“All the excitement in their representations came from the particular modes of painting they developed while staring at their simple subjects. We return again to the cultivation of meaninglessness.” Richard Bretell

Art without iconography consists of “uninteresting” subjects. But, the picture itself is the artwork, leaving the viewer to decipher the painting by themselves. Abstract paintings allow the artist to paint what they really see when they look at an ordinary object. The viewers may have the same perspective as the artist, but most of the time, abstract painting leaves room for interpretation.

Bertram Brooker was not only a artist, but he also worked as a journalist, a playwright, a poet, a fiction writer, a musician, an advertising strategist, and a manager of a movie theater. Brooker was the first artist in Canada to exhibit abstract paintings, such as Sounds Assembling. In this painting, Brooker painted each brush stroke with the goal to create a “visual analogue to music, capturing the dynamism of sound through ricocheting poles of color and light”. For the creation of this painting, Brooker listened to music and he transferred his journey through sound to a canvas for an audience to experience. This painting does not have an area that the artist wants the viewers to focus on. Instead, Brooker wants the audience to view each part of the painting with the same depth of analysis.