Defining the abstract: it may seem like the antithesis of what abstract art is all about. Or, it could be that attempts to define the abstract and what the artist intended is part of the genre's appeal

Art Business News, March, 2006 by Jane Hart

"People are much more design conscious than they were a few years back," says Deljou. "Even in Target you see how design-motivated the products are and the new generation of art buyers are the same and will play a big role in the abstract art business. In the newer buildings that are being created, it is only fitting to fill those wails with abstract art."

Roberts agrees that the market is cyclical and says that abstract is a smaller part of the overall art market, but adds, "I am established and successful so it works for me. People have to be open to abstract to receive the work. I don't think you can convince people about this art. It is not the dominant current of art internationally. I mostly concentrate on U.S. markets now. Corporations like abstract art because it is not likely to offend people.

"Collectors see the respect that abstract art has gained as well and the amount that people can get for the work," Roberts continues, "Gerhard Richter's work in the late 1980s was selling for about $40,000, and now sells for millions at Sotheby's. My work, however, appreciates very slowly but the value also has not gone down."

Maier says the market for Mihoko's abstract art is robust. "It has been a welcome surprise to discover so many people responding with joy to the simple pleasure of vibrant, balanced abstract paintings. The buyers are atypical and include seasoned collectors, first timers, artists, professors, a lot of lawyers, military men, a virtual abstract cross section of humanity that shares an esoteric appreciation of beauty. Many are first-time buyers with a strong sense of what they want in their homes, including an 80-year-old that has an extensive art collection but never collected an abstract painting until he saw Mihoko's "Dance Tune." The typical buyer doesn't stop at buying just one; they buy again."

Evolution

While there are some who would say that everything that can be done in abstract art has been accomplished and that nothing new can be created, Deljou vehemently disagrees.

"There is nothing more wrong than thinking that nothing else can be done in abstract art," says Deljou. "There are two categories of abstract painters--technicians and artists, and the artists are always looking for new things to move forward. Abstract is the next step into fine art. There are so many ways that you can paint a flower and if you are a good technician the best you can come up with would be like a photograph. But the next step is about something that hasn't been done before. The only way that you can achieve that is through the abstract."

"I don't see artists folding up their easels anytime soon," says Maier. "The art of painting is as alive as ever. In terms of movements and 'isms,' it may be as Robert Hughes wryly put it, that all the 'isms' are 'wasms,' but the creative impulse isn't going away. While there are no great new art movements, there are inspired and lovely paintings that can take their place, aesthetically, next to anything ever painted in that genre. Great abstract movements may be dead, but great abstract paintings are not.