Wendy Kelly

Abstraction and Its Processes: an Historical and Practical Investigation into Abstract Visual Language Wendy Kelly

An artist who works within a two dimensional non- objective genre, here, Dr Kelly embarks on an examination of non-figurative visual abstract practice. The role of the rhetorical, political and evolutionary processes and the impact of material processes are discussed. By framing abstractions development from the early 1900s to current times into four distinct generations, this book claims that Abstraction has the ability to communicate with an intinsity that can touch a wide range of emotions and create strong reactions, qualities which, together with its ability to re- invent itself, ensures Abstraction's relevance and continued viability. This book demonstrates that there is a breadth and complexity to current non- objective practice, regardless of Abstractions role being marginalised with the advent of the philosophies of Postmodernism. Kelly demonstrates that her own highly process based serial imagery is seated within what is termed as the fourth generation of Abstraction, and addresses the current concerns of non-representational art.