What’s the point of abstract art?

Written By William Rivera-Bloodworth

ANSWERING THE QUESTION YOU DON’T WANT TO ASK OUT LOUD

TLDR version: Abstract art isn’t just random doodles—it’s a way to show feelings, thoughts, and ideas that can’t be drawn like a picture. It uses colors, shapes, and lines like a language, inviting each person to feel or imagine something different based on their experiences. It also gives our minds a break from the everyday world of “reality,” opening up room for fresh ideas and new ways of seeing. So instead of asking, “What does it mean?” it might be more fun to ask, “What does it make me feel?”

“it CAN’T happen here (in oz)” (2025)
12×16” Acrylic & charcoal on canvas

Abstract art isn’t just about making a pretty picture you can hang on a wall (though we can definitely make that happen too… see my shop 😉). It’s about trying to show the stuff we can’t always put into words—feelings, ideas, even fleeting thoughts that flit by too fast to catch and truly process. Artists use colors, shapes, and lines like a secret code, and each viewer gets the chance to crack it in their own unique way. As Swiss-German artist Paul Klee famously observed, “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible the invisible” (Klee). Abstract art gives us a chance to see what’s usually hidden, the undercurrents of emotion and perception that run beneath everyday life (Kandel 42).

“Find me here amidst the chaos” (2025)
24×36” Acrylic & charcoal on hand-stretched raw canvas

Part of what makes abstract art so compelling is that it nudges you to see differently. American painter Georgia O’Keeffe, perhaps most well known for her floral works, was also prolific in her abstract pieces. She once said she “could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for”(O’Keeffe). That’s the magic: it doesn’t spell everything out. Your interpretation depends on your mood, your experiences, and even the day you’re having. Armenian-American artist Arshile Gorky suggested that abstraction enables us to “see with our mind what we cannot physically see with our eyes,” suggesting that aesthetic experience engages both cognitive and affective faculties simultaneously (Gorky).

Abstract art can also be a form of intellectual play—yes, it can be fun! The mental gymnastics of abstraction translate ideas across forms in ways that can surprise even the artist: Canadian artist and mathematician Dorothea Rockburne described how she “visually solved equations” in her studio, turning mathematical and structural concepts into beautiful forms (Rockburne). This demonstrates that abstraction doesn’t have to hide meaning away; it can be a vehicle for exploring complex meanings through a visual syntax (Yay, linguistics!).

Encountering abstract art can feel like stepping into a different world, one that loosens the grip of our everyday expectations. Perhaps one of the most famous abstract artists, the Russian Wassily Kandinsky, described abstract art as placing “a new world, which on the surface has nothing to do with ‘reality,’ next to the ‘real’ world” (Kandinsky). It doesn’t demand a single “correct” reading; it simply asks you to notice…imagine…and respond.

“Oaxaca” (2025)
12×16” Acrylic & charcoal on canvas

For Black American artist James Little, abstraction holds a different kind of power: Navigating a field historically dominated by white voices, he described abstract work as emancipatory, providing “self-determination and free will” (Kavi Gupta Gallery). Through abstraction, Little asserts his own agency and creates work on his own terms, while inviting viewers who may come in with a traditional, white supremacist lens to engage without assuming they understand what is going on.

At the end of the day, abstract art is an invitation: It doesn’t tell you what to feel but instead gives you the colors, lines, and forms and says, “Here—play with these. Make them yours.” Instead of asking an artist “What does it mean?,” try instead asking, “What does it make me feel?” That’s when the real conversation between the work and the viewer begins (ArtSpace Editors; Selz).




Works Cited

William Rivera-Bloodworth
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