Lines can be active or static, aggressive or passive, sensual or mechanical.
Uses and meanings of lines:
Indicate directions
Define boundaries of shapes and spaces
Imply volumes or solid masses
Suggest motion or emotion
Grouped lines can depict light and shadow and form patterns and textures
Line variations diagram shows line qualities to observe in artworks.
Examples of line use in individual works:
Kabuki actor (Japanese print): curvy lines suggest slow rhythmic motion.
Torigi Kiyotada's actor: angular lines express swift and violent motion.
Gego (Venezuela): room-sized work reticularia uses lines in the third dimension by linking segments of stainless steel wire; viewers navigate through a field of lines with varying density in all directions, creating a disorienting effect.
Fred Sandbach: black yarn arranged in an organized grid; lines form open rectangles that create a stately procession as shapes alternate between two orientations (three rectangles at 90° to the other three).
Mood and meaning depend entirely on line choice in these room-sized works.
Many prints consist largely of lines with little shading or color:
Kiki Smith etched lines in a metal plate to create Ginser, a depiction of her cat; one line was drawn for each of Ginser's hairs; eyes and paw pads show slight shading, but most is line work; conveys the cat's flexible limbs and presence, including a hint of wildness in the mouth and alert eyes.
Implied line:
Implied lines suggest visual connections without being continuous drawn lines.
Andrea De Leoni used implied lines in Tobit burying the dead; a diagram isolates them for clarity.
Implied lines that form geometric shapes provide an underlying organizational structure: in Tobit, a triangle forms with Tobit's head as apex; one side is Tobit's head down to the right through others; part of this triangle's other side is the dog’s sight line looking upward at Tobit; the second set of lines/triangles forms another structure with a baseline (the floor) and relations across groups; sight lines from the white-turbaned figure help unify groups. (Shape, 3.2.)
Identify two general categories of shapes and their different qualities:
Word usage: shape, mass, and form are related but differ in meaning.
Shape: the area within an object's outline, two- or three-dimensional.
Mass: three-dimensional area; has height, width, and depth; when mass encloses space, the enclosed space is volume; form is sometimes used interchangeably with mass.
Silhouetting against light can reveal shape as flat; light and shadow can emphasize mass.
Shapes can be grouped into two general categories: geometric and organic.
Geometric shapes: circles, triangles, squares; precise and regular; often created with tools (rulers, compass).
Kyotata's actor uses geometric shapes.
Organic shapes: irregular, curving or rounded; appear more relaxed; Kyotata's actor features geometric shapes; the Japanese print woman dancer features predominantly organic shapes.
Biomorphic: a related term meaning shapes based on natural forms.
When a shape appears on a picture plane (the flat surface), it creates a second shape from the background: the dominant shapes are figures/positive shapes; background is ground/negative shapes; figure-ground relationship is fundamental to perception.
Most artists treat positive and negative shapes as equally important to total composition.
Paul D'Agostino’s Junk Fish (Shape/Mass):
A fish shape in synthetic clay painted solid black appears organic from a distance but is actually a three-dimensional mass with a lumpy surface; close inspection reveals three-dimensional mass and a painted black surface over a wire base; the same fish emerges as a negative space against a black ground (the paper's blank areas and a handwritten storyline fill other negatives). (Mass, 3.3.)
Differentiate between two-dimensional and three-dimensional depictions of mass:
A two-dimensional area is a shape.
A three-dimensional area is a mass; enclosing space yields volume; form may refer to mass.
Mass is a major element in sculpture and architecture.
Example: Paul D'Agostino's rarely glimpsed junk fish is a three-dimensional mass; Fernando Botero created a bronze horse of immense mass for a public monument, with bulging legs and neck; the mass goes beyond mere muscle and creates a closed form that does not openly interact with surrounding space.
Alberto Giacometti's man pointing demonstrates open form: its mass is slight; it interacts with surrounding space and suggests impermanence.
Distinctions:
Botero's horse = closed form (mass contained, non-interactive with space).
Giacometti's man pointing = open form (interacts with space, suggesting fragility of existence). (Mass, 3.3.)
Mass in two dimensions:
Paula Modersohn-Becker’s mother and child imply mass in the picture plane through composition and shading to suggest bulging flesh.
The work uses light and dark shading to imply mass while occupying significant portions of the plane. (Mass, 3.3.)
Space (overview)
Space is the indefinable receptacle of all things; artists organize space in performances of depth and volume.
Three-dimensional space is experienced by being inside it; personal space and cultural variations influence perception.
Architects’ concern with space: e.g., interior space compared to exterior mass.
Cesar Pelli’s North Terminal at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport: large interior windows frame runways and distant views; interior space is modularized into smaller rooms to feel domestic; domes create human-scale space within a large structure.
Doug Wheeler’s infinity environment: installations create a sense of space that appears divided by a membrane, revealing an annex of infinite dimensions when approached closely; lighting and construction create the effect, changing slowly over 32 minutes.
Space in two dimensions: with 2D works (drawing/painting/print) we see the picture plane as flat; space can be implied or suggested to create depth.
Space in two dimensions: examples and techniques
Drawings/paintings/prints: picture plane defined by edges; depth can be implied through techniques and composition.
Ancient Egyptian painting: small depth; objects shown from most identifiable angles; avoid overlap to prevent confusing depth; example Pool in the garden demonstrates top-down pool view with side views of trees, fish, birds.
Paul Cezanne’s Still Life with Apples (depth via overlapping and vertical placement; a horizon line appears at table ends; lemon closer to viewer and lower; three fruits on the tabletop belong to a different space from apples on the dish; patches of parallel brushstrokes flatten the overall space; space behind the tabletop is unclear, creating ambiguous depth). (Space in two dimensions: Still Life with Apples)
Linear perspective and atmospheric perspective
Definition: perspective is any method of representing three-dimensional objects in space on a two-dimensional surface.
Linear perspective (the classic system): perfected in 15th-century Italy; creates the illusion of depth via vanishing points, horizon lines, and converging lines.
Other traditions: Japanese prints and Egyptian murals had different perspective systems.
Atmospheric perspective: nonlinear; depth is suggested by color and detail changes with distance (colors shift toward blue; less detail; contrast reduces with distance).
Examples:
Escher Brown Durand’s Kindred Spirits uses atmospheric perspective to convey vast distances in the North American wilderness; foreground figures and illuminated details balance the distant landscape.
Shenzhou’s poet on a mountaintop uses washes of ink and color to suggest near and distant mountains and emphasizes a poetic rather than realistic space.
The implied deep space in paintings like Kindred Spirits is an extension of the viewer’s own space; poet on a mountaintop leads the eye across space rather than into it.
Time and motion
Time: the fourth dimension; events occur in succession; time perception depends on movement through space; time is invisible but perceivable in art through motion and sequencing.
Time representations in cultures and media:
Time as cyclic in many traditional non-Western cultures (Aztec calendar stone emphasizes cycles of destruction and recreation; central sun god face; four compartments representing previous incarnations; circular overall form).
Linear time in Western culture: Seseta’s Saint Anthony and Saint Paul depicts key moments along Saint Anthony’s progression through time and space; road implies continuous forward movement.
Comics and sequential imagery: early strip Crazy Cat; reading order left-to-right, top-to-bottom implies linear time, but film/TV can manipulate time nonlinearly (past, present, future intermixing; speed changes).
Christian Markle’s 2010 The Clock: a 24-hour real-time video comprised of thousands of clips showing clocks aligning with actual times; time passes in real time with a montage of clocks.
Implied motion: movement can be a subject or a quality of subject; examples:
Krishna (dancing) demonstrates dynamic movement with balance and energy; bronze cast conveys motion through stance and energy.
Futurists (Bocioni) depicted speed and motion in cycling with curved lines and dabs of color to convey blurred vision and aerodynamics; shows the dynamism of movement rather than a frozen moment.
Jenny Holzer’s untitled light-board installation uses implied motion: the extended spiral ramp in Guggenheim; LEDs illuminate in programmed intervals to simulate a continuous flow of slogans; mass media imagery and input are exposed through gaps and timing (implied motion).
Actual motion: before electric motors, kinetic art used wind and water; fountains, kites, banners, flags; Alexander Calder’s mobiles rely on air movement for subtle dances; Calder helped pioneer kinetic art.
Light (as medium and perceptual influence)
Characteristics of light and its use as a medium in contemporary art:
Eyes are light-sensing; light is necessary for visibility; light has properties of direction, reflection, refraction, diffraction, diffusion; source, color, intensity, and direction affect perception.
How light falls changes perception of mass and form; example: Abraham Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial initially appeared frightened due to floor-reflected sunlight; adding ceiling spotlights altered perception to depict decisiveness and thoughtfulness; highlights how lighting reveals mass.
Rendering mass as revealed by light is a Western preoccupation since the Renaissance; front/back lighting flattens shape; side/overhead lighting reveals form more clearly.
Value (tone): perception of lightness and darkness; a relative relationship between light and dark; subtle gradations imply curved surfaces; abrupt changes imply sharp changes in surface direction.
Implied light: the relationship of light and dark on a surface; example of Francois Bonven’s self-portrait in a single light source; the brightest area and the darkest area demonstrate chiaroscuro (from Italian chiarro = light, oscuro = dark), used to create a sense of mass on a flat surface.
Light as a medium in itself: contemporary artists use artificial light to create color radiance and volume; Paul Chan’s Seven Lights uses a digital projector to cast light at various angles; moving shadows create dynamic scenes within the gallery space; the project explores the idea of light as a physical object and shadow as an active force.
Keith Sonnier uses neon tubes to create color volumes in space; motordom uses flickering neon to evoke car culture; heart beast uses electric light to create a human-scale figure with blue horns; the wiring and transformers are integral visible components; color becomes a material and volume.
Color-carrying light creates volume and spatial perception; light can modify space and viewer experience.
Personal reflection on light: colored light can make spaces feel larger or smaller and change