WHAT DOES ART LOOK LIKE? Summary Assignment Lecture
Principles of Design
Art Appreciation Joe Clark
Principles of Design
Unity and Variety Unity and variety are complementary concerns. Unity is the appearance or condition of oneness. Variety provides diversity.
In design, unity is used to describe the feeling that all elements in the work belong together and make a coherent and harmonious whole. When a work has unity, both the artist and the viewer feel that any change to the composition would damage overall quality. Therefore, unity is safe, but can be very boring.
Variety acts as a counterbalance to extreme unity. The balance between the boredom of too much sameness and the chaos of uncontrolled variety creates visual harmony and interest in both art and life.
Unity and Variety are most effective when used together. What are the unifying elements in the image to the right? What provides diversity?
Andy Warhol Green Coca-Cola Bottles
Acrylic, screenprint, and graphite pencil on canvas, 1962
Principles of Design
Unity and Variety A real-life example of Unity and Variety Unity is like eating pizza everyday for every meal for the rest of your life. Could you survive on only pizza? Sure. But how boring would that be? Not to mention youre probably going to get sick of eating pizza after a while. At some point youre gonna want a cheese burger or a taco. Variety lets me experience other things and keeps the menu interesting. But…
Too much variety can be even more problematic. What if you were told you have to eat something different for every meal and you could never repeat? What if you wanted another slice of pizza? Sorry. Variety on its own creates an equally unpleasent situation. It needs the structure and repetition that unity provides.
In art, the best compositions use both unity and variety.
Principles of Design Unity and Variety
This painting has one major unifying element.
Can you guess what it is?
Art note: This painting is at the Museum of Fine Arts here in Houston.
You should go see it.
Frantiek Kupka The Yellow Scale Oil On Canvas c. 1907
What about here? Certainly a bit more variety here. But not too much. What are the unifying elements? Color, shape, texture.
Bathers at Asnières Georges Seurat Oil on canvas, 1884
Principles of Design
Principles of Design Balance This painting by Diego Rivera uses what we call approximate symmetry.
The focal point of the image, the flower seller, is directly in the center of the composition. The left and right sides are not identical but are so close in scale and have enough unity in shape and color that balance is maintained.
Flower Day (Día de Flores) Diego Rivera
Oil on canvas, 1925
Principles of Design
Balance Asymmetrical balance uses compositional elements that are offset from each other, creating a visually unstable balance. Note: Its important to remember that even though this not symmetry, balance is still maintained. Asymmetrical visual balance is the most dynamic because it creates a more complex design construction. It achieves visual balance even when both sides are not the same.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai. Woodblock print, 1832
This iconic image by the great Japanese printmaker Hokusai, achieves balance in an asymmetrical composition.
The dynamic focal point of the big wave, rises and curls from the left back to the center of the image. The water rises up on the right side of the print, framing Mount Fuji in the background, and keeping our eyes in the picture.
Principles of Design Balance
Avant de Ballet Edgar Degas Oil on canvas, 1890-1892
This painting is assymmeticaly balanced and may even be a bit off-balanced.
Edgar Degas loved to play with fragile balance in his compositions, pushing them to the extreme. Take the image above for example: you get the feeling if just one of the girls on the left was removed, the girls on the right would tumble off the picture.
Principles of Design Emphasis and Subordination Emphasis is used to draw attention to a particular area of the composition. This specific spot or figure is called a focal point.
Through subordination, an artist creates neutral areas that are important to the narrative but not as important as the focal point.
The image to the right is a painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. As a Baroque painter, he was a master at using light to draw the viewers eyes to the focal point in this case, the glowing baby Jesus. Through his use of shadow, Rembrandt is able to effectively include important participants in the scene without them competing with the focal point.
Adoration of the Shepherds, Rembrandt Oil on canvas, 1646
Principles of Design
Principles of Design Directional Forces
Notice all of the design principles Goya uses to get you to look at the focal point in his famous painting, The Third of May, 1808.
Directional forces: The guns with bayonets of the firing squad pointing at the men to be executed.
Emphasis and subordination: The focal point, the man with outstretched arms, is brighter than anything else in the image.
Balance: This painting is asymmetrically balanced through use of the golden ratio.
Repetition and rhythm: The rhythmic repetition of elements the color red, and the soldiers in line.
Principles of Design
High contrast The color of this tree frogs feet and eyes are opposite the leaf its sitting on.
Watch out for birds.
Low contrast Can you find the frog in this picture?
An artists use of contrast isnt always limited to just the formal elements of a work of art. Sometimes the contrast is in the content – the idea or concept behind the artwork.
For example: What are the dissimilar formal elements in the image above? Would you expect to see a pink cement truck at a construction site? Probably not. The idea behind painting a work truck a contrasting color is fun and makes the photo more enjoyable. Playing with contrast in the content of a work engages the viewer in an interesting way.
Principles of Design
Contrast
The repetition of visual elements gives the composition unity, continuity, flow and emphasis. Rhythm is created through the regular recurrence of those visual elements with related variations.
A good composition will always have a rhythmic order to its repeated elements.
Example: I once purchased my five year old son a small drum kit. He had been banging on everything so I thought he was a natural drummer. Nope. There was a lot of repetition but it was definitely not good music.
What he lacked at such a young age was rhythm. Rhythm places all the repeating elements in a cohesive and orderly system.
In this painting, what repeated elements do you see? Wheres the rhythm?
De Hooch uses geometric shapes in rhythmic patterns to unify the composition. Diversity breaks up the geometry with organic human forms. Theres unity, variety, rhythmic repetition and contrast.
Principles of Design Repetition and Rhythm
A Woman Drinking with Two Men Pieter de Hooch, oil on canvas, 1658
Give this one a try. Heres another image by M. C. Escher entitled Day and Night. What are the repeated and rhythmic elements? Shapes, value, texture, patterns. Which of the other design principles do you see? Unity, variety, balance, contrast
Principles of Design
Repetition and Rhythm
Principles of Design Scale and Proportion
Scale is the size relationship of one thing to another.
This little dude has his hands full with a really BIG job.
According to the definition of scale, he and the hand do not share the same scale.
Looking at the image on the left, you cant help but think that pop artist Claes Oldenburg had a lot of fun playing with the scale of his oversized sculptures of everyday objects.
Principles of Design Scale and Proportion Like Claes Oldenburg, artist Robert Therrien makes something recognizable from an everyday experience and enlarges it to a monumental scale.
Robert Therrien, No title (Folding table and chairs, beige), 2008 Painted metal and fabric. Table: 96 x 120 x 120 inches.
4 chairs: 104 x 64 x 72 inches each.
Principles of Design Scale and Proportion
Robert Therrien with two of his oversize creations in his studio in Los Angeles.
Principles of Design Scale and Proportion Ron Mueck also engages the viewer through his use of scale. His sculptures look extremely life-like, but he also exposes the artificial nature of his work by giving his figures abnormal proportions.
See more of Muecks work: HERE
Right: Standing Woman, 2007 Below: Boy, 1999
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/10/the-hyperrealistic-sculptures-of-ron-mueck/100606/
Principles of Design Scale and Proportion
Proportion is the size relationship of parts to a whole.
An artist will sometimes alter the proportions of a figure for emphasis. Notice in this painting how the artist Parmigianino has elongated the neck, torso, hands and legs of Mary. The babys proportions are also very odd.
The painting is from the Renaissance but we call the style mannerism. Parmigianino abstracted these features of the central figures to add visual interest.
Madonna with the long neck Parmigianino Mazzola
Oil on panel, 1534 – 1540
