Art pieces can be turned into abstractions - although there are some pitfalls. Photographing art with the purpose to create something new - rather than a simple depiction - is one of the harder things to do. Creating abstracts this way is even more difficult. It is essential that the image created is sufficiently different from the original. I use the 'fair use' guideline - focus on a small part (say 10%) of the original art piece, and ensure that the result is clearly different form the original. As always, lines and patterns play a dominant role for the abstract to work.
Anyway, here are some of my favourites in this genre.
Red Dwarf (2011)
Part of a huge art installation near my wife's Shanghai studio, photographed
from the bottom. Great patterns, and of course with this luscious red, a
black and white version would not be suitable. Even though it reminds
me a bit of the vintage BBC comedy Red Dwarf, I think it is still
sufficiently abstract.
The eye of the storm (2012)
In April 2012 we were getting close to our move to Kampen, where we were
about to open our own gallery. The yearly Art Route through Kampen
("Kunstroute") was a good opportunity to see more of the local art. This
is a close-up of a paper sculpture by Elsa Visser. It has a definite organic feeling to it.
Fifty shades of grey (2013)
This is a close-up of a huge paper sculpture by Machteld Wijlacker,
exhibited at the Zwolle Museum. The high contrast black-and-white
version with its 50 shades of grey, suggest an original 2D art piece.
Sculpture detail (2013)
A small detail of a metal sculpture encountered during the 2013 Kampen Art
Weekend. A stunning combination of shapes, colours and tones.
Artistic patterns (2014)
An extreme close-up of a ceramic sculpture displayed at the Kunst aan de Ee exhibition. There is an interesting visual echo when one compares this example with the first one.
Heads, not tails (2016)
A detail of a large sculpture in the gardens of the Heino museum near Zwolle. Aided by the conversion to black and white, this image is reduced to an abstraction of lines and shapes.
Geometric (2016)
Here we have a sculpture located in front of Kampen's new city hall. By taking the shot from inside the sculpture, looking up, a special abstract emerged. Although this shot depicts far more than 10% of the sculpture, the deviating view point makes it sufficiently different for me.
Left or right (2017)
A detail of an art piece exhibited in a church at Harlingen, Friesland. The
changing directions of the openings within the diagonal composition
gives the shot an extra dynamic feel.
Marbelous (2018)
The first of three abstracts that I created by zooming on a part of a ceramics art piece, displayed at an exhibition in the Museum
Princessehof Leeuwarden. The resulting image resembles an abstract
painting to my taste.
Leaves (2018)
The second of the series. It did not get much reaction on Flickr when I posted it there, but it is still a shot I like a lot.
Firefall (2018)
The last in the series of detail shots of different ceramic
art pieces at the exhibition in the Museum
Princessehof Leeuwarden. This is my personal favourite and one of my preferred shots overall. It looks like a lava lake cascading over the rim - hence
the title.
Curvy (2018)
Close-up of an artistic chair designed by Richard Hutton, displayed in the main Art Museum of The Hague.
Primeval (2024)
A stunning detail shot of a large art piece on display in the Sneek Museum. One of my favourites.
Snakes (2024)
This is a detail of a huge art piece, displayed in the Singer Laren Museum. At the centre of the piece were these cables (with lots of other things going on around them). The image created is completely different from the original art structure.
Aquarium (2024)
Usually my art abstracts are based on sculptures and other 3D structures. This is one of the few examples where I went for a very small segment of a huge painting (Chua by Marina Rheingantz), to create an independent work of art. This was also shot in the Singer Laren Museum.
Shattered (2024)
This is a small detail of an art piece exhibited in the Coda Apeldoorn Museum. The theme of the exhibition was "fragile".
Copyright statement: all images copyright Hennie Schaper. Contact me if you like to use them.