What makes something abstract?
People always refer to an image as abstract when they can't recognize what is in the image, or when it doesn't fit contemporary perceptions of beauty. I believe it is something much more than that. Not that abstraction isn't those things, but it i also something a bit deeper. Abstraction is a concept. It is something that is perceived different for different individuals. It is much like the question, what is art? Abstraction cannot be defined so easily.
If abstraction was indeed when one could not recognize or understand an image, then it is much more than a surface description.
More than a layer of aes