No, you cannot ask of abstract paintings the same sort of questions you might ask of representational paintings, for they are a different class of object, though perhaps it is better to say that they are the same class of object, but that they postulate themselves differently, in that the former wants to be encountered, and the latter wants to be interpreted. For all of them, in a material sense, are the same: nothing more than canvas or board on which a viscous, pigmented liquid has been applied in a cogent and purposeful way.