The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing
masterpieces are polite things, visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your sense of reality.  Simon Schama in THE POWER OF ART.

Abstract art is anything but tame. In many respects it is wild, even crazy, puzzling, and bewildering. Abstraction defies convention by letting go of familiar forms and allowing something new to emerge, to define itself. There is a sense in which abstract art becomes alive—an expression of who the artist is—engaging the viewer in a conversation—inviting exploration of the landscape of the soul.

Yet, despite the often wild nature of abstract art, it is a thing of beauty—not in the sense of simply alluring us, but of awakening us to deeper realities than those that skim the surface.  Abstract art sees with the eyes of imagination, opening up new possibilities.  As John O’Donohue reminds us: “The imagination is like a lantern. It illuminates the inner landscape of our life and helps us discover their secret archaeologies. (In BEAUTY)

Robert Henri asserts:

Beauty is no material thing.

Beauty cannot be copied.

Beauty is the sensation of pleasure on the mind of the seer. Await the sensitive and imaginative mind that may be aroused to pleasure at sight of them. This is beauty. (THE ART OF THE SPIRIT, pg. 78)

The beauty of abstract art lies, at least in part, in its lack of form, its simple flow, its ability to allow whatever the viewer sees come to be without interfering—making no judgment about correct interpretation. Despite its wild, crazy, puzzling nature it is soft and flexible, not asserting control over viewer response. Yet, in granting such freedom to the seer, it can become frightening—just as freedom to make our own choices in life can scare the wits out of us, paralyzing us, repelling us and crippling our ability to engage it fully.

What abstract art offers the viewer is the opportunity to surrender before the image—to simply allow it to be—to speak to the inner self. In the end, it is only in giving up our need to control and interpret what we see—and simply allow it to be—that we can perhaps hear the voice of God.

Where the mystery is the deepest, there is the gate of all
that is subtle and wonderful.  Lao Tzu in TAO TE CHING