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The Gift of Not Knowing: Why Abstract Art Refuses to Explain
If this doesn’t make sense, good. Abstract art isn’t here to explain — it’s here to interrupt.
The idea that art should interrupt rather than explain reveals something profound about how we’ve trained ourselves to consume experience.
We live in a culture obsessed with comprehension, everything must have a clear takeaway, a lesson, a point.
We scroll through information expecting instant understanding, and we demand that entertainment deliver its payoffs efficiently.
Abstract art stands as a radical refusal of this entire framework.
Think about how we typically encounter confusion in daily life: we treat it as a problem to be solved as quickly as possible.
GPS recalculating, Google searches, YouTube tutorials… we’ve built elaborate systems to eliminate moments of not-knowing.
But abstract art suggests these moments might be precious rather than problematic.
When we stand before a Jackson Pollock drip painting or a Rothko color field, we’re forced into a different relationship with time and attention.
