Abstract Art as a Career

Alternative Careers | September 1, 2010 | Share

If you’re still thinking about how Van Gogh never became popular during his lifetime, and how something similar might happen to an artist in this age, don’t waste your time. Unlike in the Eighteenth Century, fine art is no longer limited to the imitation of external reality, like buildings and beautiful sceneries. Abstraction has almost become pivotal in the nature of art that has been produced in the last two hundred years. Any form of art, a painting or a sculpture, which is a representation of the imaginative world, rather than the visible world, is referred to as abstract art.

Just as paintings of landscapes were considered to be versatile art until two centuries ago, abstract art has become the talk of the day in this age. The human being of the 20th century has evolved to be more fascinated by the art that represents the unreal and non-natural forms. At the same time, while the demand for abstract art is high, its supply is either relatively low or the artists don’t manage to obtain much publicity. Hence, it can be assumed that abstract artists, if talented, eventually most certainly become successful, in relation to popularity as well as financial stability.

Art is a field that is pursued most essentially for the love of it. Also, it is essential that it is pursued out of passion because there is no shortcut to this: the years of practice and effort that it takes to become an artist, especially an abstract artist, is quite impossible to make solely on the basis of monetary motives. As for the income levels, they might be unpleasantly low for a new entrant in the market, but as time passes the figures keep increasing progressively – often even geometrically. For instance, if you are a new artist and your portfolio is presently worth 300$, the same portfolio, after about five years, might be priced at 10000$ dollars – a 30-fold increase. This is because a particular piece of art becomes more rare and valuable over time, and art is a niche; even if the price of art increases radically, which it does, people are willing to pay how much ever it might take to get it home. About the popularity, it increases as an artist gains more experience.

But, the process of making a piece of abstract art is daunting; it requires one to stretch one’s limits of imagination as far as possible – far beyond the boundaries of imagination of a non-artist. This is extremely difficult because it is the power of increased creativity that separates the artist from the non-artist. Acquiring this skill may take years.

The beauty of this form of art is that there is no specific way of teaching it; there is no particular system of imparting education in this field. It is abstract, remember? Infact, many of the great abstract artists of all time did not even graduate from high school. Nonetheless, almost all art schools and colleges across the world have a course in abstract art as there aren’t any specific colleges for this field. So, don’t worry about finding good institutions if you want to pursue abstract art; the general art colleges should do it for you.

Once again, this is probably one of the most difficult forms of art. So, go for it only if you can commit yourself effortlessly towards your imagination, and most importantly, if you have the flare for it.

Krish Mehta