AZ ABSZTRAKCIÓ KÉPE
A PICTURE OF ABSTRACTION

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the concept and historical development of pictorial abstraction from the perspective of metaphysical tradition. Its point of departure is the recognition that the original purpose of art is not the mere imitation of the visible world, but the re-creation and making visible of an underlying spiritual reality – the Sign and the Symbol. Drawing on a traditional concept of art, the author distinguishes between genuine, condensing, and creative abstraction and the psychologically driven, ego-centred forms of abstraction characteristic of modernity. The paper argues that a significant portion of twentieth- and twenty-first-century abstract visual art has become detached from its metaphysical foundations and can therefore be interpreted not as a creative act but as a symptom. Through selected examples, the study analyses the relationship between the Sign, the Symbol, and abstraction, as well as the possibilities of an art that remains rooted in nature while operating through abstraction. It concludes that authentic pictorial abstraction still depends on personally lived spiritual experience and a living relationship with nature, without which abstraction cannot become art.

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