Chapter 3 (3.1-3.8)

Line

  • 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, 3.23.2.)
  • 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, 3.33.3.)
  • 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, 3.33.3.)
  • 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, 3.33.3.)
  • 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.
    • Implied depth techniques: overlapping, vertical placement, size diminution, atmospheric perspective, etc.
    • 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