Thematic abstraction

The abstract art, which is opposed to the figurative art, is subdivided in two consecutive groups, different historic and conceptually, that are thematic abstraction and formal abstraction.
In the first group: the thematic abstraction is found in movements as symbolism (Odilon Redon) or surrealism. In it the motives are recognized but not the theme..
The paintings of Magritte: The son of the man and The Violation are examples of thematic abstraction.
In these they appear respectively a face of a man and the face of a woman. That of the man hides behind an apple, in The son of the man. The parts of the female face are substituted for elements of the body: the eyes by the breasts, the nose by the navel, the mouth by the pubis.
Thus, in both paintings, is recognized the motives (face, apple, etc.), but not the set or theme. To difference for example of what occurs in a Crucifixion, where the assembly of the motives (the cross, the mount Golgotha, the stair, the sun and the moon, Saint John and the Holy Virgin, etc.) form the general theme of the work..
In thematic abstraction, though the theme is lost like set, the motives as "minimum units of sense" continue indivisible..
This is, the theme is lost, or turns confuse, incomprehensible, but an apple not stops being an apple, and involves implicitly all the senses that the tradition is given it..
From there we can deduce that the title of The son of the man is, by the apple, a clear reference to Adam and the original sin..
To the contrary, the formal abstraction, that is represented in the abstract expressionism, loses the theme and the motives, because in it only remains stains and colors but any recognizable figure.

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