie is goed voor je mentale gezondheid

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Abstract

Abstract
This quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of visual art making on the cortisol levels of 39 healthy adults. Participants provided saliva samples to assess cortisol levels before and after 45 minutes of art making. Participants also provided written responses about the experience at the end of the session. Results indicate that art making resulted in statistically significant lowering of cortisol levels. Participants' written responses indicated that they found the art-making session to be relaxing, enjoyable, helpful for learning about new aspects of self, freeing from constraints, an evolving process of initial struggle to later resolution, and about flow/losing themselves in the work. They also reflected that the session evoked a desire to make art in the future. There were weak associations between changes in cortisol level and age, time of day, and participant responses related to learning about one's self and references to an evolving process in art making. There were no significant differences in outcomes based on prior experiences with art making, media choice, or gender.

Introduction

Efforts have been underway in the past decade to examine the biological substrate of creative self-expression (Pennebaker, 1997; Smyth, Hockmeyer, & Tulloch, 2008). In particular, salivary cortisol has been examined as a noninvasive biomarker and a proxy measure for the experience of stress in humans (Smyth et al., 1997; Smyth et al., 1998). Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone and one of the most widely studied markers of stress (Staufenbiel, Penninx, Spijker, Elzinga, & van Rossum, 2013). The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) regulates reactions to stress and HPA axis dysfunction is associated with physiological stress in the body (Engelmann, Landgraf, & Wotjak, 2004). Measurement of cortisol levels is indicative of HPA dysfunction and a stress response is typically associated with increases in cortisol levels.

Several clinical studies have reported reductions in salivary cortisol levels after behavioral interventions to reduce stress (Aboulafia-Brakha, Suchecki, Gouveia-Paulino, Nitrini, & Ptak, 2014; Galvin, Benson, Deckro, Fricchione, & Dusek, 2006; Miluk-Kolasa, Obminski, Stupnicki, & Golec, 1993). Specifically, saliva contains free, biologically active cortisol as opposed to total cortisol present in serum or plasma. Importantly, the concentration of cortisol in saliva is independent of the salivary flow rate and is strongly correlated with serum cortisol concentrations (Bozovic, Racic, & Ivkovic, 2013). Salivary cortisol levels increase 5 minutes after an increase in plasma levels and are strongly correlated with plasma levels (Lucassen & Cizza, 2012). Expressive writing has been found to be related to long-term improvements in health (Pennebaker, 1997) and lowered stress levels (Smyth et al., 2008). Like expressive writing, evidence suggests that music and art are two interventions that may have a positive effect on psychological states and on biomarkers (Chanda & Levitin, 2013; Lai & Li, 2011; Stuckey & Nobel, 2010). Patients with serious health issues have used art as a therapeutic approach to help reduce stress and anxiety and express emotions (Reynolds & Lim, 2007). In a randomized controlled trial, individuals with breast cancer displayed improved well-being through the reduction of negative emotions and the enhancement of positive emotions using art (Puig, Lee, Goodwin, & Sherrard, 2006). In a qualitative study, researchers provided descriptive accounts of how caregivers used art to lessen symptoms of compassion fatigue and reduce their stress (Samoray, 2006). For patients with chronic illness, art has aided in improving overall health and well-being by distracting individuals from thoughts of illness, improving self-identity, and providing a social network (Reynolds & Prior, 2003).

There are a small number of studies indicating reduced stress resulting from visual art making. Artistic expression appears to lower stress in various health settings for both patients and family caregivers. For example, Lawson et al. ( 2012) found in their wait-list control study (pretest/posttest crossover design) that 1 hour of art making, which consisted of using brushes and paint to decorate a tile under the supervision of a student volunteer, decreased cortisol levels and helped to reduce feelings of sluggishness and improve concentration in people receiving blood and marrow transplants. In another pilot study, Walsh, Radcliffe, Castillo, Kumar, and Broschard ( 2007) tested the effects of an art-making class on family caregivers ( N = 69) of patients diagnosed with various forms of cancer. Their quasi-experimental pretest/posttest study employed a 2-hour art class. The results, although not statistically significant, did show a reduction in stress as measured by levels of salivary cortisol.

Research shows promise for studying art making with cortisol as a biological indicator to measure changes in stress response in patients and their caregivers. Most studies, however, have tested art activities (Lawson et al., 2012; Mercer, Warson, & Zhao, 2010; Walsh et al., 2007) and used a specific art task or directive that may have influenced the outcomes. Thus it is unclear how structuring the session for free creative self-expression, viewed as similar as possible to an actual therapy situation and facilitated by an art therapist, would lower the stress response. In addition, the role of media, theoretically identified as ranging from structured to unstructured and having differential effects (Lusebrink, 1990), has not yet been examined empirically. With the limited understanding of the physiological and concurrent psychological changes that result from art making, these gaps demonstrate a need for further research using biomarkers as a measure of stress. In addition, given that there are some potential emergent differences between artists' and non-artists' physiological responses to art making (Belkofer, Van Hecke, & Konopka, 2014), there is a need to better understand the role of prior experiences with art making on stress-related outcomes following art making.

The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes of art making in the context of making art with a facilitating art therapist who was also the primary researcher. The first author provided the structure of time and art materials and participants were free to create imagery of their choice. The study design was a quasi-experimental (pretest/posttest with no control group) study. The hypotheses guiding our study were that art making would result in reduced cortisol levels; greater changes in cortisol reduction for those with prior art-making experience; and greater changes in cortisol reduction for participants who used art media such as clay compared with participants using more structured media such as collage or markers. We also collected brief written responses from participants in order to better understand their individual subjective experiences related to art making. These narrative responses were collected as the qualitative component of the study in order to determine whether and how the subjective experiences might relate to changes in cortisol levels.

Method

Participants

Participants included 39 students, staff, and faculty ages 18 to 59 years, ( M = 38.88, SD = 12.69) from a large university in an urban area. There were 33 women and 6 men. The racial/ethnic makeup of the participants was African American ( n = 2), Asian American ( n = 13), White ( n = 13), and multiracial ( n = 3). There were 18 participants who reported that they had limited prior experience with art making, 13 who reported some experience, and 8 who reported extensive experience.

Materials and Procedures

The Institutional Review Board of the University approved the study. After receiving this approval, we recruited participants using both an e-mail sent to university listservs and printed flyers posted around campus. The flyer described the study as examining the health outcomes of visual self-expression, and participants were invited to schedule a time to take part in the study led by an art therapy faculty member. The study was described as including a 1-hour session that included approximately 45 minutes of art making and an additional 15 minutes for consent and data collection before and after the session. Data were collected over a 4-month time period in a dedicated art-therapy studio space in one of the university buildings. Given that this was a pilot study, a sample of 35 was identified as the minimum number of participants required for a medium effect size.

Each participant first completed procedures for informed consent. Previous levels of art-making experience were determined by verbally requesting this information prior to the intervention. Responses were coded as limited or no art-making experience, some prior art-making experience, or extensive prior art-making experience. Participants also provided a small sample of saliva using the Sarstedt Salivette saliva collection tool prior to art making.

After the completion of these pretest procedures, participants were invited to make art using collage materials, modeling clay, and/or markers. Participants were told that they had the option of creating any kind of imagery using the three media choices individually or in combination. They were also told that there was no expectation of creating a final artwork but that they were welcome to work with the materials as they chose. Most participants created their own artwork without any directive but the first author was available to provide any assistance and followed the lead of the participants regarding the level of conversation and interaction they sought while making art. For example, if participants chose to talk during the session, the first author responded in conversation and if they chose to work silently, the first author remained quietly present. Similarly if they requested help with executing an idea for their work, the first author helped them and, if not, stayed present and available. After they had completed their work, participants were invited to share any aspect of their work and/or experiences verbally. After the art-making experience a second saliva sample was collected, using the same procedure, and participants then were asked to share a brief (one to two line) written description of their experience with the art making and the imagery in their art.

The study's pretest and posttest saliva samples were then transported on ice to a certified lab at the university where they were analyzed using the ELISA kit method. The data from the lab analysis of the saliva were available in unit measures of ng/ml (nanograms/milliliter). To further ensure against any potential bias in the analysis, the analyst in the lab was blind to the source of the samples and did not know whether they were pre or posttest data. The samples were also analyzed in duplicate in order to reduce any errors in single sample analysis.

Data Analysis

The data from cortisol levels and participant demographics were entered into an Excel file and imported for analysis into SPSS. The data were first summarized using descriptive statistics. Next, the mean pretest and posttest data cortisol values were compared using a paired samples t test. The changes in cortisol levels were also examined in relation to participants' self-reported levels of expertise with art making and media choice using a one-way ANOVA. An independent t test was performed to compare changes in cortisol based on gender. Correlations were also computed to assess changes related to age of participants and time of day.

The written responses were compiled in response to the question, "What was it like to make art during this session?" These were collected and entered into a textual document and analyzed using Riessman's ( 2008) method for thematic analysis. The narratives were coded independently for open codes by the first and second authors. The codes generated were compared and those that were similar were combined. Those that differed were resolved through discussion and combined into a mutually agreed upon set of codes. The first and second authors then coded the responses again and identified seven distinct themes. Once the responses were coded, each theme was attributed a dichotomous numerical value (1 = theme present or 0 = theme not present) for each participant. The qualitative responses were thus converted into numeric data and then entered into the quantitative database to examine how and to what extent the narrative responses related to changes in cortisol levels.

Results

Changes in participants' pretest/posttest stress levels were measured via salivary cortisol (measured in nanograms/milliliter). A paired-sample t test indicated significant reductions in cortisol following the intervention. Mean scores for cortisol levels pretest ( M = 17.85, SD = 5.11) and posttest ( M = 14.77, SD = 5.06), t(38) = 4.54, p < .01, differed significantly. Cortisol levels ranged from 32.40 ng/ml to 5.05 ng/ml at pretest and from 25.00 ng/ml to 5.01 ng/ml at posttest. See Figure 1 for the changes in mean cortisol levels before and after art making.

Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making

23 May 2016

As can be seen in Figure 1, the mean cortisol levels were significantly lower after art making, even though the change was not consistent across participants. The levels were lowered more for some than for others. The area graph in Figure 2 reveals the changes in cortisol levels as they varied across all participants. The pretest and posttest levels were, however, strongly correlated, r = 0.61, p < .001. This indicates that overall those with higher pretest cortisol levels had higher posttest scores and similarly those with lower pretest scores also had lower posttest scores. Overall, the cortisol levels were lowered after art making for approximately 75% of the sample. Cortisol levels stayed unchanged or were elevated for about 25%. Figure 3 highlights this range in change of cortisol levels with an area graph showing changes across all participants.

Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making

23 May 2016

Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making

23 May 2016

As can be seen in Figures 2 and 3, there was considerable variation across participants even though the overall results indicated a statistically significant reduction in cortisol. We further sought to examine whether these differences between participants might be related to other variables like age, gender, race/ethnicity, time of day, prior experience with art-making, or type of art media used.

Prior Experience With Art Making

The relationship between prior experience with art making and cortisol levels was examined using a one-way ANOVA. Results indicated that there were no significant differences based on prior experiences (limited experience, M = −2.43, SD = 3.91; some experience, M = −4.24, SD = 5.59; and extensive experience, M = −3.0, SD = 3.99) on cortisol levels, F(2, 36) = 0.64, p = .53.

Media Choice

Participants had the option of using collage, model magic clay, fine-tip markers, or any combination thereof. Given these, 13 participants used collage, 9 used clay, 6 used markers, 4 used a combination of markers and clay, 3 used a combination of collage and clay, 3 used a combination of collage and markers, and 1 used a combination of all media. The relationship between media choice and change in cortisol was examined using a one-way ANOVA. Results indicated that there were no significant differences based on media choice on change in cortisol level, F(7, 31) = 0.47, p = .85.

Race/Ethnicity

The relationship between race and ethnicity and change in cortisol was examined using a one-way ANOVA. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between race/ethnicity, Asian American, M = −2.51, SD = 4.47; African American, M = 1.45, SD = 8.41; White, M = −3.53, SD = 4.26; and multiracial, M = −5.40, SD = 4.13, on changes in cortisol levels, F(3, 35) = 1.08, p = .37.

Gender

The relationships between gender and change in cortisol levels for men ( M = −3.86, SD = 2.12) and women ( M = −2.93, SD = 4.83) were examined using an independent t test. The results indicated that there were no significant differences based on gender on changes in cortisol, t(37) = .456, p = .65.

Age

The relationship between age and changes in cortisol levels was examined using a bivariate correlation. Results indicated that there was a weak positive correlation between age and changes in cortisol levels, r(37) = 0.22, p = .18. This indicates that younger participants were more likely to demonstrate lowering in cortisol levels compared with older participants. The relationship was very weak so this difference needs to be interpreted with caution.

Time of Day

Because cortisol levels tend to be highest in the morning and steadily decline throughout the day (Debono et al., 2009; Lupien, King, Meaney, & McEwen, 2000), we wanted to determine the influence of time, if any, on relationships between variables. Time of day was coded using a continuous scale mapped onto the 24-hour day (e.g., 1 pm was coded as 13, 2 pm as 14, etc.). Using a bivariate correlation, we found that there was a moderate positive relationship between the time of day that cortisol was collected and difference in cortisol scores before and after art making, r(39) = .29, p = .038.

Taken together these findings indicate that changes in cortisol levels were seen across demographic characteristics and were not related to age, gender, or race/ethnicity. In addition, changes in cortisol levels were also unrelated to participants' prior experiences with art making or media choice.

Participant Responses to Art Making

In order to assess whether the individual level variation in the changes in cortisol levels could be explained further based on participants' narrative responses, the data were examined for content related to the self-reported perceived impact of art making. The written responses indicated that participants' perceptions of the art-making experience were varied. Some referred to it as relaxing, a stress reliever during a busy work day; others referred to it as being fun and enjoyable, a form of distraction, and a reminder of childhood. Several participants reflected on the absence of art in their adult lives and how the experience reminded them of a time when they had last made art as a child. Seven themes emerged from analysis of participants' responses to art making: feeling relaxed ( n = 19); feeling pleasure/enjoyment ( n = 19); learning something new about one's self ( n = 15); feeling free from constraints ( n = 13); experiencing an evolving process of change in art making from initial struggle to later resolution ( n = 12); feeling a sense of flow/losing themselves in the work ( n = 11); and having a desire to make art in the future ( n = 3). Some narratives included more than one theme.

To examine whether responses could be related to changes in cortisol levels, we attributed a numeric value for the occurrence of each theme and checked for correlations with individual changes in cortisol levels. This indicated that themes were not strongly correlated with changes in cortisol levels. Controlling for time of day, two themes correlated with changes in cortisol: evolving process, r(39) = 0.27, p = .11], and learning about one's self, r(39) = 0.22, p = .19. Participants who reported going through a process of initial struggle to later creating something they liked and those who reported learning about self through the process of art making were slightly more likely to demonstrate lowering of cortisol levels.

Images and titles of three participants' artwork are provided in Figures 4, 5, and 6. Figure 4 depicts artwork created by a 24-year-old White man, which he titled The Evolution of a Seed of an Idea. Referring to the art-making experience, he said, "I was tentative and careful at first, but once I found my concept in the magazine materials everything flowed naturally and freely. I actually went from perceiving too much to feeling like time moved too fast." He went on to say: "My imagination was fully engaged by the end." A 29-year-old Asian American woman created Figure 5, which she described by writing, "This is my representation of City Hall. I see it every day on my way to work," going on she said, "I found the experience of making this piece to be enjoyable and 'liberating' in that I didn't have to be restricted by rules or procedures." A 38-year-old African American woman created Figure 6, which she said was about the idea of homes/homelessness. She described the art-making experience as follows: "It was very relaxing. After about 5 minutes, I felt less anxious. I was able to obsess less about things that I had not done or need[ed] to get done. Doing art allowed me to put things into perspective."

Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making

Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making

Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making

Discussion

Our main hypothesis, that there would be a lowering of salivary cortisol as a result of visual art making, was supported by the results. Additional hypotheses were not supported: Those with prior levels of experience with art making or who used less structured media did not show greater reductions in cortisol. Also, there were no associations between reduction of cortisol and age, gender, or race/ethnicity. We found weak correlations between changes in cortisol levels and age of participants and time of day. Controlling for age and time of day, weak positive correlations were found between changes in cortisol levels and the themes of evolving process and learning about self. Results indicate that a brief experience of art making produced physiological changes in most participants, indicating that art making can lower cortisol levels regardless of prior experience with art, media type, or demographics.

Previous studies have demonstrated some change in cortisol levels as a result of an art task (Lawson et al., 2012; Walsh et al., 2007). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate reductions in cortisol levels in healthy adults as a result of art making in a format structured to be similar to an art therapy session. We also examined participants' written responses to the experience, which allowed for a more complete understanding of its impact. Written responses indicated that some themes (evolving process and learning about self) were associated with greater lowering of cortisol than other themes, though the correlations were weak. These results have to be viewed with caution because of this, together with the small sample size.

Art making is an enjoyable or relaxing experience for some, whereas for others it is associated with freedom of expression, evokes a flow experience, stimulates insight, and provides a way to learn about one's self. Further research is needed to better understand how these experiences are related to changes in cortisol levels and stress reduction.

Although results overall were statistically significant, reductions in cortisol levels were not consistent for all participants. Levels were lowered for about 75% of the sample ( n = 30). This does not seem to have been related to the type of media used or to gender. There was a weak correlation with age such that younger participants demonstrated a greater lowering of cortisol than older participants. This might be because older individuals may have a more practiced response to their stress levels and are able to tap into problem-solving strategies more readily compared with younger individuals. In addition, lowering of cortisol levels was more likely to be seen earlier in the day, rather than later, which has implications for the timing of studies of these kinds of interventions, as well as for patient interventions.

It is of note that for a little less than 25% of the sample ( n = 9), cortisol levels stayed about the same or actually went up by a few ng/ml after art making. The narrative responses of these individuals did not indicate any negative reflections about the art-making process. This finding raises several questions. It could be that art making resulted in a state of arousal and/or engagement, which resulted in higher stress for this small group. This might not necessarily be a problem, because arousal may lead to increased self-awareness or new learning. In fact, we did find some correlations between changes in cortisol and participants' narrative experiences. Those who spoke about an evolving process from initial struggle to later resolution and those who reported learning about self were slightly more likely to demonstrate a decrease in cortisol. It is also possible that 45 minutes of art making was not adequate time for some to experience reduced stress or notice any benefits. In addition, for a few participants, the art making was possibly stressful and/or stimulating; and as a result, their cortisol went up instead of down even though their narrative response suggested a positive experience. It is also possible that given the small sample size and the nature of the sessions, participants were reluctant to report negative responses. Another likely reason for the lack of a relationship between many of the themes and the changes in cortisol might be that we did not use the appropriate psychological parallels for this biomarker. In future studies, participants could be administered a psychological measure of stress which might be more closely related to cortisol change rather than narrative responses. Future research might also consider assessing levels of salivary alpha amylase, a biomarker increasingly being considered a more accurate measure of short-term changes in stress levels (Nater & Rohleder, 2009). Further research is also needed to better understand the differences in outcomes between psychological and physiological measures, differences related to type of media, differences in outcomes based on art making with and without an art therapist, and differences with clinical populations.

There are several limitations of this study to consider. The primary limitation was the absence of a control group. Thus it is hard to determine at present which factors in the session (art making, interactions with the researcher, or something else) contributed to the lowering of cortisol. Moreover, participants varied in their level of interaction with the researcher and need for structure during art making, which again made each experience somewhat variable. The study also used a healthy (nonclinical) sample and thus it is not clear if the same patterns would be seen in clinical groups. In many of the between-group analyses, the subgroups were not very large. Therefore results in these cases must be interpreted with caution. Lastly, 85% of the participants were women and nearly 80% had moderate to high levels of experience with art making, which further limits the generalizability of the findings.

Our pilot study provides preliminary evidence for the use of art making for lowering cortisol, a proxy measure of stress, among healthy adults. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study to demonstrate lowering of cortisol levels after a short session of art making structured to be similar to an art therapy situation. In our sample, reduction of cortisol was not related to gender, type of media used, race/ethnicity, or prior experience with art making, although it was related slightly to age and time of day. There were weak to moderate correlations between the lowering of cortisol and the narrative response themes of learning about self and the evolving process of art making. It is of note that cortisol levels were lowered for most participants but not all, indicating a need to further explore stress reduction mechanisms.

Funding

This study was funded through a grant to the first author from the Office of Faculty Development and Equity at Drexel University.

References

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Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making

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Abstract Abstract This quasi-experimental study investigated the impact of visual art making on the cortisol levels of 39 healthy adults. Participants provided saliva samples to assess cortisol levels before and after 45 minutes of art making. Participants also provided written responses about the experience at the end of the session.

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Hier worden verschillende kunstenaars besproken en kunstwerken bekeken die vallen onder het abstract expressionisme.

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Abstraction and exile in richter. (2011). [Video]. www.gerhard-richter.com. van https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/videos/talks/abstraction-and-exile-in-richter-44

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Watch videos on Richter’s recent exhibitions, on selected groups of his works and talks.

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Hier zie het werk van Mehretu dat een bijzondere vorm van abstractie heeft.

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Directing a focus towards enduring conflict, widespread displacement and the asymmetry of power, Mehretu takes as her subject images sourced from current affairs media, in particular the ongoing war in Ukraine and the events of the US Capitol insurrection of 6 January 2021.

Julie Mehretu's solo exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey, 'They departed for their own country another way (a 9x9x9 hauntology)', debuts three new series of paintings consisting of nine works each. Presented alongside these works, in the 9x9x9 gallery Mehretu has paired her title track painting with a sculpture by visual artist Nairy Baghramian, in response to an ongoing dialogue between the two artists.

Marking Mehretu's fifth exhibition with the gallery, the title of the show draws from the biblical verse Matthew 2:12, wherein God imparts a message to the Magi through a dream, cautioning them against the duplicity of King Herod, so that they return from paying homage to the infant Jesus as altered human beings. This age-old admonition finds poignant resonance in Mehretu's new body of work, which continues her exploration of our discordant contemporaneity. Directing a focus towards enduring conflict, widespread displacement and the asymmetry of power, Mehretu takes as her subject images sourced from current affairs media, in particular the ongoing war in Ukraine and the events of the US Capitol insurrection of 6 January 2021.

A dialogue between Mehretu and Baghramian is introduced in the 9x9x9 gallery, where the artist's large-scale painting, They departed for their own country another way (2023), is displayed alongside Baghramian's abstract sculpture S'asseyant (2022). A three-part 'slab' of cast aluminium and silicon, S'asseyant's weighty, unpolished forms rest prostrate upon the floor. In this decidedly lateral placement, the disarticulate body lays osseous, dimpled by pressures of casting and partly cushioned by a gummy wad of silicon. Baghramian's work expresses a cogent, felt presence in the space, one perceived by Mehretu to be 'the impression of a body that has gotten up and walked away, or detritus after a tragic event that caused the body to melt and leave behind a scarred impression on rough aluminium.' In contrast to the gestural dynamism of Mehretu's large-scale painting, the sculpture's materiality - its irregularity of form and torpid gravitational pull - acts as a mooring in the space. In tandem, both the painting and sculpture share a vitality born out of erasure and fragmentation, compelling one another to embody their respective imperfection and the 'liberation of the figure, or of representation itself.'

Occupying White Cube Bermondsey's South Gallery II, the artist's series of 'classic' paintings employ her distinctive process of digitally obscuring the original source images, rearticulating them through hyperactive layers of halftone dots, aeriform hazes of bright yellow or green and convulsive black marks that echo the symphonic dissonance of the original photographs. Locating the paintings in source material of geopolitical violence and the fraught preservations of nationhood, Mehretu's compositions abrade these images through layers of process. In turn, the blunt influence of the original material recedes into a dismantled and centrifugal entropy, as though partially schematising the embodied impact and impulsive response of the event's aftermath.

In the same space, a new group of ' TRANSpaintings' arranged 'in the round', are installed on aluminium frames and scaffolds. These sculptural support structures, created by Baghramian and one aspect of the artists' active discourse, serve a multifaceted purpose; clamping and bracing the paintings to stand upright, they lend agency to the artwork's presence within the space while their placement at differing heights compels a direct encounter with the viewer. Additionally, the use of translucent material creates lustrous, ethereal images that permit light to pass through the surface and movement in the space to activate it. Infiltrating the works' nebulous forms, they become a synthesis of image, action and space that further complicates the viewer's relationship to - and entanglement with - the abject image.

The third and final element of this tripartite exhibition of nines, are Mehretu's 'Femenine in nine' paintings, which mark a departure from the implicit referentiality of the 'classic' paintings and ' TRANSpaintings'. Within these new works, the artist's characteristic delineations find themselves adrift in deep chasms of darkness. The iridescent marks and scrawls that densely populate the surface become animated by the viewer's orbit. Here, the prismatic tints of Mehretu's paintings privilege an exuberance of varied surface application, conjuring energies that oscillate from the feverish to the stilled. Each composition is enlivened by motion, where hues appear to flourish anew; for instance, from one angle emitting a verdant green and from another a shocking, metallic pink. Much like an oil slick, or the biological occurrence that results in phosphenes, the image integrates itself into the viewer's choreography through space, morphing with each incremental change in position. Guided solely by the figuration of charged mark-making and hazy interjections of graffitied colour, the works create riotous landscapes in perpetual flux, mirroring our contemporary condition of rupture and uncertainty.

Biographies

Julie Mehretu was born in Addis Ababa in 1970 and lives and works in New York. She has exhibited extensively including a travelling mid-career survey at the LACMA, Los Angeles, California (2019), travelling to High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia (2020); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2021); and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2021). Other solo exhibitions include Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK (2019); Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (2017); Centro Botín, Santander, Spain (2017); Gebre Kristos Desta Center, Addis Ababa (2016); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2009); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan (2007) touring to Williams College Art Gallery, Williamstown, Massachusetts and North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh (both 2008); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain, touring to Kunstverein Hannover, Germany and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (2006-07); St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri (2005); and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, touring to REDCAT, Los Angeles and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, (2003-04).

Selected group exhibitions include the 58th Venice Biennale (2019); Performa 17, New York (2017); 12th Sharjah Biennial (2015); 10th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2014); Document 13, Kassel, Germany (2012); 15th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2006); 26th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2004); 54th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2004); Whitney Biennial, New York (2004); and 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003).

In 2005 Mehretu was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Award and the American Art Award from the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2015 she was awarded the US Department of State Medal of Arts Award. Mehretu is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and The National Academy of Design.

Nairy Baghramian was born in Isfahan, Iran in 1971, and lives and works in Berlin. Primarily a sculptural artist, her work explores form and content in response to contextual conditions such as architecture, medium, language and history. Ongoing solo exhibitions include 'YOU ARE HERE*: Contemporary Art in the Garden', MoMA, New York; 'Scratching the Back', The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and 'Nairy Baghramian: Jupon de Corps', Aspen Art Museum, Colorado. Other recent solo shows include those at Carré d'Art, Nîmes, France (2022); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas (2022); Secession, Vienna (2022); Galleria d'Arte Moderna (GAM), Milan, Italy (2021); MUDAM Luxembourg (2019); Palacio de Cristal, Madrid (2018).

Baghramian has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Nivola Award for Sculpture (2023); the Nasher Prize Laureate (2022); the Zurich Art Prize (2016); the Arnold-Bode Prize, Kassel, Germany (2014); the Hector Prize, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Germany (2012); and the Ernst Schering Foundation Award (2007). She has participated in the Yorkshire Sculpture International at The Hepworth Wakefield, UK (2019); Venice Biennale, Italy (2019 and 2011); Skulptur Projekte Münster, Germany (2017 and 2007); the 8th and 5th Berlin Biennale (2014 and 2008); and Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Scotland (2012).

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Returning to White Cube's Bermondsey site for the first time since 'Liminal Squared' in 2013, the exhibition will encompass all of the gallery's spaces and debut three new series of paintings.

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In de expositie kon je de werken van Kelly zien die zich focusten op het gebruik van kleur en vorm

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Het loslaten van de figuratieve weergave van de werkelijkheid en het zoeken naar nieuwe manieren van visualisatie.

(Karmel, 2016)

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Een flow is een toestand waarin je volledig opgaat in een activiteit waar je de tijd vergeet. Ook heeft het verband met productiviteit en verhoogde creativiteit. Een voorwaarde van een flow is dat de taak bijna perfect aan moet sluiten op de vaardigheden van de persoon (Csikszentmihalyi, z.d.).

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Stadia 1, 2004

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Dit boek geeft inzichten in processen van kunstenaars door interviews of manifesten.

Harrison, C., & Wood, P. (1993). Art in Theory 1900-1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. https://philpapers.org/rec/HARAIT-18

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No. 5, 1948, New York

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Untitled, 2010, New York

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Red curve, 1972

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Dit boek geeft uitgebreid inzicht in de werken en het schilderproces van Gerhard Richter.

Elger, D., Dresden, S. K., & Archiv, S. K. D. G. R. (2011). Gerhard Richter : catalogue raisonné. In Hatje Cantz eBooks. https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB07168722

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Dit boek richt zich op de hedendaagse kunstenaars en hoe zij hun proces beleven

Gnyp, M. (2013). Made in Mind: Myths ans realities of the contemporary artist.

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In de werken van Helen Frankenthaler zie je heel goed hoe haar proces is verlopen. Onder andere door de soak- stain techniek.

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Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules | Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

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The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules, a major exhibition celebrating one of the most significant artists of

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Over 11 vrouwelijke kunstenaars die bezig zijn met wat abstract is in verschillende technieken en materialen.

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De tentoonstelling Abstract laat het werk zien van elf vrouwelijke kunstenaars, zowel uit de regio als daarbuiten, die actief zijn in de abstracte kunst. De uitingsvormen zijn divers en variëren van schilderkunst en fotografie tot keramiek, textiel en glas.

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Het vakmanschap waarop deze bron zich focust geeft handvaten om een schilderproces duurzaam en zelfverzekerd voort kan zetten.

Sennett, R. (2008). De ambachtsman: de mens als maker. Meulenhoff Boekerij.

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Abstract art: a global history, Pepe Karmel, 2016

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Abstract art: a global history, Pepe Karmel, 2016

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Dit boek geeft een beschrijving over wat abstractie betekent in de kunst.

Karmel, P. (2016). Absstract Art: A Global History (1ste editie). Thames & Hudson Ltd.

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Alla Prima: everything i know about painting, Richard Schmid, 1998

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Alla Prima: everything i know about painting, Richard Schmid, 1998

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Deze bron geeft informatie over hoe je het schilderproces kunt volhouden verbeteren. De focus ligt op de techniek maar ook op de creatieve flow.

Schmid, R. (1998). Alla prima: Everything i know about painting. https://archive.org/details/richard-schmid-alla-prima_202104/page/22/mode/2up

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Richard Schmid Alla Prima : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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Mouth, 1963, Chicago

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19.3.92, 1992,

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Drawn from Nature: The Plant Lithographs of Ellsworth Kelly - Richard H. Axsom, Ellsworth Kelly - Google Boeken

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An American artist of worldwide renown, Ellsworth Kelly has consistently returned to nature as a subject throughout his extraordinary career. Kelly began making prints in 1964; shortly thereafter he created his first suite of plant lithographs. To date he has produced 72 plant lithographs that fall into five major series: Suite of Plant Lithographs (1964–66); Leaves (1973–74); Twelve Leaves (1978); Series of Plant and Flower Lithographs (1983–85); Oak Leaves (1992); and several individual works. This comprehensive book serves as a beautiful portfolio of the plant lithographs accompanied by informative texts on all of these works as well as an insightful discussion of how they relate to the ink and pencil plant drawings that the artist has produced concurrently with the lithographs throughout his career.Kelly has occupied the center stage of modernism since his early years in Paris in the 1950s. Distinguished for his abstract style of pure color and shape, Kelly believes that his art remains rooted in the natural world. In their simplicity of line and shape, his widely admired and accessible plant lithographs provide a critical link to the character of abstraction and are a remarkable achievement within the framework of Kelly’s lifetime of accomplishment.

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https://brill.com/view/journals/jpp/44/1/article-p60_3.xml

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Deze bron verteld van de psychologische kant hoe een flow tot stand komt.

Csikszntmihalyi, M. (z.d.). CREATIVITY. https://www.rochester.edu/warner/lida/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/creativity-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi.pdf

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Aruna D’Souza die het grensgebied tussen abstract en figuratief onderzoekt aan de hand van schilderijen van kunstenares Amy Sillman.

D’Souza, A. (z.d.). Amy Sillman: To be Other-Wise. 4Columns. https://4columns.org/d-souza-aruna/amy-sillman-to-be-other-wise

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Hoofdvraag:

Hoe continueer je het abstract schilderproces?

Deelvragen:

Wanneer is iets abstract?

Hoe kun je een nieuwe werkelijkheid creëren?

Wat is een flow?

Hoe creëer je een flow?

Hoe werken andere kunstenaars?

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Een kunstenaar geeft betekenis vorm met kunst, die zorgt voor een ervaring en interpretatie bij het publiek, die daarop weer zorgt voor een reactie. In mijn onderzoek ligt de focus op het artistieke proces, dus de bovenste cirkel.

McCarthy, K., Ondaatje, E., Zakaras, L. en Brooks, A. (2004). Gifts of the Muse. Reframing tthe Debate About the Benefi ts of the Arts. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation

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Om inzicht te kunnen krijgen in het proces van een kunstenaar, kijk ik interviews waar ze bezig zijn en vertellen tegelijk . Zijn blik op zijn werk vind bijzonder. Zo laat hij heel gemakkelijk eisen los en vertrouwd hij volledig op het lot. Een element zou beter zijn door het aan te passen, maar dat mag niet. Het mag niet door esthetica beter worden.

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Om abstractie te kunnen creëren haalde Kelly inspiratie uit te natuur om het te kunnen abstraheren. Hij maakte ook daadwerkelijk tekeningen maakte om naar zijn abstractie te kunnen gaan. Om tot een eigen werkelijkheid te komen doet hij concretere figuratieve dingen.

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Auerbach heeft een bijzonder schildersproces in vorm van tijd. Wanneer iets klaar is en hoe dit kan veranderen. Zo kijkt hij tijden lang niet naar een schilderij en bekijkt hij ze later of ze klaar zijn. Ook om tot abstracte vormen te komen door iedere keer een laag erover heen te gooien.

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Frank Auerbach once said that London after the second world war was a "marvellous landscape with precipice and mountain and crags, full of drama". It's a description that could just as easily apply to his own aged face, judging by the works that have just gone on display at a new show in the city.

Entitled Twenty Self-Portraits and showing at the Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert gallery, the exhibition comprises paintings on boards and drawings on paper, all done since 2017. Here he is looking like a bird; there, like a tree; there, a boulder unmoved by a storm. The artist, just turning 92, still lives where he works, as he always has done - alone in a north London studio. I call him at 9am on Good Friday. He picks up on the first ring.For decades, writers have struggled to find the right words to describe Auerbach: a hermit, a recluse, a monk, an obsessive. His daily routine seemed like it would never change: up before 7am to draw in quiet streets, then work in the studio - every day of the year - with one of the handful of people who have sat for him over the decades. As one veteran sitter, the art historian Catherine Lampert, puts it: "He's all by himself, every evening, by choice."

"I don't any longer do the daily drawing actually," says Auerbach. "I'm doing what may be my last two little paintings in the studio, of a scene outside. But I have been working this morning. When I got up, I saw [in what I'd done yesterday] something that seemed perfectly adequate but totally unnecessary and I rubbed it all out. Of course, now it looks utterly different. But it still isn't any good - and I shall go on with that process for as long as it takes."

'Are you a useful lump?' ... Self-portrait V, 2021. Photograph: © the artist, Courtesy Frankie Rossi Art Projects

The critic Robert Hughes, who wrote an acclaimed Auerbach monograph in the 1990s, said that an "overriding sense of being alone in the world" was at the heart of the German-born British artist's work. It would be tempting to link that summation to Auerbach finally arriving at self-portraiture. Yet, when seen in the round, it strikes me that his work is actually run through with steadfast relationships. The names of his sitters often make it into the titles: EOW (Auerbach's erstwhile companion Estella Olive West), JYM (Julia Yardley Mills, a professional model who sat for 40 years), Julia (his wife since 1958), Jake (his son) and a trio of art writers, William Feaver, Lampert and David Landau. Their presences are captured by Auerbach's exacting process of repeatedly trying, then erasing, then trying again to make an image that is true. And doing so, in most cases, for at least 20 years, sometimes well past 40.

When I suggest that his work speaks not of solitude but connection, he replies: "That is absolutely true. And it's possibly true that our deepest experiences are other people. I do think subject matters. And it seems that the only thing worth using for one's art is one's deepest experiences. I think my drawings sometimes, in retrospect, tell me a lot about my relationship with people I've been drawing. People say they're expressing themselves - but I'm not expressing myself at all. I'm trying to make an image." Yet, years later, he might look at a work "and see how I felt at the time, but wasn't aware of then".

Auerbach has always rejected any notion that his work is expressionist. He speaks in formal terms, about needing to have or feel "the lump" of whatever he's drawing in his mind. Feaver, the writer who has sat for him weekly since 2003, once described himself as "a useful lump". I can't resist asking Auerbach: "Are you a useful lump?"

"I'm an extremely useful lump!" he says brightly. "I don't chat. I'm very well aware of the enormous sacrifice my saintly sitters are making when they come to sit for me. But if I feel I want to go next door for 20 minutes, to see the thing with a fresh eye on my return, I can do that."

Sometimes I keep on drawing in my sleep. Before, I was hardly conscious of my dreams. Now I work things out

The catalogue for Twenty Self-Portraits features an article by Michael Roemer, the US film director and writer, who was among the very first to buy an Auerbach. It was 1950 and the painter was just 19. Roemer paid 10 guineas. He couldn't explain why, but he needed the piece. And he went on to collect more and live surrounded by them for 40 years. Speaking by phone from Florida, he describes his favourite charcoal: the one with the paper completely worn away, and backed up with another piece of paper, also worn away and patched. I know what he's referring to: one of the heads of EOW from the late 1950s.

The two men met as boys, aged 11 and 8. It was 1939 and they were at Bunce Court, a Kentish boarding school for orphans, mostly sent by their families from Berlin via the Kindertransport. Roemer, now 95, last met Auerbach three years ago. They said their goodbyes. But, adds Roemer, when they speak on the phone, they just pick up where they left off. "It's as though there were no years."

Roemer left the UK for the US at the age of 17. He remembers Auerbach, three years his junior, doing a watercolour of some boots, shortly before. "It wasn't a finished thing but it wasn't sketchy. It was just very different from everything the other children were doing and much better than anything I could do."

The distillation of lifetime of teaching himself how to draw ... Self-portrait IV, 2022. Photograph: © the artist, Courtesy Frankie Rossi Art Projects

Auerbach has described some of the lines in earlier self-portraits as being "an old man's marks". But these new works feel really fresh. They're small with a markedly vertical emphasis, the brush and charcoallines running downwards like spines or trunks. They're sparser than previous works, too.

Auerbach used to work for longer periods. "It was a physical affair," he says - a performance described by sitters in terms one might use for a boxing match, all shuffle and stomp. But his balance isn't so good now. "It's still physical, but I find I'm holding on to the easel with one hand and working with the other. Possibly the marks become slightly more summary and reduced."

It's also the distillation of a lifetime of, as he puts it, teaching himself how to draw. Even now, a work is only deemed finished and valid if it passes the final test: a black and white photograph is taken of it, to check the graphic structure. When drawing himself, I suggest, he must also feel his own structure, his actual bones. Does this feed into his understanding? Almost everything does, he says. "Sometimes I keep on drawing in my sleep. Before, I was hardly conscious of my dreams, but I now find myself working things out, thinking I should be doing this with that."

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Summer Building Site, a work from 1952 in which two yellowstepladders stand amid bold shapes in orange and green, has become essential to Auerbach's origin story: this was the first time he felt he had done his own painting - and he didn't know if he'd ever manage another. "I remember it all exactly," he says. "I felt I was breaking the sound barrier. I was crossing through and making something new."

As we talk, there is - as there always is - a book open on the studio floor. This time, it's one about his old tutor David Bomberg. Auerbach can still hear the things - uncensored, impatient - that Bomberg would say. Auerbach once traced his painting lineage back, from Bomberg ("who attended Walter Sickert's evening classes") to Whistler to Degas to Ingres and all the way back to Raphael. These days he thinks about Picasso a lot, as well as Rembrandt and Michelangelo. He talks of these greats as being in the room with him: they're his community, he says, his conversation.

In London's Tate Britain hangs Auerbach's EOW Nude from from 1953-4, a painting about the length of an arm, but utterly confounding. I go back to see it. Up close, I gauge the paint's thickness then, from a distance, I see the prone figure emerging like cleft marble from a lava field. Nearly seven decades on, it is pure punk, obdurate, still Hughesian in its shocking newness. "My vision of painting," Auerbach once said, "was of an explosion."

Roemer tells me he is writing a book. He just hopes he'll live long enough to finish it. Auerbach hopes so too. "As long as I can put on my painting trousers and have a brush in my hand, or a stick of graphite, I feel active. I wish for both of us that we fall over while still trying to work."

Frank Auerbach, Twenty Self-Portraits ispresented by Frankie Rossi Art Projects, at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, London, until 14 July.

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'I'm doing what may be my last paintings': Frank Auerbach on his new self-portraits and turning 92

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He has painted the same people over and over, sometimes for 40 years, dabbing, rubbing out, then starting again. Although the great artist now has to hold onto his easel to work, he still hopes to die with a brush in his hand

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Als ik kijk naar Richter die aan het werk is herken ik mezelf en mijn werk in het werken in lagen. Hoe hij speelt met de lagen en de mate waarin hij wacht tot het 'droog' of juist niet is. Iedere keer zorgt het namelijk voor een ander resultaat. Ook kan dit zijn gedachten in zijn hoofd inzichtelijk maken, of hij bijvoorbeeld door wil met zijn werk of dat het hier een pauze nodig heeft.

Maar ook de open houding voor wat het werk nodig heeft. Zo hoor je hem lachend zeggen: Das gelb? Keine ahnung wo das herkommt!

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Vanuit een persoonlijk belang om na deze studie in een fijn en passend schilderproces te kunnen werken ging ik deze periode aan de slag met de onderzoeksvraag:  Hoe continueer je het schilderproces?

En daarbij lag de focus op het intuïtief schilderen waarbij ik bezig was met het onderzoek wanneer iets abstract is en hoe je weggaat van de realiteit om een eigen werkelijkheid te kunnen creëren. Dus hoe continueer je het abstracte schilderproces?