CONTEMPORARY ABSTRACTION AS EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE

Abstract

Although abstract art can be difficult to interpret, it can evoke emotional responses in viewers from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This suggests that art can function as a form of communication even when it does not rely on recognizable object or symbols. Current article proposes an Emotional Visual Language Framework (EVLF) model. This is an interdisciplinary look at how contemporary abstraction conveys emotion through elements such as color, texture, form, and compositional rhythm.
The article draws on several studies, namely Nold's (2023) typology of emotional assemblages in art, Korom et al.'s (2022) empirical study of children's perception of paintings, Chojnicka and Wawer's (2020) computational analysis of linguistic abstraction and tonality, and Healy et al.'s (2025) work on how the level of abstraction influences the persuasiveness of an emotional message.