Concerning the Spiritual in Art, published by Kandisnky in 1911, outlined many of the principles which form the basis of Modern Art.  The most significant of these principles is the idea that art does not need to be concerned with representations of the objective world. Kandinsky claimed for art the right to express only the inner needs' and experiences of the artist, without any recognisable reference to external realities.

In the 1930's this idea was adopted and expanded by artists throughout Europe and then America. Hans Hofmann declared that artists should follow only an individual, inner direction.  In this way, they would intensify and condense their concepts and experiences into a spiritual reality complete in itself. "The spiritual and mental content of the work," he continued, "is found in the quality of the painting and not in the allegory or in the symbolic meaning presented through the objects in the painting."(1) A group calling itself 'The Abstraction-Creation Association' published Editorial Statements in 1931 and 32, in support of a non-figurative art, which was 'purely plastic, and which excluded "every element of explication, anecdote, literature, naturalism, etc…"(2)

Abstraction, Expressionism, Colour Field and non-figurative art, are therefore, not new but they are still effective in the expression of personal ideas, feelings and psychological struggles. And, since all of us experience personal feelings and struggles, it communicates directly but differently with each and every viewer. Its appeal is in this direct communication, by-passing external and figurative associations. Its meaning is conveyed through visual elements such as line, space, shape, mass, texture and colour. As architects, or architectural students, Hon, Yuan and Khan, use such elements effectively in most of their works.

Michelle Hon states that she responds to various cultural influences, having been born in Asia but living in Australia. These responses, however, are played out and conceptualised through her 'inner voice'. As an architect, she gives expression to this inner voice through conscious manipulation of lightness and shade, space, lines, colours, geometry and proportion.

The working out of different influences and tensions can be seen in such works as Journey. Architecturally, this canvas is divided into three distinct but related sections. There are also three dominating colours, black, red and yellow, in the formation of yellow stripes moving across black and red backgrounds. Different textures work towards expressing the tensions involved in the personal journey of the artist. Heavy impasto on the right plays against lightly textured tachisme on the left. Some of Hon's pieces rely a little too heavily on formal elements such as colour and texture, so that feelings take second place. Others, however, such as Indecision, use colour and texture in subtle and complex relationships. In this work, a yellow panel of heavy impasto seems to make a definite statement, while the background consists of a subtle (less definite) interplay of reds, greens and purples. In such works, inner voices and tensions are played out through compositional elements so that form and content are genuinely co-existent.

Reza Khan also combines inner feelings with outward forms. He states that his art is based on a combination of emotions and architectural form. His emotions, both past and present, together with experiences of tortured inner conflicts, find expression through hard lines, texture, colour and geometry.

This combination is powerfully illustrated in a piece entitled Solace. In this work a large red, soft-edged, rectangular shape floats off centre, on a type of horizon or threshold between a grey, reflective world below and a blue (perhaps spiritual) world above.  Solace conveys a strong feeling of the artist working through some of his inner conflicts. The red rectangle seems to alternately advance and recede, sometimes threatening, sometimes embracing. This work is a first class example of direct communication between artist and viewer without the need for any external mediation or reference.There is a real sense of the artist working through a cathartic experience.

A couple of Khan's works incorporate collaged, nude figures, which are intended to add meaning but which only interfere with the direct engagement that he achieves so well in works such as Solace. Another of his more effective works is a tryptich entitled Progression. In this, he shows his ability to use understatement. It is the most resolved of all his works. Blood red lines dissect grey and white spaces. There are still strong feelings but they are feelings of achievement and of managing troublesome psychological spaces, rather than submitting to the angst as in some of the other works.

Caroline Yuen describes her art as the evocation of a mood or a subject through textures, movement and planes. Like the other two artists, she uses these elements of form to play out emotional states in direct engagement with the viewer. Like the others also, she uses strong colours and shades such as red, white, black and grey, with marked tensions and contrasts between them.

The best of Yuen's paintings work like musical compositions, based in the certainty of a major key but with dark, turbulent passages. One such piece is entitled Elemental III. It is elemental in that it dramatically illustrates the theme of rawness. Read horizontally, a black background is divided into three movements, two forming an upper section and one sweeping across the lower part of the canvas. The top left section shows the black background traversed by a red band curving from the left edge around to the top. The opposing panel is also black but with a white elipse. The edges are soft but the interplay between these two elemental shapes is powerful. As if to bring these oppositions into resolution, the bottom panel consists of white and black bands moving right across the composition from edge to edge. Hanging below this work, is a companion piece in which Yuen makes the viewer aware of spaces and activities outside the confines of the canvas. She does this by attaching further sections which extend beyond the edges of the main canvas.

This technique, along with many others in this exhibition, draws attention to the fact that although Abstract Expressionism was a Modernist Movement, its deliberate denials of generic forms, compositional conventions and narrative references, allowed it to adapt to Post-modern times. Colour Field and Abstract Expressionist forms of art may not be new but they are far from being spent forces. The rawness referred to in the title of this exhibition allows the artists, and their viewers, to engage directly with talented individuals expressing their emotional experiences through the creative process.
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Hofmann, H., 'On the Aims of Art' (1931), in 'The Fortnightly', Campbell, California, 26 February 1932
'Abstraction-Creation: Editorial Statements to Cahiers' nos. 1, 1932 and 2, 1933