This is bad. It seems that the word "abstract" has been stripped of its original meaning and used as an sweeping term for modern art. Maybe I haven't been to any art conventions lately, but I have hardly seen any piece in the Singapore Biennales which I can call "abstract" with a clear conscience and a straight face.
Most of the works, however, can be labeled as "postmodern". Now this is a word which can be abused much any way you like, because not even artists can agree on what it is really about. Allow me to make clear this distinction between "abstract" and "postmodern":
Abstract Art
1. MONDRIAN Piet: Still Life with Gingerpot I - Cubist
2. Ibid.: Still Life with Gingerpot II - Simplified (both 1912)
These pieces are very easy to understand. Basically, they are still-life drawings of kitchenware drawn in a very interestingly sloppy manner. This shift of styles towards ingenious sloppiness or simpler form is what we call Abstraction.
Postmodern Art
3. ČERNÝ David: Mimi Kampa (2000)
Postmodern art happens when the artist hates you.
