The embodied experience of abstract art: Moving across the 20th century

The aim of this study was to contribute to our understanding of embodied art experiences. We were interested in the emerging relationship between artwork, on the one hand, and one's bodily movements and associated embodied affective states on the other. Concretely, postural control of 46 participants looking at a diverse set of 21 20th-century abstract paintings was analysed. Also, we explored the relation between postural control, emotional states of being moved and aesthetic appraisal. Results did not reveal differences in postural control between the paintings. However, differences in variability, dynamic stability, complexity and intermittency of postural sway were found, when comparing subsets of high-motion and low-motion paintings and between subclasses of abstract painting styles. Emotional states of being moved and aesthetic appraisal were associated with postural control, both across paintings and across people in several ways. Together these findings provide empirical evidence for an embodied art experience.