CRITICAL STUDIES - Abstract and Process art

Richard Long's work is about the process of walking in the outdoors. He gathers and presents words relating to these journeys, rather than creating images of what he can see on the walk - the text provides us with fragmented information which we string together to form a unique image in our minds. I think the list format gives the work a balanced structure because it sets a pace to the way we read it, which is one step at a time, reflecting the walking process. The marks in the background create an organic pattern like waves or a flowing river, fingerprints in the mud or contours in the sand - it feels really earthly and contrasts with the font of the text which is not in a hand-written or natural style. Personally I don't feel very inspired by this work but I think it's still a good example of process art where the outcome is not what we would expect from the artist's journey. It also brings into question what difference it makes if he really did do the walk or made it up, whether this would change the value of the work and how we see it as a piece of storytelling.

Antoni Tapies creates multi-media abstract art with rough mark making and muted colour palettes. I liked this one in particular because I think the handprints have a real sense of emotion and soul which is very powerful, there's something kind of desperate and painful about the way they are reaching upwards in smudgy black ink, with that blood red paint at the top and the wavy lines which remind me of barbed wire going across the arms. There's a sense of movement because of the way the hands seem to have been printed on multiple times in slightly different overlapping positions and the diagonal direction of the red paint has a lot of energy, especially as it tapers off at the end like smoke out of industrial chimneys. I think this piece is captivating and emotionally charged overall, there's nothing very recognisable in the image other than the handprints and the story is unknown, but I don't think it needs a clear message to be something special, making marks and allowing your feelings to direct them is already enough to create a striking piece of art, and I'd like to do more of this myself.