Elements and Principles of Design: Pattern, Rhythm, and Motif

The Intersection of Art and Science: The Work of Ernst Hafel

• Background of Ernst Hafel: Hafel was a researcher and biologist whose life's work sat at the intersection of scientific discovery and artistic mastery. He dedicated his career to the study of flora and fauna, illustrating their specificities with immense scientific detail through hundreds of centuries of work.
• Scientific Contributions: Beyond his visual masterpieces, Hafel is credited with discovering numerous microbes and coining essential scientific terms, including:
  • Ecology
  • Bio
  • Stem Cell
• Artistic Precision: His illustrations were characterized by graphic precision and delicate shading. These works were instrumental in explaining biological discoveries to a wide audience and helping the world understand microscopic organisms that were previously unseen.
• Relation to Darwinism: Hafel's work embraced Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. In 1864, he sent two folio volumes on Radiolari to Darwin. Darwin was so impressed that he wrote back, stating they were the "most magnificent works" he had ever seen.
• The Blurred Line: Hafel's work demonstrates how shading, pattern work, and rhythm can transform a scientific document into an extraordinary piece of art.

Fundamentals of Pattern, Rhythm, and Motif

• Pattern: Created by the reoccurrence of an art element. Patterns provide a sense of unity through repetition.
• Rhythm: Arises through the repetition of a pattern. Artists use rhythms to bring order to space and create a dynamic experience of time. It acts as a guide for the viewer's eye to move from one point to another.
• Motif: A design that is repeated as a single unit of pattern. Motifs can represent ideas, images, or themes.
  • Etymology: The word "motif" comes from the French (first used in 1948, according to Merriam-Webster) meaning a dominant idea or theme.
• Field: The specific area covered by a pattern.

Contemporary Portraiture: Chuck Close and Presidential Identity

• Portrait of Bill Clinton: A large-scale portrait currently in the National Portrait Gallery.
  • Scale: The face alone is several feet high, even though the artist only cropped the head and shoulders.
  • Technique: While based on a photograph, the work is highly abstract, resembling pixels on a screen. Close used a grid system on both the original photograph and the canvas to enlarge the image.
  • Geometry: Because Close used diagonal lines from the grid instead of horizontals and verticals, the painting is composed of hundreds of color-filled diamonds rather than squares. Each diamond is roughly $2.5 \times 2.5\,\text{inches}$.
  • Optical Mixing: Up close, the colors are bright and bold (peacock blue, evergreen, raspberry, green, gold). From a distance, they blend into a dark green-gray that complements the skin tone. The effect is described as looking through "textured glass."
• Political Styles in Portraiture:
  • Democratic presidents (JFK, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama) have often leaned toward contemporary or less traditional styles.
  • Republican presidents have historically preferred a more conservative approach.
  • George W. Bush is noted as someone who paints in his spare time.

The Use of Pattern in Modern and Contemporary Art

• Suzanne Valadon: In her piece Blue Room, she utilizes "patterns on top of patterns."
  • Lower portion: Blue bed covering.
  • Figure: Green and white stripes on pajama bottoms.
  • Background: A mottled pattern (the least "pattern-ish" but still contributing to rhythm).
• Henri Matisse: Pattern and motif were central to Matisse's career, evolving over time:
  • 1903: Pattern used in tablecloths; books create their own pattern.
  • 1908 (Dessert: Harmony in Red): Pattern and motif become the dominant theme, taking over the work.
  • 1925: A brief return to realism, though pattern remains the focus.
  • 1952 (Sorrow of the King): Created when Matisse was older and bedridden. He used "cutouts" (cutting colored paper and gluing them to substrates) to continue exploring motif and rhythm.
• Kehinde Wiley: Known for using numerous mediums, often inspired by stained glass, incorporating historical patterns and rhythms into contemporary portraiture.

Historical and Cultural Motifs

• Alhambra (Granada): Located in a region protected by mountains and forests.
  • Etymology: Arabic for "Red Castle."
  • History: Originally a military zone, it became a royal residence and is now a UNESCO heritage site for Islamic architecture and subsequent Christian interventions.
  • Design: Uses tile work with blues and greens that likely reference natural geographical elements.
• Indian Decorative Arts:
  • Hookah Base (17th Century): Features recurring floral and leaf motifs at regular intervals.
  • Carpet (Northern India, 17th Century): Uses plant and flower motifs to create complex patterns.

The Arts and Crafts Movement

• Origins: A reaction to the Industrial Revolution in 19th-century England. The country moved from a farming-dominated society to a factory-dominated one in just 30 years.
• Core Philosophy: Honesty and truthfulness in hand-craftsmanship. Factory goods were seen as "dishonest" or "fake."
• William Morris and Morris & Co.:
  • Stressed the importance of "beauty in the home" derived from the objects themselves.
  • Utilized the apprentice and guild system, looking back to medieval practices.
  • Functionality: Objects had to have a purpose (e.g., the Benson tea kettle or thick curtains to block cold air in Victorian houses).
• Philip Webb and Standen House (1892–1896):
  • Designed for the Beale family.
  • Modeled after a 15th-century farmhouse to celebrate local craft.
  • Water Tower: A central feature that provided a self-sustaining water supply for washing and gardening.
  • Trellis Wallpaper: A collaboration where Morris designed the trellis and Webb designed the birds. It was an early attempt to create a natural paper without artificial three-dimensional recreations.
• Women in the Movement: Agnes and Rhoda Garrett (the Garrett cousins) were the first professional women decorators, creating furniture like the cabinet at Standen during a time when middle-class women were expected to stay home.
• Legacy: Morris and Webb founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), a precursor to the National Trust.

Conceptual Art and Randomness

• Abraham Cruzvillegas:
  • Horizontes: Uses pattern to bring beauty to found objects.
  • Empty Lot (Tate Modern Turbine Hall, 2015-2016): A sculpture made out of "hope." It consisted of soil from different parts of London (e.g., Clerkenwell) held in triangular containers on a vast scaffolding structure. The goal was to witness what might grow out of the soil naturally, without planting anything. Cruzvillegas views scaffolding as a "conceptual, ideological metaphor."
• Randomness as Anti-Pattern: Artists use randomness to avoid predictable repetition or to contradict traditional methods.
  • Dada: Hans Arp used chance arrangements (dropping shapes onto a surface randomly).
  • Abstract Expressionism: Helen Frankenthaler explored how paint moves across a canvas by adding elements of randomness.
• Vito Acconci (Following Piece, 1969): A performance in New York City where the artist followed a random person each day until they entered a private space, exploring themes of voyeurism and public/private boundaries.

Varieties of Visual Rhythm

• Simple Repetitive Rhythm: A repeating pulse of similar elements that provides reassurance. Common in religious architecture (e.g., columns and arches in mosques) to facilitate prayer.
• Progressive Rhythm: The frequency of an element increases or decreases, moving the eye according to that change.
  • Rosa Bonheur (Plowing in the Nivernais, 1848): Groups of animals organized by changing the width of gaps, suggesting regular movement as they plod forward.
  • Bridget Riley (Amnesia, 1967; Hesitate, 1964): Movement of shapes that get tighter and darker, affecting the viewer’s perception of the flat surface.
• Alternating Rhythm: Intertwines multiple rhythms to create complexity and unpredictability (e.g., certain village building architecture).

Sol LeWitt: Conceptual Patterns

• Methodology: LeWitt viewed himself as a composer. He created written instructions and diagrams (the "score") that were then executed by other artists.
• Philosophy: "The idea becomes a machine that makes the art."
• Wall Drawing #652 (Indianapolis Museum of Art):
  • A team of seven artists moved the drawing to a new three-story atrium over five weeks.
  • Processes involve points, lines, and the three primary colors (Red, Blue, Yellow) plus Gray.
  • Coded letters (R, B, Y, G) dictate specific procedures for dabbing or layering ink.

Yayoi Kusama: Repetition and Infinity

• Accumulation Sculptures (1962–1964): Sewed thousands of stuffed fabric tubers (phallic surfaces) onto furniture.
• Infinity Mirror Rooms: Due to the physical and mental toxicity of the labor involved in her sculptures, Kusama turned to mirrors to achieve repetition.
  • Phalli's Field (1965): The first room, using mirrors to transcend physical productivity limits.
  • Love Forever (1966/1994): An hexagonal room with peepholes that repeated participants into infinity; viewed as a "machine for animation."
  • The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013): Uses LED lights hanging and flickering in a rhythmic pattern, mimicking stars in a galaxy.
  • All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016): Utilizes her signature pumpkin motif and alternating rhythms of different-sized dots.