Expressionism and Abstraction in Sumerian Art

Abstract

The current research dealt with (the problem of the expressive and abstract in Sumerian art) through the mechanisms of its operation in the ancient civilizations of the East in general and the civilization of Sumer in particular. The research contained four chapters. The first chapter contained the methodological framework for the research and the need for it, which dealt with the problem (the expressive and the abstract in Sumerian art and its essential connection to the civilization of ancient Iraq (Mesopotamian civilization) as an abstract expression cast its shadow on the levels of aesthetic and artistic knowledge.

        The aim of the research also included identifying the problem of the expressive and abstract in Sumerian art, while within the limits of the research, it was limited to studying the expressive and abstract in Sumerian art. For the period from (2800 - 2370 BC) and by adopting the hermeneutic analysis approach within an aesthetic vision, with its theoretical and procedural dimensions.

       As for the second chapter, it included the theoretical framework, which contained the first section consisting of two axes, the first axis: “Expressionist in art in general, and the second abstract axis in art. As for the second topic,” (Art in ancient Iraq, Sumerian art) during the era of the dawn of the dynasties, while the third chapter contained the research procedures, including the research population, sample, research tool, and methodology, as well as the analysis of the research samples of (4) Sumerian works of art.

       The fourth and final chapter included a presentation of the research results and conclusions, as well as recommendations and proposals. Among the most prominent results reached by the researcher in this research: The concept of the expressive and the abstract formed the basic structure from which Sumerian art stems from its various intellectual and stylistic directions and religious doctrine. The Sumerian artist moved away from the data of form through spatial formulas, towards the data of intuitive awareness of comprehensive images with absolute spiritual dimensions. The Sumerian artist was interested in the data of the abstract, unreal expressive form defined by partial spatial and temporal formulas in order to dissolve the internal data and transform them into infinite spaces for extension beyond the proposed boundaries of the forms.

        In light of the results of the current research, the researcher reached some conclusions:

Interest in studying the expressive and abstract in art in general and in plastic art and drawing in particular, as it is considered an intellectually influential means of communication, and recommendations from it, in addition to some proposals, the most important of which are: Instinctual dimensions in the arts of the Paleolithic era.