World off art 8th edtion by henry m sayre chapter 7

emphasis and focal point.. Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston... Emphasis and Focal Point1 of 3 area to which the artist draws the viewer's attention the most.. Photo: Photog

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The Principles of Design

7

Learning Objectives

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radial balance.

emphasis and focal point.

proportion.

pattern, repetition, and rhythm.

Learning Objectives

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between unity and variety, and why postmodernist artists have tended to emphasize variety over unity.

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Proportion: The Vitruvian Man embodies

all the qualities of design.

 Symmetry, proportion, and ratio derive from the perfection of the human figure.

 The figure's limbs fit perfectly within

their frame.

Leonardo da Vinci, Study of Human Proportion: The Vitruvian Man

ca 1492 Pen-and-ink drawing, 13-1/2 × 9-5/8" Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

CAMERAPHOTO Arte, Venice [Fig 7-1]

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seems to teeter in its playfulness

 It is nicknamed "Fred and Ginger" for its seemingly dancing frame.

 However, both parts of the building

balance each other out like a dialogue.

Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunić, Rasin Building (a.k.a the "Dancing House" or "Fred and

Ginger"), Prague, Czech Republic

1992–96

© Curva de Luz/Alamy [Fig 7-2]

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"rules" as created by the Vitruvian Man

are meant to be broken so that artists

can discover new ways to express

themselves.

• Media are the materials that artists use

to create their works.

physical weight of materials in pounds.

apparent "heaviness" or "lightness" of the forms in the composition.

Symmetrical Balance

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• Symmetrical representations recall

Leonardo's Study.

 When each side is exactly the same, it is

called absolute symmetry

 When there are minor discrepancies but the overall effect is symmetrical, it is

called bilateral symmetry.

Symmetrical Balance

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symmetrically balanced buildings in the world.

 Each facade is identical with openings that give the building a sense of

weightlessness

Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Mughal period, ca 1632–48

© 2015 Photo Scala, Florence [Fig 7-3]

Symmetrical Balance

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Virgin is a composition featuring small

details at its edges with a cruciform

shape dominating the whole.

 Father and Son flank Mary with

near-perfect symmetry.

Enguerrand Quarton, Coronation of the Virgin

1453–54 Panel painting, 6' × 7' 2-5/8 Musée de l'Hospice, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon,

France

Bridgeman Images [Fig 7-4]

Symmetrical Balance

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symmetrically balanced.

 A Frida dressed in native Tehuana

costume is connected to the mirrored

Frida rejected by Diego Rivera by a vein, which the rejected Frida cuts off with

surgical scissors.

Frida Kahlo, Las Dos Fridas (The Two Fridas)

1939 Oil on canvas, 5' 9-1⁄5" × 5 ft 9-1⁄5" Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City

© 2015 Photo Art Resource/Bob Schalkwijk/Scala, Florence © 2015 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New

York [Fig 7-5]

Asymmetrical Balance

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still be balanced if sides possess the

same visual weight; this is called

asymmetry

which a work can appear balanced, but there are no "laws" about how this can

be achieved.

Some different varieties of asymmetrical balance [Fig 7-6]

Asymmetrical Balance

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Balance contains several references to

balance, yet retains asymmetry of

subject matter.

 The central axis of the composition

shows a woman weighing her jewelry with scales; behind her is a painting in which Christ weighs all souls during the Last Judgment.

Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance

ca 1664 Oil on canvas, 15-7/8 × 14", framed 24-3/4 × 23 × 3" National Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C

Widener Collection Photo © 2015 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art Photo: Bob

Grove [Fig 7-7]

Asymmetrical Balance

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Twilight features a central axis left of

the middle, where a woman and her

daughters feed birds at the edge of a tree-lined expanse of Boston Common.

as the open Common and the street

reinforce asymmetrical balance.

Childe Hassam, Boston Common at Twilight

1885–86 Oil on canvas, 42" × 5' Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gift of Miss Maud E Appleton, 1931.952 Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts,

Boston [Fig 7-8]

Radial Balance

outward from a central point.

 The "rose window" above the south

portal of Chartres Cathedral is an

example.

also features radial balance.

 The central domed rotunda is flanked by four symmetrical reception rooms.

Rose window, south transept, Chartres Cathedral

ca 1215 Chartres, France

Angelo Hornak [Fig 7-9]

Andrea Palladio, Villa La Rotonda.

Begun 1560s

CAMERAPHOTO Arte, Venice [Fig 7-10a]

Andrea Palladio, Plan of main floor (piano nobile), Villa La Rotunda [Fig 7-10b]

Emphasis and Focal Point

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area to which the artist draws the

viewer's attention the most.

create a focal point easily.

 Still Life with Lobster uses

complementary colors with the focal

lobster in red and everything else in

green.

Anna Vallayer-Coster, Still Life with Lobster

1781 Oil on canvas, 27-3/4 × 35-1/4" Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio

Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey,

1968.1A Photo: Photography Incorporated, Toledo [Fig 7-11]

Emphasis and Focal Point

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Carpenter draws attention away from

Joseph and to the brightly lit face of

Christ, symbolizing the Divine Light.

afocal, or without a single point of

focus.

Georges de La Tour, Joseph the Carpenter

ca 1645 Oil on canvas, 18-1/2 × 25-1/2" Musée du Louvre, Paris

Inv RF1948-27 Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Michel Urtado

[Fig 7-12]

Emphasis and Focal Point

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8-by-8-foot space lined entirely with mirrors.

 Only two visitors are allowed inside

simultaneously.

 Viewer and work become inseparable; the viewer enables the work, yet loses their individuality.

Lucas Samaras, Room No 2 (popularly known as the Mirrored Room) (detail)

1966 Mirror on wood, 8 × 8 × 10' Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.Gift of Seymour H Knox, Jr., 1966 © Lucas Samaras, courtesy of Pace Gallery

[Fig 7-13]

The Creative Process

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Velázquez's Las Meninas

 An obvious focal point is the infanta

Margarita at center, but figures outside

of her central group gaze away from the

Diego Velázquez, Philip IV, King of Spain

1652–53 Oil on canvas, 17-1/2 x 14-3/4" Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.Inv 324 © 2015 Photo Austrian Archives/Scala, Florence [Fig 7-14]

Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Queen Mariana

ca 1656 Oil on canvas, 18-3/8 × 17-1/8" Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist

University, Dallas

Alger H Meadows Collection MM.78.01 Photo: Michael Bodycomb [Fig 7-15]

Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor)

1656 Oil on canvas, 10' 3/4" × 9’ 3/4" Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

© 2015 Image copyright Museo Nacional del Prado © Photo MNP/Scala, Florence [Fig

7-16]

The Creative Process

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• A Multiplication of Focal Points:Diego

Velázquez's Las Meninas

 Either the royal couple is the actual

subject of the painting or they have

entered the room to see their daughter being painted; or, in fact, their images are a double portrait rather than

themselves reflected in the mirror.

 The painting depicts a work-in-progress, although it is unclear what that work is.

Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor)(detail)

© 2015 Image copyright Museo Nacional del Prado © Photo MNP/Scala, Florence [Fig

7-17]

Scale and Proportion

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• Scale describes the dimensions of an

art object in relation to the original

object or objects around it.

80 feet long and 23 feet high.

reproduction, it is important to consider the actual size of the work.

Julie Mehretu, Mural, detail

2010 Acrylic on canvas, 23 × 80' Goldman Sachs headquarters, New York.Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York [Fig 7-18]

Scale and Proportion

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and Kara Walker's Subtlety, both artists

have manipulated the scale of the

object depicted.

carrying the pediment in a diminished scale.

 The expected figure atop the pedestal is purposely absent.

Do-Ho Suh, Public Figures

1998–99 Installation view, MetroTech Center Commons, Brooklyn, New York

Fiberglass/resin, steel pipes, pipe fittings, 10 × 7 × 9'

Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York [Fig 7-19]

Scale and Proportion

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homage to carved sugar centerpieces that would have decorated the tables of the upper classes through history.

the relative scale of objects.

 An object "closer" to us is larger, while one that recesses in to the background appears smaller.

Kara Walker, A Subtlety: The Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and

overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar

Refining Plant

2014 Installation view, Domino Sugar Factory, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York Carved

polystyrene coated with 160,000 lb of sugar, 10 × 7 × 75'

Courtesy the artist and Creative Projects, New York [Fig 7-20]

Scale and Proportion

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the knowledge of how large the

mountain is.

 The Great Wave off Kanagawa shows

two boats in a tumultuous wave in the foreground, visually diminishing the

importance of Fuji in the distance.

Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji

1823–29 Color woodcut, 10 × 15"

© Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS [Fig 7-21]

Scale and Proportion

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• Proportion refers to the relationship

between parts of an object and the

whole.

be natural, but upon closer inspection, her arm has been elongated to

accommodate the curve of the frame.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Mme Rivière

1805 Oil on canvas, 45-5/8 × 35-3/8" Musée du Louvre, Paris

Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Thierry Le Mage [Fig 7-22]

Scale and Proportion

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"perfect" proportions of the human

body in a text called The Canon.

 Both the text and the original

Doryphoros statue were lost, but both

proclaim that each part of the body is a common fraction of the figure's height.

Polyclitus, Doryphoros (The Spear Bearer)

450 BCE Marble, Roman copy after lost bronze original, height 7' National Archaeological

Museum, Naples

Art Archive/Musée Archéologique Naples/Collection Dagli Orti [Fig 7-23]

Scale and Proportion

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proportions on the facade in a ratio

based on the algebraic formula x = 2y

+ 1.

 The ratio of the length of the top step of

the platform (or stylobate) to its width

is 9:4.

Parthenon

447–438 BCE Pentelic marble, 111 × 237' at base Athens, Greece

© Craig & Marie Mauzy, Athens [Fig 7-24]

Pattern, Repetition, and Rhythm

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of the same motif or design and it can

be used as a decorative tool.

the Cross page, features pre-Christian

pagan motifs woven into Christian

imagery.

 Beasts were drawn in "animal style" with intricate, ribbonlike traceries.

Cross page from the Lindisfarne Gospels

ca 700 Ink and tempera on vellum, 13-1/2 × 9-1/4" British Library, London

© British Library Board All Rights Reserved/Bridgeman Images [Fig 7-25]

Pattern, Repetition, and Rhythm

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Ewe and Asante societies contained

patterns that designated social

prestige.

cloths as inspiration for his pieces,

which are made from discarded

aluminum caps and seals rather than

strips of cloth.

Kente prestige cloth (detail), Ghana, Ewe peoples

19th century Cotton, silk, warp (vertical threads) 6' 2", weft (horizontal threads) 9'

1-7/8" The British Museum, London

© The Trustees of the British Museum [Fig 7-26]

El Anatsui, Between Earth and Heaven

2006 Aluminum and copper wire, 7' 2-3/4" × 10' 4" Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Purchase, Fred M and Rita Richman, Noah-Sadie K Wachtel Foundation Inc., David and Holly Ross, Doreen and Gilbert Bassin Family Foundation and William B Goldstein Gifts, 2007.96

© 2015 Image copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence [Fig

7-27]

Pattern, Repetition, and Rhythm

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• Repetition can imply monotony, but if

certain elements are used repeatedly,

they can create a visual rhythm.

Barber Shop through the repetition of

both shape and color.

 Each diamond-shaped client wears a

different colored apron; the color is

repeated again elsewhere in the work.

Jacob Lawrence, Barber Shop

1946 Gouache on paper, 21-1/8 × 29-3/8" Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio

Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1975.15 Photo: Photography Incorporated, Toledo © 2015 Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York [Fig 7-28]

Pattern, Repetition, and Rhythm

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• Auguste Rodin's The Gates of Hell was

based on Dante's Inferno and features

nearly 200 figures.

The Three Shades is actually the same

figure cast three times and arranged in a semicircle.

Shades, implying that it was he who

brought us to the Gates of Hell.

Auguste Rodin, The Gates of Hell with Adam and Eve

1880–1917 Bronze, 20' 10-3/4" × 13' 2" × 33-3/8" Stanford University Museum of Art

Photo: Frank Wing [Fig 7-29]

Auguste Rodin, The Three Shades

1881–86 Bronze, Coubertin Foundry, posthumous cast authorized by Musée Rodin, 1980, 6' 3-1/2" × 6' 3-1/2" × 42" Iris & B Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford

University

Gift of the B Gerald Cantor Collections [Fig 7-30]

Pattern, Repetition, and Rhythm

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brown-skinned, gender-neutral "Others" that appear at once alien and familiar.

 In this piece, three nearly identical

Greenheads have been hanged in front

of a fourth victim.

• It symbolizes that such a horrifying act can inevitably happen again, though the place could be anywhere.

Laylah Ali, Untitled, from the series Greenheads

2000 Gouache on paper, 13 × 19"

Courtesy of the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery [Fig 7-31]

Unity and Variety

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figures consistent, yet unique.

same, there would be no need to

discuss the unity of diversity that

makes a work "complete."

 Generally, variety must coexist with unity in order for the work to succeed.

Unity and Variety

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brings seemingly contradictory objects

in a state of opposition and tension.

 The Pollock painting is transformed into

a decorative object that seems as

marketable and empty of its original

meaning when placed by the tureen.

Louise Lawler, Pollock and Tureen

1984 Cibachrome, 16 × 20"

Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York [Fig 7-32]

Unity and Variety

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unified whole is commonly called

postmodernism

Las Vegas that a collision of styles,

signs, and symbols such as those seen

on an American "strip" can be seen as a new kind of unity; anything can be put next to anything else.

Las Vegas, Nevada

ca 1985

Vidler/Mauritius [Fig 7-33]

Unity and Variety

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at first to be abstract, but reveals a

teacup split in half.

 Its ordinary subject matter is

monumentalized by a height of 9 feet.

 Animal forms and pop lyrics also inspire interpretations.

 The work is rich in meaning, each

fragment unifying the whole.