The term ‘abstract painting’ encompasses many things, many different currents and styles. Marvin Jemal is a painter who takes pride in studying all art forms, currents and techniques. Below, Jemal focuses on explaining a type of freewheeling abstract painting, known as lyrical abstraction.

What is Lyrical Abstraction?

Jemal explains that lyrical abstraction is an artistic trend in which artists refuse to represent reality objectively. Wassily Kandinsky, an artist who made abstractions loaded with feeling, is one of the most famous representatives of this artistic trends.

Lyrical abstraction artworks are specific because they manage to transmit artist's emotion. This is done in a way that can be understood and shared by the public.

As Jemal has previously spoken, painters of this type of abstraction refuse to represent objective reality. This is because objective reality leads the public to get their own impressions about the meaning of such objects. Artists of lyrical abstraction create new forms that by themselves do not represent anything. In this way they can create emotions starting from scratch.

Besides the representation of abstraction, lyrical abstraction has other characteristics. One of these characteristics is the example of the technique used. The artists of this current prefer using watercolors. This is because in lyrical abstraction color predominates over shape.

Techniques Jemal Uses in Lyrical Abstraction

Jemal shares that another important characteristic of this current is the set of techniques used. Artists of this current used different methods to represent their immediate emotion. Among these techniques we find:

Dripping - Thanks to its strong expressiveness, this is one of the most used techniques. Jemal points out that the most famous representative of this this technique is artist Jackson Pollock.

Frottage - This is another of the used techniques. Its name means rubbing and, obviously, it consists of printing textures placed under the paper.

Grattage - This technique consists of covering a colored surface and then scratching over the final coat. In this way the color underneath is discovered. This technique is also known as ‘sgraffito’ or ‘scratch art’.

Collage - Its name comes from the French and means ‘to glue’. This technique consists of composing an artwork by gluing a wide range of materials, including pieces of paper, fabric, newspaper clippings, and sometimes readymade objects, to a surface.

Origin and Representatives

Lyrical abstraction is a movement within abstract painting. We have learned from the talented artist Jemal that this trend emerged in 1910 and is often taken as a reference to the principle of abstract painting. Over time it achieved such fame that it is still present in many contemporary painters’ artworks.

Regarding its beginnings, Marvin Jemal notes that this trend was born from a watercolor by the painter Wasili Kandinsky, called First Abstract Watercolor.

Among the representatives of lyrical abstraction that stand out the most we find Paul Klee. When it comes to the French current, artist Robert Delaunay takes pride to be a representative of lyrical abstraction. He collected Chevreul's theories to be able to elaborate simultaneous contrasts of colors.

Conclusion

Marvin Jemal claims that what holds all of these artists together in a common bond is the fundamental quest of Lyrical Abstraction: to express something personal, subjective and emotive, and to do it in a poetic, abstract way.

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