Abstraction by Professor Louise Sherman

Discovery of a Language - Contemporary Abstraction Today

In art, abstraction is the truest way of establishing a communication with the Absolute because it speaks of the non-linear and of realities beyond the ordinary. Empowered by her profound desire to reach further, the artist chooses a universal language and she does it so convincingly that our concept of reality is shaken. She uses an artistic style signifying nothing and yet everything, where it is left to the viewer to comprehend the message, to take the time and make the effort to allow communication.

The viewer is not recognising a bowl of fruit, but rather the emotion of the intangible.
It was Rothko who identified abstraction as the expression of the power of the soul.
It seems contradictory, while writing about art, to invite the viewers to find their own answers but this is precisely what I am asking you to consider. Whatever the emotion, when one looks at the canvases of Owanto, they are to be felt, not analysed or perceived in a rational way. However, for most of us, it is about participating in Owanto’s vision that opens doors to the unknown, to our inner knowledge and to the mysteries of the universe. The Kabbalah* talks about the one per cent of reality in which we use our five senses to experience life. We never tap into the remaining 99 per cent in which the mysteries of life are contained. In Owanto’s abstraction we are invited to explore the 99 per cent by a spiritual appeal to our senses.

Abstraction as a movement began around 1910 when artists moved away from representational art, preferring symbolic colour to natural colour, ideas rather than direct observation. Many of the artists of this genre, such as Kandinsky, chose involvement with the spiritual world. They used abstraction to draw upon deeper and more varied levels of meaning. 

In order to maintain inner peace Owanto keeps in touch with the spiritual, and her expression had to evolve towards abstraction. Her work is an original blend of American art of the 20th century – the New York School, the Abstract Expressionists, the Colour Field artists and the Action Painters. In the following pages we can appreciate the method of the action painters, of Kandinsky, of Rothko, as well as the European Nicolas de Staël. All these techniques are combined with something that goes beyond technique, with something that expresses her spirituality.

The canvases invite us to capture the Flow of Life and remind us of the automatic writing of the action painters. Action painting refers to the physical effort of the artist. The viewer must decode for himself the intent.

Owanto often works on the floor; her free, powerful gestures always in evidence.
"The act of painting is what matters. It involves a physical experience following an inspiration that emerges from within. It is not guided or restricted by any scholastic rules; it is free to express the inner world, sometimes reaching Absolute Communication.”

In the early 21st century, abstraction remains a potent language for artists and,
in particular, painters. It still speaks, on a metaphysical level, about the existential questions and unique conditions of this age. However, our contemporary world is an increasingly complex and diverse one and, in contrast to the singular direction of the Abstract Expressionist and related movements of the mid-20th century, artists today may be seen exploring many plural paths and pursuing more than one truth. In this context, Owanto offers us her poetic vision inspired by a renewed belief in the importance of spiritual values for art, artists and the wider world. 

Louise Sherman, M.F.A., April 2005

Louise Sherman: Professor of Art History at California State University, Northridge and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Art Editor for Brentwood Magazine, Los Angeles; Docent at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Member of the Contemporary Arts Council at LACMA; Director of the Szymanski Gallery in Beverly Hills, California; Director of the Wiener Gallery in New York City.

* The Kabbalah, at the heart of the Western Mystery Tradition, is a way of personal development based on a map of consciousness called the Tree of Life. It offers a coherent view of the nature of human existence and our relationship with the universe. (Will Parfitt).