The Collapse of Chaos

"We have to find a way to combine content and context, reductionism and high level features, into a seamless whole." 

Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart in their book 'The Collapse of Chaos. Discovering Simplicity in a Complex World '  Although this is a scientific observation it struck me when reading the book that this summed up for me the current dilemna in abstract painting. Perhaps I will adopt is an artist's statement! Of course it raises a number of questions such as 'What are high level features?' and what in a painting would constitute a 'seamless whole'. The combining of content, context and reductionism has been happening for years in both science and art.