The Embodied Experience of Abstract Art: An Exploratory Study

Postural control of people looking at 10 paintings of distinct artistic styles (5 Mondriaan’s neoplasticism and 5 Pollock’s action painting; N = 30) was investigated, using recurrence quantification analysis. Also, we explored the relation between postural control measures, emotional states of being moved (“Moved-By” and “Drawn-Towards”), and aesthetic appraisal (“Beauty” and “Complexity”). Results revealed differences in postural control, most notably more dynamically stable and complex postural sway in both the medial–lateral and anterior–posterior direction for Pollock paintings. Emotional states of being moved and aesthetic appraisal were associated with postural control across paintings, in several ways. For instance, paintings that people found more beautiful and felt more drawn towards, on average also tended to make them lean forwards more. Together these findings provide preliminary empirical evidence for the embodied nature of art experiences.