In the abstract

There's the story of the woman who took her grandson to an art museum. When spotting a piece of art — a large melange of bright colors and textures — the boy asked, "What's that?" After reading the painting's title, the grandmother replied, "It's supposed to be a cowboy on his horse." The boy moved closer to the painting and studied it closely. "Well," he continued, "why isn't it?"

It's a legitimate question for people who are unfamiliar with, or uncomfortable with, abstract art, and one that the Utah Museum of Fine Arts will help viewers discuss and answer with its new exhibit "The Most Difficult Journey: The Poindexter Collections of American Modernist Painting," which opens Thursday and runs through Oct. 20.

According to Mary Francey, curator of American Art at the museum and curator of the exhibition, people have a hard time with abstraction because it asks them to participate; it asks them to bring something to the experience of viewing.

"I think most people think of a work of art as a literal representation of something that tells them what it is," said Francey. "Abstraction, or non-representational art, doesn't do that. It sets up a dialogue between the artist, the viewer and the work of art."

The exhibit's title, "The Most Difficult Journey," refers to a statement made by the collections' co-owner, George Poindexter (1900-75), a successful businessman who lived in Montana, who, after being baffled by abstract art for years, eventually came to admire it and collect it.

"George, like a lot of people, didn't understand abstraction," Francey said. "He thought it was incomprehensible. He couldn't understand why artists would paint that way."

Francey believes it is a lack of education that hinders people from understanding and enjoying abstract art; she believes the education system is at the heart of the problem. "Children in this country grow up learning about history, they learn English, they do a lot of reading, they certainly do a lot of math, but they don't get enough, or any, experience looking at, thinking about or talking about works of art."

The exhibition, which comes from the Montana Historical Society and the Yellowstone Art Museum, includes 60 paintings by artists who pioneered the redefinition of figuration and abstraction immediately after World War II. The work is their response to the trauma of war, the rapid changes in technology and the enormous shifts in societal boundaries, said Francey. It also represents the spirit of experimentation that permeated the times.