The Language of Art, Part 3

Now that we have grammar (Principles) and vocabulary (Elements), the only thing left is to string them together in coherent and meaningful forms of communication.

Whether you are using paint, stone, wood, letters, musical notes, acetate, or digibits, Composition is the foundation of Art.  Anyone can put words on a page, saw on a violin, or barf colored milk on a canvas.  This may constitute "self-expression," but it is NOT Art.  If you do not feel stirred in your soul, uplifted in your heart and stimulated in your mind, then you are not in the presence of Art.

The atheist can feel awe in the Sistine Chapel.  The tone-deaf can feel elation with Beethoven's 9th.  The blind can appreciate the mastery of story-telling with Citizen Kane.  The unlettered can revel in the visual message of e. e. cummings.  True Art transcends barriers.  There is something positive for everyone in every great work of Art.  The average English speaker uses 90% of the words that Shakespeare did, but no one would consider a grocery list a work of Art.

We achieve Art through the careful manipulation of Principles and arrangement of Elements through the mastery of Compositition.

To demonstrate Composition, we will use a simple graphic to show the process of composing Art.

In Panel 1, we have the beginning of all wisdom - infinite time and infinite space.  This is what we would commonly call the blank page or canvas.  It is undeliniated and undefined.  It is all and nothing.  Art is the process of defining and limiting this basic state of being.   To an artist, this is a terrifying thing.

In Panel 2, we begin the process of composing by defining some basic spaces that will become the foundation of Time and Space within the composition.

We have created four triangles that are symmetrical across the X and Y axes, with the focus point at the center.  The perfect symmetry of shape, color and proportion, the space is rather boring and far from dynamic.  There is no motion or depth, because we have perfect balance and harmony.

In writing, if all the characters are in perfect agreement and their personalities are perfectly meshed, there is no story.  We have no drama, development or growth.  Though we tend to think a state of balance and harmony are desirable, it is obvious that this kind of life would be bland, at best.

In Panel 3, we take the next step of adding color.  I have chosen contrasting values for the top and bottom trianges, while the left and right triangles are given the same values.  This adds a sense of rhythmn to our previous creation of balance and harmony, and begins the process of creating a third dimension

The problem we face here is that the third dimension may be receeding into the canvas, or it may be rising up from it.  Without further information, we have no way of determining which direction our space and time are moving.  While this makes for an interesting optical illusion, it is still bland and tells us nothing about the universe we are creating.

In Panel 4, we add a circle dead center.  Note that we still have balance, rhythmn and symmetry, which is still bland and uninteresting.  There is no dynamic direction of motion.  Everything in this universe is sitting still and achieving nothing.

In Panel 5, we manipulate the third dimension through color and by changing the focal point.  The focal point has been moved to the center of the lower third, and gradients have been added to the colors, with lighter colors at the outside edges, and darker colors toward the center point.

These two simples changes achieve some interesting effects.  The color gradient, with the lighter color at the outside edges and darker colors in the center create the illusion of space receeding into the canvas.    Most people viewing this effect would interpret lighter colors as being nearer to the viewer, while darker areas are further away.  Part of this effect is based on how we generally perceive the world with vision.

Part of the effect is acculturated, meaning we are taught to perceive this effect as we learn about our societies and how to "read" our art and images.  Though few of us, sadly, receive formal training in art, we learn through watching TeeVee or looking at paintings to interpret certain signals as creating three dimensional effects on two-dimensional surfaces.

By moving the focal point to the lower third, we recreate the way we normally see the world.  When we stand on a street corner and look around at eye level, our individual horizon line is limited by our height, so that the vast majority of the world appears to be above us.  Thus, with the focal point at the lower third line, the viewer now feels as if he is looking at a space from his personal perspective.

This simple adjustment further creates a sense of dynamic involvement.  The viewer feels limited in how far down he can move, but significantly less restricted in how far up he can go.  The viewer now feels like he is looking at a very long hallway, or perhaps is standing in a canyon of rock or buildings, bepending on what details we add later.

There is still a lot of balance and symmetry though, and this makes the scene uninteresting, as nothing seems to be going on in the image.  There is no tension, no motion.  We are standing still and nothing in the scene is moving towards us, away from us, or across the scene.

In Panel 6, we place the circle back in the scene, but now it is at the lower left.  Given all the other information - color, gradients, size, perspective - it appears as if the circle is closer to us than the focal point.  This is a trick our minds play on us by interpreting the relative size of things as either closer or further away from our position.  Since the lines and color information have given us the impression of standing in a long hallway, then placing the circle near the edge means we interpret it as being closer to our vantage point.

Notice that the scene feels off balance.  The dark circle near one corner, without something visual to offset it, makes the canvas seem heavier at the lower left corner.  Also, the lack of gradient in the circle makes it flat, while the rest of the image appears 3-D.  So...

In Panel 7, we add a color gradient to the circle, and it now appears to be a ball - a three-dimensional object - with a circular gradient that shares an incident angle - point of origin - with the general light in the hallway.  Now the hallway and the ball are visually linked together by color and position.  However, the focal point is still in the center of the lower third, so the image lacks dynamic tension.  The ball is not moving and it has no other objects in the frame to interact with.  Thus...

In Panel 8, we add a second ball.  This ball is much smaller and placed on the focal point.  Notice too that the focal point has been moved towards the right third of the frame.  This creates two diagonal lines - one from the lower left edge of the frame to the focal point, and one from the large ball in the foreground to the small one in the distance.  Diagonal lines are always more dynamic.  They create the illusion of motion, even when nothing in the frame is actually moving.  This creates visual interest, as we interpret this dynamic as implying that something will soon happen to the elements, and our minds start to fill in the missing narrative.

If we left it with just the two balls though, the frame would still seem off balance.  The large ball in the lower corner dominates the scene and the dark color pulls the eye down, thus creating a sense of weight.  We balance this with a window in the upper right third.

We have now created a three-dimensional space through color and line.  We have placed objects withing that space that have a dynamic relationship with each other.  We have balance because the window offsets the weight of the larger ball and draws our eyes up and to the right (diagonal), with the smaller ball creating a fulcrum or center point around which the other two objects are in dynamic tension.

Our minds interpret the smaller ball as being further away, which enhances the third-dimensional effect.  We assume that because the balls appear identical in every way except size that they are also the same size, and thus the smaller one is further down the hallway.

We also have harmony.  The two balls and the window share the color blue, so these objects harmonize even though one is quite different in nature than the other two.  We assume some kind of relationship between all three.  Perhaps the window is the source of light that creates the highlights on the balls, as well as lighter colors near us and dark ones further away.  There is also an visually interesting juxtaposition between the round objects and the polygonal one.  They are related by color and light, yet very different from each other.

This is a very simplistic description of Compostion, but it effectively demonstrates how Principles and Elements are arranged within an infinite space to create limits that we interpret as pictures with depth, motion and relationships to each other and to us, the viewers.

With these basic tools, we are now prepared to analyze great works of Art, no matter what medium or aesthetic.

As we proceed with this series, I will refer back to Principles, Elements and Composition in every case, since these are the objective criteria we must use to determine the mastery of the artist.  How we react to the great works is the subjective aspect of art criticism, but as we will see, much of our emotional reaction can be predicted and even manipulated by a great artist.

--- Part 1 --- Part 2 --- Part 3 ---