Hues of strawberry red, forest green, and sky blue cover the large white walls of the new exhibition Color and Pattern, captivating the space and demanding the viewer’s attention. A diverse array of drawings, sculpture, and ceramics are displayed from artists such as Robert Delaunay, Spencer Finch, and Sam Francis, to name a few. Pieces span 100 years from 1912 to 2012. The exhibit is intended to serve as a launching point for the question: What is abstraction?
Until now, most of the exhibitions from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection could be recognized as representational rather than abstract. Representational art depicts objects or events in the natural world, whereas abstraction portrays unidentifiable subjects that are free to the viewer’s interpretation.
Greg Bell, Pivot + Art Culture’s senior curator, excitedly talks about the process of putting the show together. “It was interesting to look at what abstraction means,” Bell says. “When people think about abstraction, there’s often this natural tendency to say, ‘I don’t understand it. I understand painting and realism and post-impressionist work.’”