Organization In The Visual Arts 5fc2o

Organization in the Visual Arts

Organization • The “order” in a work of art is its organization. • The primary demands made of any organization are two: – It must make sense. – It must be interesting.

• It has to do with the arrangement of parts, the overall design or plan of a work.

Plan • Can be called the “skeleton” of the work of art • It holds the work together.

Organic Structure • The interrelations of the elements of the plan – unity and variety, or repetition and contrast • The elements used must be repeated enough to become familiar but varied enough in character to provide contrast.

Sistine Madonna Raphael

Basic Plans in the Visual Arts • • • •

Pyramidal Symmetrical Vertical Radial

Pyramidal Plan • The pyramid is almost as common in painting as the symmetrical plan is in architecture.

• The broad base gives a sense of solidity, and the apex gives emphasis.

Madame Cezanne in the Conservatory Paul Cezanne

Castelfranco Madonna Giorgione

Mona Lisa Leonardo Da Vinci

Symmetrical Plan • The two sides are similar and relatively equal. • This is a favorite plan in architecture, where the two sides are identical.

Annunciation Simone Martini

Jan Arnolfini and His Wife Jan van Eyck

The Two Fridas Frida Kahlo

Vertical Plan • This plan consists of a single vertical figure or other object. • It is used greatly in sculpture.

The Broken Column Frida Kahlo

David Michelangelo

Thinker Thomas Eakins

Radial Plan • The lines of the picture form radii which meet at a point in the center.

Death of St. Francis Giotto

Last Supper Leonardo Da Vinci

Plan in Abstract Art • The organization is based entirely on the repetition and variety of the elements.

• The artist is not interested in developing a “center of interest” in the traditional sense, or in creating a traditional balance, but rather wants to produce a record of the act of creativity.

Number 1 Jackson Pollock

Alpha-Pi Morris Louis

Where Morris Louis

Broadway Boogie Woogie Piet Mondrian

Balance • Sense of equilibrium • Achieved by controlling the direction of lines • Symmetrical and asymmetrical balance

Dancers Practicing at the Bar Edgar Degas

Strangers in Paris Honoré Daumier

Jan Arnolfini and His Wife Jan van Eyck

The Mill Jacob van Ruisdael

The Blind Leading the Blind Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Journey of the Magi Sassetta

Proportion • Is the aspect of plan that has to do with the comparative size of the parts of a single work

• This is a matter of relative size, never absolute size. – A picture is not too large or too small in itself but too large for this space or too small for that.

Palette of King Narmer

Frame • In an arrangement of parts, consideration must be given to the frame and the relation of the parts to the frame.

• Since the design must fill the shape, the choice of shape partly determines the design of the picture.

Madonna of the Chair Raphael

Unity and Variety • Unity – occurs when all of the elements of the piece combine to create a harmonious, complete whole

• Variety – refers to combining elements of art to achieve relationships in a composition • Unity in variety

Annunciation Fra Angelico