Identification Towards Clarity
An example of this is found in Elijah’s Future Lovers. It could easily be argued that if an observer did not know the title of the painting, he might not notice that the left side of the work can either be a complete figure or the upper part of a figure, while the right side of the work can either be viewed as a second figure, or, the lower half (legs) of a figure. In addition, it appears that the figures are leaning towards each other offering each other an embrace.
In Elijah's Future Lovers, the concept of exploring the notion of meeting one's kindred spirit or "better half" is depicted in a way to represent a physical completeness found in the anticipated reaching out towards one another. As mentioned, it is usually only after knowing the title of a piece of impressionistic abstract art, can the possibility of inner emotional recognition take place, creating the application of the aforementioned time-interpretive element, which often comes into play when viewing Linear Impressionism artwork.
This same point, where the title of a painting can provide the viewer a roadmap towards understanding the artist’s true intent, can often be applied to classic impressionist paintings as well (generally considered to be the latter half of the 19th Century).
For example, in Berthe Morisot’s painting Girl on a Divan c.1885 (of which only a portion is show here), we see a blue wall in back of where the subject is sitting. However, if the painting was entitled, Girl Lounging by the Ocean, the blue background might be interpreted as the blue backdrop of an ocean. Or, if the artwork was entitled, Girl Lounging in Front of a Bayside Window, then one could easily imagine a girl sitting with her back to a large window overlooking a peaceful bay.
Iconographic Reference as Lexicon
The use of a specific part of a painting in Linear Impressionism once the viewer is made aware of what an element actually represents, gives the artist and the observer the ability to use this iconographic reference to recognize where that iconography may appear in other works. This allows both the artist and the observer to move along in observational tandem from one artwork to another.
For example, in Elijah's Sad Cowboy, the top left part of the image shows a hat angled in a downward fashion, while the cowboy is sitting stationary upon his horse. In addition, we see his horse's front left leg on the lower left side of the image and its tail on the bottom right section.
Once numerous symbolic representations are identified and "learned," viewers of other works painted using Linear Impressionism might begin to view and understand certain aspects of those other works of art without needing to know the title, enjoying the time-interpretive element of observation to fill in the rest of the painting's meaning.
Combining both ideas mentioned above, namely, the importance of initially knowing the title of an impressionistic artwork to accurately understand the true meaning of an artist's painting, along with repetitive imagery used from one particular painting to another, can be exemplified by van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône c. 1888.
If van Gogh had decided, instead, to title the painting, Fireworks Over the Thames, the viewer would "see" fireworks in the night sky instead of stars. Or, if he titled the work Angels Descending Towards the Beach, whenever we'd see other works of his with little glowing spheres of light, we might continue to apply that specific interpretation to those works and perhaps start to include an element of religious intent whenever a glowing sphere appears in another work by van Gogh.
To further exemplify this, one can view one of van Gogh's most famous paintings, The Starry Night c. 1889. Here, again, we see van Gogh's use of yellow-white spherical swirls to connote his expression of stars in a night sky. Even if we didn't know the exact title of the painting, the familiarity of those little yellowish spheres as stars creates almost instant recognition, where the time-interpretive element becomes almost non-existent, if we so choose. (Someone may always see angels.)
Elijah's Fishermen and Their Sea
The freedom to interpret artwork at the pace of each individual viewer is a natural and almost logical progression based upon the original Impressionist painters' "freeing approach" towards their new form of artistic expression created in the latter half of the 19th Century. They were not only some of the first artists to paint consistently outside of a studio (en plein air), but were aided by important technological developments in both new colors available to them, as well as the more readily available portable easel ultimately resulting in an almost clean break from traditional artwork. In other words, they now had the courage to decide how it was painted, where it was painted and what was painted.
Freedom of Choice: Elijah's Dancing Cowboys
Van Gogh was comfortable creating artwork using unique swirls. Matisse was ultimately gratified using only curved lines. Artists such as Seurat and Signac decided to shrink down their application of paint to single tiny little dots (pointillism) to create their works. While each of those artists' individualistic geometric approaches gave forth to original imagery created from their own internal impressions - some much more realistic than others, each, nonetheless, paved a new path of expression inherently and recognizably their own.
Linear Impressionism could simply be considered a continuation of the concept of Impressionistic art, where viewers can and should interpret at will and in their own time, coming to their own conclusions of what is being viewed. Often, however, the aid of the title allows the viewer to harness and focus their own curiosity to fill in what is not completely presented by the artist on the canvas, rather, needing the involvement of the viewer's imagination to complete the image.
