Can art have significance without meaning? Should “good” art convey the spirit of the age in which it was created? Does the “depth of meaning” directly correlate to the “goodness” of the art?

A definition of the terms here would be valuable, but the terms in question are so based on individual and subjective opinion that the definitions would be questioned.

Abstract painting, particularly the non-objective painting of many artists since the 1940s, could be said to be meaningless. In fact, many artists want it that way. They prefer to see purely compositional factors, the principles of design as the measure of their works. Does this relegate them to the level of design, not true “high art”?

Abstract paintings can do two things. 1) They can ascend to the highest level of design, and 2) they can transcend it to “high art”. Just as Kurt Schwitter’s paper cutouts transcend the craft of paper-cutting hobbyists, and Joseph Cornell’s boxes transcend the craft of cabinet makers or box designers, so an abstract painting can transcend design.

In my opinion, the meaning criteria need some discussion. The “meanings” that some myopic critics refer to as the ultimate criterion of “high art” revolve around historical, philosophical, and religious dimensions. These meanings supposedly reflect the highest ideals and aspirations of man and god (God?).

I appreciate the meanings as much as the next person. I like the classic and epic fights of mythology, the ancient versions of world history, the religious icons of each century, the struggles of humanity and of each individual in humanity. These are wonderful meanings and certainly worthy of artistic representation.

Now consider the meaning of a man/woman striving to create pure beauty. The artist. The artist who wants to create not only “great art” but does so without the tools of religious thought, without the maps of cultural revolutions, without the applause of an informed and socially motivated movement, without the traditions of a guild of craftsmen. Consider this brave individual.

These individuals not only attempt actual, if only deadly, creation at its highest level, but do so in a unique and hard-earned individual style. Additionally, her work is intended to liberate, enhance, and broaden your perception of art and beauty in all its mysterious manifestations.

That “is” meaning. You can attest to this meaning in his visual record of each abstract painting. No, not all paintings are masterpieces, and you cannot resort to a cliché or a social nomenclature. It stands as a testament to a real struggle to bring something to the highest level of art without the help of all the other “packages of multiple meanings” that were the reason for art in the centuries before.