abstract art

music is abstract. the sounds from instruments don't really represent anything physical in your surrounding. lyrics are words and words are abstractions of things. music is easily defined as an abstract art. abstract painting is the same. there are shapes, colors, texture, composition that don't always represent anything. abstract visuals may represent things in your physical surroundings but not as easily recognizable. so why do so many people who like abstract music not like abstract painting? why is music more accessible for a passive audience. why is a instrumental musician like jimmy page praised while a painter like jackson pollack condemned by the mainstream if both sound and visuals can both provoke emotion? if jimmy page makes a bunch of seemingly nonsensical sounds from his guitar and jackson pollack makes a bunch of seemingly non sensical paint splashes. there is one reason and i think i can explain. abstract music is able provoke emotions easier because it completely surrounds a person. it is easier to surround a person with sound than it is to surround a person with a painting. with a painting there is limited space in a person's viewing range. even looking up close at a painting it is harder to provoke an emotion because you know all around you there are other objects. colors, shapes, lines, and composition can provoke emotion but not as easily. bigger painting are more accessible than smaller ones. on gray days you may feel a bit down and sleepy where on sunny days you may feel energized and happier, that's because those colors are everywhere around you, kinda like what a music cd can do to you. that mood completely surrounds you and is able to capture your emotion like a song does. looking at a small abstract painting is like listening to your favorite song in mono in one single headphone on a crummy speaker that isn't loud. the song completely loses it's effect because it no longer surrounds you much like a smaller abstract painting. an abstract painter will have a much harder time impressing people because he can't easily mass produce a painting and make it large enough for everyone to really feel. if you see a jackson pollack painting, more than likely it will be maybe 3 inches wide in an art history book, and if you get a cd with jimmy page on it you can turn it up as loud as your stereo system allows it to, completely filling the space you're in. that's also why silent film no longer exist. and if people say they listen to music because of the lyrics, they shouldn't listen to music, they should just read the lyrics to the song. people's emotions are somewhat invisible to them. that's why people will say things like anybody can throw paint on a canvas and make a bunch of splashes of paint like that pretentious jackson pollack. but nobody ever says jimmy page is just a pretentious hipster making non sensical sounds out of a guitar, even my 2 year old son can make non sensical sounds out of a guitar like jimmy does. abstract painting or design still takes skill and not many people will appreciate it or try to understand it unless it's created on a massive scale. people have solved this problem by separating art into kitsch pop art and high art made for an aggressive audience. the strong stigma on abstract painting will likely remain.