Silence, Spirituality and Contemplative Experience in Contemporary Abstract Paintings. Analysis of Selected Examples

In recent decades, there has been increasing interest in including the spirit­ual dimension in artistic practice and in discourse on art. This phenomenon seems to be universal but is definitely not homogenic. I examine it by referring to meaningful examples of abstract paintings from different cultural and reli­gious backgrounds. I analyze artworks by two contemporary bicultural paint­ers: the American-Japanese artist, Makoto Fujimura, and American-Iranian artist, Yari Ostovany. The Polish non-figurative artist Tadeusz G. Wiktor is also considered. Their oeuvre can be set within the larger context of great reli­gious and spiritual traditions. I stress the influence of Oriental legacy in con­temporary examples of abstract art. I investigate how the selected artworks refer to an invisible reality, and I focus especially on the silence they evoke. My aim is to show how contemporary non-figurative art can influence the viewer by creating a contemplative experience. I also place the selected artworks in the theoretical contexts presented by the artists themselves and refer to classi­cal and contemporary texts

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Contemplation · Contemporary art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literal and figurative language · Painting · Performance art · Silence · Spirituality · Visual arts · Historical and Architectural Studies · History · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Sustainable Urban and Rural Development

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• Cubism and Abstract Art

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• Art and Psychoanalysis

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