decorativeness and decoration

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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.

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Page 1: Decorativeness and Decoration

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.

Page 2: Decorativeness and Decoration

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

Page 3: Decorativeness and Decoration

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.

Page 4: Decorativeness and Decoration

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

Page 5: Decorativeness and Decoration

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."

Page 6: Decorativeness and Decoration

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

Page 7: Decorativeness and Decoration

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

Page 8: Decorativeness and Decoration

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

Page 9: Decorativeness and Decoration

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.