The Abstract Expressionists and Les Automatistes: A shared multi-fractal depth?

Statistical analysis of abstract paintings is becoming an increasingly important tool for understanding the creative process of visual artists. We present a multifractal analysis of 'poured' paintings from the Abstract Expressionism and Les Automatistes movements. The box-counting dimension (D"0) is measured for the analyzed paintings, as is the associated multifractal depth @DD=D"0-D"~, where D"~ is the asymptotic dimension. We investigate the role of depth by plotting a 'phase space' diagram that examines the relationship between D"0 and D"~. We show that, although the D"0 and D"~ values vary between individual paintings, the collection of paintings exhibit a similar depth, suggesting a shared visual characteristic for this genre. We discuss the visual implications of this result.

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