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Joan Jonas“They Come to Us without a Word”U.S. Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2015

Formal Analysis:

The process of explaining how the form (size, shape color etc.) of a work of art changes the representation of the subject matter and creates the expressive content.

Form: How a work looks, including: Media: materials usedStyle: constant recurring or coherent traitsComposition: the organization of Design Elements & Principles

Subject Matter: What the work portrays.Iconography Culturally specific signs.

Remembering from Chapters 1-3 that…

Formal Analysis

Form + Subject Matter = Content

What the work says including:Message (more specific)Meaning (determined by the viewer)

Formal Analysis

Henri Matisse, 1917, Portrait de famille (The Music Lesson), oil on canvas, 245.1 x 210.8 cm, Barnes Foundation

Example

When interpreting a work of art, let’s start by noting a few things about the form of the previous Matisse painting. That it’s painted is pretty trivial.

What else?How is it painted? What kind of colors are used?

We noted that the use of colors and lines imply that this family appears to have a close relationship.

Then what is the general subject, a family portrait. To determine the message we must look for clues: symbols or iconography. Each of them are engaged in some type of creative or intellectual pursuit. The arts (music, literature, sewing, and visual arts) seem to fulfill and unite this family.

Formal Analysis

Pablo PicassoSpanish, worked in France, 1881–1973The Old Guitarist, late 1903–early 1904

Form + Subject Matter = Content

Form: Dusty blue colors. Elongated limbs, twisted pose.

Subject Matter: Old man, in tattered clothes. Street musician?

Content: General sadness, precariousness of life. The Artist’s life?

Chapter 4:The Formal Elements

Line: Contour, Direction and MovementShape: Figure and GroundLight: Digital & Electronic

Actual & Implied Value: Relative light & dark “Chiaroscuro” (light & dark)Color: Hue, Primary & Secondary Complementary, Analogous

(warm & cool)

Roger Fry’s An Essay in Aesthetics 1909

He calls these visual feature of artworks the Emotional elements of design.

“These elements are connected to the essential conditions of physical existence. ... The graphic arts arouse emotions in us by playing upon what one may call the overtones of some of our primary physical needs.”

Contour lines are interior and exterior boundaries (edges) of an implied three-dimensional Form.

“The drawn line is a record of a gesture, and that gesture is modified by the artist’s feeling which is thus communicated to us directly.”

Egon Schiele

Line

“Rhythm [of line] appeals to all the sensations which accompany muscular activity.”


Cy Twombly, Untitled 1968 House paint and crayon on canvas. 68 x 90"

Line

Line

Cy Twombly exhibition photos showing the scale of the painting gestures.

Kazuo ShiragaJapanese1924 -2008.

A lead member of the Gutai Art Association, in Osaka in the 50’s-60’s.

Hanging on ropes to slide over the canvas at quickly changing paces, Kazuo Shiraga resolutely spreads the colored oil paste, guiding it through the surface and allowing it to guide him. Each painting is a short vibrant event, each canvas a different new dance, in which the material is in continuity with both the matter and the energy of the body.

Untitled, Artist Kazuo Shiraga, 1959 Dimensions unframed 70.875 × 110 inches Materials oil on canvas

Line

KAZUO SHIRAGAKeishizoku, 1961oil on canvas76 3/8 x 51 1/2 in. (194 x 130.8 cm)

Line

Artist: Kazuo ShiragaCompletion Date: 1972

Line

Visual rhythm: Depends on the repetition of accented elements, usually shapes

Figure 5.26 Kaiho Yusho, Fish Nets Drying in the Sun, 17th century.

Rhythm

Rhythm is repetition and is part of our lives: The rhythm of seasons, waves on the shore, and cycles of the moon. It is an integral part of music, dance, poetry, and visual art.

In art it is often difficult to describe what we are seeing directly with words. Artists and writers often use other metaphors to help describe visual experience. With rhythm we are using a term from music. A beat in music is the underlying rhythm that unifies the composition. In visual art, rhythm is used to structure a composition and lead our eyes.

Rhythm

Lines imply direction and movement

Martin Puryear (American, b. 1941). Ladder for Booker T. Washington, 1996. .

Line

Julie Mehretu

Line

Vertical lines seem assertive, or denote growth & strength.

Horizontal lines appear calm.

Diagonal lines are the most dramatic and imply action.

Line: Direction and Movement

Thomas Eakins, The Biglin Brothers Racing, 1873-74.

Line

Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-19.

Implied Line

Gericault is depicting an actual shipwreck of the French ship Medusa off of the North African coast in 1816. Here the survivors on the raft signal a rescue ship far away on the horizon.

The diagonals of the limbs, the mast, and rope imply intense human effort and stress, while the verticals of the figure with the waving shirt conveys hope and strength. It is only when we follow the implied lines of their attention that we notice the ship on the horizon. The rope leads our eye to the sail, which we realize will pull the survivors away from the rescue craft.

Implied Line

Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-19.

Implied Line

Implied line works because our brains try to make patterns out of what we see and because we have a tendency to visually follow motion. i.e. if someone points, we look.

Installation image from the Louvre.

Implied Line

Shape: an enclosed line; A two-dimensional area with identifiable boundaries

i.e. circles or squares

Painters Progress, Elizabeth Murray (American, 1940-2007 spring 1981

Shape vs. Mass

Raphael, The Madonna of the Meadows, 1505.

Implied Shape

Here we see another type of Implied line, the Implied Shape. The shape doesn’t actually exist. It is our eye movement in the grouping of figures that follows This triangular composition was a popular device to provide unity during the Renaissance.

Raphael, The Madonna of the Meadows, 1505.

In the same was as the white triangle in the above figure doesn’t exist, yet our brains fill it in… The contrast of light and dark creates emphasis, which helps our eye movement in the painting.

Mass/Form: A three-dimensional area with identifiable boundariesie: spheres and cubes

ANISH KAPOORSvayambh2007wax and oil-based paintDimensions variable

Shape vs. Mass

http://www.anishkapoor.com/

Shape and Mass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlnhAqbkhq0

“When an object is represented that we recognize it as having inertia, we feel its power of resisting movement, or communicating its own movement to other bodies, and our imaginative reaction to such an image is governed by our experience of mass in actual life.”


Anish Kapoor, Svayambh, 2007

Shape and Mass

Texture

Actual Texture: A possible tactile experience. A perception of smooth or rough, fine or coarse.

Paint applied thickly creates an actual texture, called Impasto, that we could feel (again, if we were allowed).

JAMES HAYWARDIcon 66 x 111 flesh/gold/sky blue, 1988Oil and wax on canvas on wood, 660 1/10 × 111 in

Implied Texture: The illusion of a tactile experience. Dufy’s painting is on a flat canvas, but he creates a visual illusion or an implied texture through his brushstrokes. They create “rough patches.” The water does not have a representational illusion, but still conveys choppiness.

Raoul Dufy, Regatta at Cowes, 1934.

Texture

When a implied or actual texture is repeated regularly it is called a Pattern.

Yayoi KusamaDots Obsession – New Century, 200011 balloons and vinyl stickersOverall dimensions vary with each installation

Figure: a “positive” shape, the foreground, Usually convex (curving outward)

Ground: a “negative shape”, the background, or appearing to behind the figure. Usually concave (curving inward)

The concept of the “figure” and “ground” in visual experience comes out of 20th century Gestalt Psychology. These psychologists tried to figure out how our brains sort all of the stuff that we see coming into our eyes into different categories, like an object or a void, near or far, etc.

Figure / Ground

Figure-ground Controversy:A figure-ground controversy occurs when the positive and negative spaces are in balance and it becomes hard to say which one is in from (is figure) and which part is behind (is ground)

Figure / Ground

Logo designers frequently rely on figure / ground relationships to make their designs interesting.

Sculpture, architecture, and all forms with mass exist in Three dimensional space that has height, width, and depth.

Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain, 1997.

Space

“the spatial judgment is equally profound and universal in its application to life; our feeling about inclined planes is connected with our necessary judgments about the conformation of the earth itself;”

Space

Fred Sandback (1943 – 2003) was a minimalist conceptual-based sculptor known for his yarn sculptures, drawings, and prints.

Sandback is primarily known for his Minimalist works made from lengths of colored yarn. His yarn, elastic cord, and wire sculptures define edges of virtual shapes that ask the viewer's brain to perceive the rest of the form.

Space

Fred Sandback, UNTITLED (SCULPTURAL STUDY, TWO-PART VERTICAL CONSTRUCTION)Yarn, nails. CA. 1986/2008

Space

Implied Space

The picture plane is the flat surface of a two-dimensional work. The space in a drawing, photograph or painting is only implied, as there is no actual depth.

Artists use many devices to give the illusion of depth.

• Size

• Overlapping

• Vertical Position (foreground, middle-ground, background)

• Atmospheric (or Aerial) Perspective

• Linear Perspective

• Isometric Perspective

• Foreshortening (or Amplified Perspective)

• Multiple Perspective

Implied Space

Size: Objects that are farther away appear smaller.

Edgar DegasFrench, 1834-1917The Star, 1879/81

The size of an object is interpreted relative to the objects around it and within its context.

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Scale: Size in relation to a constant or “normal” size

Proportion: Refers to size relationships between parts of a whole or between two or more items perceived as a unit

Figure 5.18 René Magritte, Delusions of Grandeur II, 1948.

Proportion and Scale

Ron Mueck, “In Bed” 2005

Q: Big Scale or Big Proportion?

Ron Mueck, “In Bed” 2005

Q: Big Scale or Big Proportion?

A: Big Scale! The woman in Ron Mueck’s sculpture is in the same proportions as a normal human, but at a bigger, giantlike scale!

IndiaRajasthan, Mewar, Udaipur, Attributed to Ghasi (active c. 1820-36)Maharana Bhim Singh in Procession, c. 1820

Hierarchical scale: Other cultures sometime use size to show social importance not space.

Edgar DegasFrench, 1834-1917Ballet at the Paris Opera, 1877

Overlapping

Overlapping

René MagritteBelgian, 1898–1967The Banquet, 1958

Linear Perspective

1. Forms seem to diminish in size as they recede.

2. Parallel lines that recede seem to converge towards a “vanishing point”, where they appear to disappear on the horizon line.

In order to create a “window on the world,” Renaissance artists used the camera obscura, a drawing device, to replicate how structures recede into space. It is based on two observations:

Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495-97.

Linear Perspective

Linear Perspective

Here we see Leonardo Da Vinci using the “vanishing point” in a system of linear perspective to place the central character of the Last Supper, Jesus at the center of the composition and the focus of the room as well.

Linear perspective always locates the place of the viewer in relationship to the picture space… are we looking down, up or on equal level. It really privileges the primacy of visual experience in Western thought.

Two-Point Linear Perspective

Both “horizontal” lines recede to two vanishing points. Vertical lines remain vertical.

Note that the “hovering” boxes are above the “eye level”

Two-Point Linear Perspective

Horizon line & Eye level

Two point perspective is used when a geometric form is “edge on” to the viewer.

Isometric PerspectiveOther systems of perspective exist. Isometric perspective is popular for early video games as well as many Asian cultures.

No reduction in scale with distance of objects.

Objects recede on 45 degree angles.

Eboydesigner “Eboy"

Isometric Perspective

Station of Otsu: From the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (The "Reisho Tokaido"), Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1848–49Ando Hiroshige

Isometric Perspective is also known as “bird’s eye” perspective.

Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak, 1863.

Atmospheric Perspective

In addition to the fact that our eyesight fails as objects reach the vanishing point, moisture and dust in the atmosphere scatter light. Blue light scatters the most, hence the sky appears blue, and things take on a bluish tinge as their distance from us increases. Bierstadt’s dramatic landscape draws our eyes through the encampment, to a waterfall, and on to the distant mountain peaks.

In abstract works closeness to the background color causes things to look further away, as does blurring of shapes. Clearer shapes appear closer in implied space.


Gongwang, Dwelling n the Fuchun Mountains, 1530.


Larry Poons. Nixes Mate. acrylic on canvas. 1964.


Value: The relative darkness or lightness of a line or area. Usually considered to in black and white.

Contrast: Two different values next to each other produces a visible difference that is interpreted as a change in shape or volume.

Implied Light

Ansel Adams, Autumn Moon, the High Sierra from Glacier Point. It was taken on 15 September 1948.

Areas of high contrast also draw the eye to them. Artists us this to create areas of emphasis.

Value enables our eyes to perceive form and spatial relationships, even on a flat, two-dimensional surface.

Chiaroscuro: Means light/dark(contrasts of light and shadow)

This unfinished drawing shows continuous tones on a middle-value brown paper with charcoal and white chalk. Notice the raised hand of Saint Anne and the flatness due to the lack of value range.

Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Saint Anne with…


Implied Light

“Our feelings toward the same object will become totally different according as we see it strongly illuminated against a black background or dark against light. …

Light is so necessary a condition of our existence that we become intensely sensitive to changes in its intensity.”

Implied Light

Our perception of light and dark allows us to make visual judgments about the shape of objects that we haven’t felt yet. But we have subconscious habits.

Our perception of a surface depends on its orientation with respect to the light source. The visual system assumes that the light comes from above. Brighter patches appear to be tilted up facing the light.

Implied Light

Using a Prism, Newton observed that a ray of sunshine refracted into colors of the rainbow. With a second prism he found he was able to recombine these colors into white light. All color is dependent on light.

What we perceive as color is reflected light rays. A red shirt, for example, absorbs all of the color rays except the red ones, which are reflected back to our eyes.

Color Theory

Color Wheel: Made up of the colors refracted by Sir Isaac Newton’s prism. An attempt to create a system to understand and describe color.

Color Theory: Reflected Light

Two color circles are included as illustrations in the 1708 edition of Traité de la peinture en mignature, an artist's manual attributed to "C.B." (often assumed to be Claude Boutet, or the publisher, Christophe Ballard).

Lichtenberg's replication of Tobias Mayer's triangle has only seven chambers per side, rather than Mayer's suggested 12. In his comments to the Opera inedita, Lichtenberg complained of the difficulties of creating a color reproduction according to Mayer's instructions. Trans. and ed. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. Göttingen, 1775, plate III.

http://www.gutenberg-e.org/lowengard/A_Chap03.html

Early Color theory systems.

Yellow

RedBlue

Primary and

Green

Violet

Orange

Secondary Colors

Color Theory

Color Temperature

Cool Colors

Warm Colors

Cool and Warm colors are qualitative distinctions between colors base on how we experience the world.

Color Theory

Color Temperature

The notion of cool or warm colors is another example of trying to find a metaphor to describe our visual experience of color. Or maybe certain colors occur more frequently in actually warm or cold contexts?

Color Theory

Color; Hue: Name of the color.

Value:Relative lightness or darkness.

Intensity: Relative purity and impact of a color.

Color Properties

Color Theory: RGB

RGB =Red, Green, Blueas the primary colors

Artists who work with light (film, theater, video monitors) work with a different set of primaries, as shown in the chart. Colors are mixed through an additive process.

Used in Theatrical Lighting or old TV’s where it mixes the colors together to make white light.

Color Theory: RGB

CMYK:

CyanMagentaYellow

(K) Black

Color Theory: CMYK

The CMYK color model, referred to as process color or four color, is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in most color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black.

Color Harmony

According to color theory, harmonious color combinations use any two colors opposite each other on the color wheel, any three colors equally spaced around the color wheel forming a triangle, or any four colors forming a rectangle (actually, two pairs of colors opposite each other). The harmonious color combinations are called 'color harmonies’.

The current form of color theory was developed by Johannes Itten, a Swiss color and art theorist who was teaching at the Bauhaus. Johannes Itten developed 'color chords' and modified the color wheel. Itten's color wheel is based on red, yellow, and blue colors as the primary triad and includes twelve hues.

Monochromatic:Variations of the same hue.

James Abbott McNeil Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Gold, c. 1872-75.

Monochromatic color schemes usually include a range of values and intensities. This nighttime scene is soothing with tints and shades of one hue: blue. This is an example of a “Restricted Palette” (few pigments with tints and shades). Color combined with verticals for stability, horizontals for peacefulness, and hazy negative space all help to create the mood.

Monochromatic Color:The image is made of all different values of one color or hue.

i.e. Light blue, Dark blue

Color Harmony

Complementary: Directly opposite on the color wheel.

Hans Hoffman

Complementary schemes tend to accentuate each other vividly. The red is intensified by the green of the square shape. The contrast creates a buzz charging the abstract painting.

Since these colors are the farthest away from each other they create the most energy or conflict of any of the harmonies.

Complimentary Colors:Colors opposite of each other on the color wheel. Considered to be the most energetic pairing.

i.e. Violet and Yellow

Color Harmony

Analogous: Adjacent hues on the color wheel.

ALEX KATZ , September Afternoon, 1994

Analogous Colors:i.e. Yellow, Orange-Yellow-

Orange.

Color Harmony

Triadic Colors:i.e. The Primary Colors, Red,

Yellow and Blue

Triadic: 3 equidistant colors on the color wheeli.e. Red, yellow and blue.

Paul Gauguin, Woman with a Flower, 1891

The Triadic color harmony is the most balanced of the options because the colors are equally different. There is a lively sense in this pictures but a measured one.

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/paul-gauguin

Color Harmony

Sameness and Unity Difference and Variety

Monoc

hrom

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Analog

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Triad

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Comple

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David Hockney, American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman), 1968Acrylic on canvas 83 7/8 x 120 in.)

Color Harmony

David Hockney, American Collectors (Fred and Marcia Weisman), 1968

Acrylic on canvas 83 7/8 x 120 in.)

Color Harmony

In this example the pink of Marcia Weisman’s dress is a complementary color to the cool blue green of the rest of the image. The colors are also chosen to give that feeling of the California lifestyle of Beverly Hills.

Color can communicate place, taste, emotion and memory all without words!

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