decorativeness and decoration
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Author: BERENIKA KOWALSKA CyberEmpathy ISSUE 2 / 2012 (2) Cyber SkyTRANSCRIPT
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
Source: Berenika Kowalska Family author's archive
Abstract:
Are decorativeness and decoration synonyms or just two definitions with
nothing in common? Fallacy of concepts and ongoing reluctance to
offensive for many artists statement about ornamentation of their works
led to the cataloging by the bad - decorative arts and good - anti-
decorative ones. However, each picture can become a decoration. Who
decides that? And what role does a creator as an artwork owner play?
Many of them fight and try to get rid of the decorative features in works
of art. But do they, for real, manage to win this rough and merciless
battle?
BERENIKA KOWALSKA Berenika Kowalska – born on 14.02.1989, a student of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in interdisciplinary studio of prof. Zbigniew Bajka. In 2010, she studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in Leon Tarasewicz’s studio, by the students’ exchange program "MOST" for the best students. In 2011
BERENIKA KOWALSKA
DECORATIVENESS AND DECORATION Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
Decorativeness and decoration
Decorativeness and decoration in the visual arts are two differing
concepts often confused with each other, and even used interchangeably.
Despite the common characteristics and elements they mean something
completely different.
In his book The sense of order. A study in the psychology in the
decorative art E.H Gombrih writes: "In decoration a specific order
covers an existing order; sometimes the second one is
maintained, and sometimes the first one opposes to the
organic forms. The same applies to the technical form.
Decorating a canoe or a house, a gun or a pot, a craftsman
has to deal with a shape that needs to be "decorated".
Decoration is defined to be applied to things and objects in
our environment." Each of us can imagine an industrial form with
some printing, an ornament around it, decoration - adornment. But can
the same be said about the painting? Can we really guess whether the
white linen/board, on which we intend to paint, is the “existing” shape,
so everything we paint on it will decorate it? Using color spots,
consciously or not, we cover white linen. Decoration is always a
decoration of something, even if it’s just an underpainting. Walking
further this path, we can claim that every picture that is not supposed to
be decorative, or even a decoration, can actually become one. Take, for
example, the picture of Malevich – White on White - the artwork that
can be an opposition to the popular definition of decoration. Let’s
imagine that a rich collector bought these work and hung on the wall of a
modern apartment in minimalist style, arranged by the famous interior
designer. Doesn’t this picture become that interior’s decoration? It is
obvious that an artist- in this case it was Malevich - was not thinking
about the creation of a "decoration", it for sure was not the essence of his
art. No doubt, too, that such a function could even insult the author of
quite complicated theory of Suprematism. However, if we take a picture
outside the museum, where we focus on the true essence of a work, and
hang it in some interior (for instance, an apartment), won’t it change its
function? Or maybe it will not change it as much as it will acquire a new
function, which not necessarily conflicts with a previous one.
Wallpapers, patterns on the curtains, volutes on the picture frame do not
give important information and, therefore, rarely lead us to a careful,
conscious observation. Does it mean, then, that we can come into the
room with Malevich painting on the wall without even noticing it,
treating it as a color accent that pleases our eyes? The artwork loses its
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
significance and gets the other - purely aesthetic - function. So here we
deal with decoration, and again, one of existing shapes: a wall, a room,
an interior.
Kazimierz Malevich White on white
Souorce: http://www.eptus.pl/2012/03/09/bialy-kwadrat-na-bialym-tle/
So what is decorativeness?
Here we enter the field of aesthetics and subjective influence on the
recipient. There is no doubt that the term led to discussions among
many thinkers and artists. Even Socrates himself motivated his students
to beware of the charms of a beautiful speech, because he realized its
seductive powers. Decoration is often interpreted as a "wallowing in
infantile pleasures", and Adolf Loos in his work from 1908 titled
Ornament and Crime tried to prove the redundancy of adding
ornaments to architecture. He wrote:"The less civilized the people
are the more abundant ornament and decorations are going
to be. The evolution of civilization is equal to removing
ornaments from the objects of use. I thought it would be a
source of joy for the world.” However, E.H. Gombrich writes: "...
history shows that some of great traditions of ornamental
styles exceed borders of pure decoration and can transform
excess into fullness and ambiguity into mystery." We also
cannot get rid of the belief that decorativeness triggers our sense of
beauty and pleasure. Whether we admire the illumination of the Book of
Kells or the architectural works of the above-mentioned Adolf Loos, it
must not be considered. There is no distinction between bad decorative
art, and good non-decorative one.
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
fragment of Book of Kells
Source: http://suite101.com/article/representations-of-christ-and-his-apostles-in-
the-book-of-kells-a359188
Adolf Loos – The House of Michaelerplatz
Source: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Loos
In the XX century, after the biggest decorative trend in contemporary art
- nouveau - the opposite tendencies came. Functionalist postulates led to
the elimination of decoration, just as the removal of all restrictions
transformed the creation of ornaments into the abstract art. There was
probably nothing worse for an abstract painter than the epithet
"decorative", which reminded him of the famous, mocking note that he
had created something used as a nice curtain. Despite the assumption
about the creation of anti-decorative works, can we really talk about
them as such? Maurice Denis wrote: "I think, a picture should be,
first of all, an ornament. Selection of scenes’ topics does not
matter. I try to get into the mind and to touch the emotions
by a color surface game, a valuable shade, a harmony of
lines." It may result from the fact that an abstract image, consisting
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
only of color spots, may be formed to be an ornament and thus become
decorative. One more important distinction should be added here. Each
ornament, or a picture that has it, is assumed to be decorative.
Nevertheless its lack is not a determinant of anti-decorativeness. The
works with characteristics of ornamentation (and therefore with
adequate decorative features) can be pointed out here; the one of them is
rhythm. I would like to repeat once again that the fact that images are
decorative does not mean that it is their essence. This feature probably
was not taken into consideration as a leading feature by the artists; but
normally fine arts attract us. No one can deny that paintings of Wasilly
Kandinsky - creator of abstract art - are decorative in their combining
the multi-colored spots and lines. A similar example can be also Jackson
Pollock or Mark Rothko. "The sense of order - used for
discovering and usage of the regularity-correctness that are
present in our surrounding - accompanied a man from the
very beginning." (E.H. Gombrich) Decorativeness appears both in
uncivilized tribes (as a decorative ornamentation) and in modern times
(as abstractive rhythms and forms). The question is also whether an
abstract form is exactly what the creators intended it to be in terms of
non-figurativeness. Aforementioned E.H. Gombrih writes: "The shape
is transformed immediately after identifying it as a thing or
a being. Thus there is no wonder that non-figurative artists
fight with the tendency to seek elements that lay in shapes
and colors, as this projection can ruin the dynamics of forms
that were assumed. Meaning can destroy order as much as
order can destroy meaning. Order and meaning seem to drag
a rope in opposite directions; and their interaction is a
thread and a basis of decorative arts." Everyone for sure tries to
espy some shapes or association in an abstract work and to create one’s
own meaning. This interpreting can sometimes resemble the Rorschach
test, where we discern a particular shape from a previously spilled ink.
So why do we defend ourselves so much against decorativeness,
considering it as something offensive, trivial and superficial? Even Oscar
Wilde wrote:"The explicitly decorative art is an art we live
with. Of all the visual arts, it is the only one to form in us
both mood and temperament."
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
Jackson Pollock Convergence
Source: http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/action_abstraction/jm-aa_08_08.htm
Wassily Kandinsky Composition nr 8
Source: http://butterfield-reignbeau.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html
Wassily Kandinsky Composition nr 9
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
Conscious decorativeness of works can be a powerful weapon in hands
of an artist. Mesmerizing ornament, power of habit and desire to repeat
– they all have dominant influence on the formation of the sense of
order. A natural thing is that we try to organize, arrange everything; and
forms which contribute to it through harmony make the strings of
emotions and beauty tremble.
My artworks are based on Polish folk ornament. Ornamental patterns on
the traditional costume have become a decoration that shows belonging
to a particular region. Worn only on important occasions, it became a
part of the important festive ceremonies. Beautiful embroideries,
openwork lace and intricate jewelries were permitted only for the rich. It
was a symbol of pomp and luxury, but also divinity and dignity. The
characters in my paintings are voiceless – expressionlessly showing no
emotions. They are an integral, but irrelevant part of the most important
thing - celestial decoration.
Berenika Kowalska Wedding Couple
Source: author's archive
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
Berenika Kowalska Couple
Source: author's archive
Berenika Kowalska Bridesmaids
Source: author's archive
CYBEREmpathy ISSUE 2/2012. Cyber Sky
Berenika Kowalska, Decorativeness and decoration
www.CyberEmpathy.com
Berenika Kowalska diptych Holy communion
Source: author's archive
Berenika Kowalska Family
Source: author's archive
Literature:
All citations used in text come from the book - E.H. Gombrich, Zmysł
porządku. O psychologii sztuki dekoracyjnej, Krakow 2009 , ISBN
97883-242-0820-3.