I was at the art students league tonight and overheard two gentlemen saying that the two worst words were decoration and illustration. I thought about it for a moment because this is an issue that comes up a great deal in discussions of painting, particularly in debates between abstraction and realism. Often the two terms are used perjoratively.
While this could be a good jumping off place for a big discussion the brief thoughts I had about it tonight are that decoration is pleasing arrangement with the goal being to create a pleasing arrangement. Illustration is when the idea comes first and the communication of the idea is paramount. It’s visual storytelling and clear communication is paramount.
Abstraction and realism can be both decoration and illustration. Abstraction, however, also allows the possibility of moving beyond both decoration and illustration. In a process oriented approach to abstraction, the painting evolves and develops in the process of painting, in the development of the surface and the spacial relationships of the major shapes and forms. The goal is not necessarily pleasant arrangement, nor the clear communication of a specific idea.
Brilliant! There’s a very fine line between decorative abstraction and fine art. I am constantly struggling to push my work from mere pretty colors on canvas into that rarified stratosphere of fine art. Sometimes with success!
Well, there is nothing wrong with a painting being decorative or illustrative. These are descriptive terms that classify the painting or describe its content. These terms are not judgmental and shouldn’t be used as such. Matisse’s paintings are decorative, Michaelangelo’s are illustrative. It’s simply a statement of fact. It’s also wrong to use decorative and illustrative to describe the painting technique or surface quality of the painting itself. In other words, a painting isn’t illustrative merely because it is painted without an awareness of surface and ground, and the shapes and forms depicted, whether literal or imaginative, float in space and/or jump off the surface.
Referring to a painting pejoratively as illustration or decoration is an easy way for someone to avoid having to engage with the painting and having a serious dialogue.