e forum for concentrating on a single piece of art. But noneis more famous which fully embodied abstraction is the RussianOpera, Victory over the Sun, first performed in St. Petersburg in1913. The plot symbolized the human conquest of natural forcesand the conquering of the old by the new, revolved around a groupof dictators, who capture the Sun and enclose it in a squarecontainer. Dissonant music sound effects accompanied the actors'movements and speech. The sets and costumes consisted of blackand white cloth sheets painted with geometric forms. Thelibretto was written in a transitional language which relied onpuns and free association of sounds and images. It was thoughtto communicate the inner state of the speaker more directly. Film, just like photography depends not only on mechanicaldevices, but also is able to stimulate motion. An earliestadventure into abstract film-making was made by Hans Richter whocreated animated works which consisted of geometric formsarranged according to the laws of chance. He derived from aseries of experiments called scroll pictures with variations onformal themes drawn in pencil on long rolls of paper. Hisinterest in painting and drawing led to his investigation of filmmaking. Abstract expressionism was the combination of idealism andspirituality- two graeat schools of thought. I would sum up thisessay by quoting from Willem de Kooning describing what abstractart means to him in 1951. He saw it as a an art of spiritualharmony in which all the main characters flew away from thepainful realities of life. He said, " Their own sentiment of forminstead was one of comfort. The beauty of comfort. The greatcurve of a bridge was beautiful because people could go acrossthe river in comfort. To compose in curves like that, and angles,and make works of art with them could only make people happy,they maintained, for the only association was one of comfort.That millions of people have died in wa...
