Lecture “Abstract Art”

The meeting series “2K – On Creativity and Making Art” concludes with a public lecture by Prof. Dr Remigijus Venckus entitled “Abstract Art”. In this concluding event, the questions of creativity, artistic language, and interpretation explored during the three artist meetings (with Prof. Dr Rimantas Plungė, photographer Marija Šileikaitė-Čičirkienė, and Assoc. Prof. Dr Tomas Mitkus) are brought together and expanded into a wider context of art history, aesthetics, and visual culture.

This lecture serves as a conceptual bridge connecting the artworks showcased in the Triennial, the personal creative processes disclosed in the “2K” conversations, and the viewer’s own independent interpretation. The creative principles emerging from the artists’ insights are enriched by a theoretical perspective explaining why an artwork does not need to mimic visible reality in order to speak profoundly about it.

Richly illustrated with visual slides and historical case studies, the lecture presents the core concepts, evolutionary stages, and defining artistic principles of abstract art.

Abstract art fundamentally transformed the traditional relationship between the artwork and visible reality. By abandoning or transforming literal object depiction, modernists granted complete autonomy to core plastic elements:

Color & Light – acting as independent emotional and spatial agents;
Form & Line – generating internal rhythm and dynamic tensions free from figurative narrative;
Rhythm & Composition – structuring the visual field into a harmonious or dissonant aesthetic whole;
Texture & Materiality – revealing the significance of brushwork, physical surfaces, and tactile experiment.

These expressive means ceased to be mere instruments of depiction and became autonomous avenues for philosophical thought and emotional experience.

Special attention is dedicated to the psychology of perceiving and interpreting abstract art:

Why does an artwork devoid of recognizable objects or narrative storylines evoke such an intense emotional and contemplative response?
How does the viewer decipher an abstract composition, and what role do personal memory, cultural background, and imagination play?
How does visual form become an independent mode of communication, unlocking meaning through an active encounter with the viewer?

In abstract art, the viewer is never a passive onlooker. Rather, they become an active co-author of meaning whose gaze completes the work anew each time.

The lecture explores abstraction as a historical, aesthetic, and philosophical phenomenon. By tracing key movements and artistic principles, it illuminates how the concept of the artwork, the artist’s freedom, and the audience’s role have transformed over time.

Practical insights drawn from the lecturer’s own practice as both art critic and media artist illustrate how abstraction operates across various media—painting, photography, video art, and digital imagery—and the creative horizons opened up by technological experimentation.