The absolute in visual art and music

Abstract

The Absolute is a philosophical concept commonly known to refer to a transcendent reality, independent of our everyday reality. This thesis aims to free this concept from such a narrow view in order to discover the way the idea of an Absolute can be manifested in still two-dimensional visual art and in music. The thesis looks into the topic through the eyes of the artist in search for an Absolute in art.

Opening with a philosophical discussion of the concept of the Absolute, this part look s at the views of seven western philosophers who hold different approaches to the idea of the Absolute. This discussion concludes that indeed there is no single way to view it.

Following is a review and an analysis of the approaches of different artists who were themselves in search of an Absolute in their art. This study brings to light that Piet Mondrian‘s idea of the Pure Dynamic Equilibrium is the most loyal expression of the idea of the Absolute in art. In addition, it is through pure abstraction that both the forces that exist between the elements of an artwork and their balanced state as a whole are brought to the fore.

This is further analyzed and demonstrated through four variations of my artistic project titled 10:40, two of which were completed prior to this thesis and two of which were created as part of it.