Chapter 8: Shape/Volume

Design Principles

Shape

Shape— A visually perceived area created by an enclosing line, color or value change to define an edge.

l  Shape can also be referred to as Form.

l  Composition is the arrangement of shapes in a piece of art.

Sydney Licht. Still Life with Two Bunches. Oil on linen, 1’ x 1’. Kathryn Markel Fine Arts. Courtesy of

the artist.

Form

Form - another term for shape, but can also refer to an overall impression of a piece.

l  Shape is normally considered Two-Dimensional.

l  Shape is the more precise term because form can have multiple meanings in art.

l  Pictures can exist without color or texture, but rarely without shape.

Claude Monet. Rouen Cathedral: Portal, Grey Weather. 1892. Oil on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Volume and Mass

Working in Two and Three Dimensions

l  Volume and Mass are used to refer to 3D works.

l  Pictures have shapes l  Sculptures have masses.

Angle of Perception l  Paintings can only be viewed from

the front l  Sculptures can be viewed from 360

degrees l  Each side is a different experience.

David Smith. Blackburn: Song of an Irish Blacksmith (front and side views). 1949-1950. Steel and bronze, 3’ 10 1/4” x 3’ 5” x 2’ (117 x 104 x 61 cm); height of base 8”(20 cm), diameter 7 1/4”(18 cm). Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany. Art © Estate of David Smith/Licensed by VAGA, New York, New York.

Combining Two and Three-Dimensional Work

Artwork can be both 2D and 3D at the same time.

l  Relief sculpture is 3D, but is hung on a wall like a 2D painting.

l  Collage often uses 3D objects on the canvas.

l  Installation Art is an art form that uses both two-dimensional and three-dimensional form in a large format to evoke emotion. Often fills up an entire room.

Caryatids - Ancient sculptures of the female form that were used in Greek architecture as support pillars.

Jennifer Bartlett. Boats. 1987. Sculpture: painted wood, steel support, pine mast, 5’ 6 1/2” x 3’ 11 1/2” 3’ 10” each (169

x 121 117 cm); painting: oil on canvas, 9’ 10” x 14’ (3 x 4.3 m). Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.

Naturalism and Distortion

Naturalism (Realism)— Creating a picture that imitates what we see.

Distortion — The artist purposely changes or exaggerates the forms of nature.

l  Meant to provoke an emotional response on the part of the viewer.

l  Or it might serve to emphasize the design elements inherent in the subject matter. Russell Connor. The New Yorker cover drawing.

November 23, 1992.

Distortion Old and New…

l  Distortion is not a new technique; it was used in the past to convey emotion.

l  The use of distortions has increased, some say due to the advent of cameras and their ability to depict reality exactly.

Anamorphic - an extremely

distorted shape that when seen from an angle depicts an image.

Hans Holbein the Younger. The Ambassadors. 1553. Oil on panel. © National Gallery, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library.

Naturalism and Idealism

Naturalism shows life and nature exactly how it is. •  It is concerned with true to life appearance. Idealism tries to create the perfect or ‘ideal’ form. l  Idealism is a recurrent theme in art and in society. l  The Greeks and Romans have strived to depict the ideal form. l  Today we still do this in fashion and advertising. l  Represents the world not as it is, but as how the artist and

society feels it should be. l  Governments often use idealized images to promote their

political system.

Naturalism vs. Idealism Examples

Catherine Murphy. Self-Portrait. 1970. Oil on canvas, 4’ 1 1/2” x 3’ 1 1/8” (125.7 x 94.3 cm). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (gift of Michael and Gail Mazur, 1998.416). Photograph ©

2007 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Polyclitus. Doryphorus (Spear Bearer). Roman copy after Greek original of c. 450-440 b.c.

Marble, height 6’ 11” (1.98 m). Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy.

Abstraction: Essence of Shape

Abstraction— A simplification of natural shapes to basic shapes.

•  The degree of abstraction can vary.

•  ‘Reductive’ abstraction is where the subject is reduced or simplified to its basic building blocks.

•  Abstraction is not new. •  All form, however complex,

can be simplified to basic geometric shapes.

Paul Resika. July. 2001. Oil on canvas, 4’ 4” x 5’. Salander-OﾕReilly Galleries, LLC, New York, New York

Biomorphic Shapes

Not all abstraction is geometric.

Biomorphic— Abstract

shapes that allude to natural, organic forms.

Arshile Gorky. Garden in Sochi. c. 1943. Oil on canvas, 2’ 7” x 3’ 3” (78.7x 99 cm). The

Museum of Modern Art, New York (acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss

Bequest, 492.1969).

Nonobjective Shapes: Pure Forms

Nonobjective shapes –shapes that have no reference or subject matter.

l  Nonobjective work is critiqued solely on its visual design. (Composition, color, etc…)

l  Nonobjective work can still convey emotion.

Anne Ryan. No. 492. 1948-1954. Fabric and paper collage, 8’ 7” unframed. Walker Art Center (gift of

Elizabeth McFadden, 1979.21).

Shape Associations

l  Can any shape truly be nonobjective?

l  Most shape will always evoke a response or a reference from the viewer.

Helen Frankenthaler. Over the Circle. 1961.

Oil on canvas, 7’ 1/8” x 7’ 3 7/16” (2.13 x 2.21 m). Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin (gift of Mari and James A. Michener,

1991.213).

Rectilinear and Curvilinear

Rectilinear— Forms that have straight lines, sharp edges and rectangular planes.

l  Thought of as man made or manufactured things.

Curvilinear— A continual curved

form. l  Thought of as natural

(However, nature used geometry and rectilinear shapes too.)

Arne Jacobsen. The Egg Chair. 1957 (in production since 1958). 107 x 86 x 79 cm. Photo: Jean-Claude Planchet. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau— An art style that emphasized curvilinear and natural shapes.

William H. Bradley. Magazine cover, The Chap Book, Thanksgiving Number, USA, 1894.

Lithograph. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK/ The Bridgeman Art Library.

Positive/Negative Shapes

Positive Shapes (Figure)-- The main shape or subject in a picture.

Negative Shapes (Ground)— The space in which this figure or positive shape resides.

l  It is as important to design the negative spaces as it is to design the positive shape.

Utamaro. Ten looks of women’s physiognomy/enjoyable looks. The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum,

Matsumoto, Japan.

Planned Negative Spaces

l  Japanese artists often design and use the negative space of their images in unique ways.

l  Negative shapes are very important in letterform and typography.

Aaron Siskind. Chicago 30. 1949. Silver gelatin, 1’ 1 7/8” 1’ 5 5/8”. International Center of

Photography, New York.

Using Negative Space in Three Dimensions

l  Negative space is very important in architecture.

l  The negative space or open space is often even more important then the exterior.

Richard Serra. Joe. The Pulitzer Foundation,

St. Louis.

Isolation or Integration

“Integration between positive and negative shapes is generally thought desirable.”

A shape placed randomly on a piece of paper will look “pasted-on” or bad.

You have to design the placement of shapes for interest, tension, etc…

El Lissitzky. Of Two Squares: A Suprematist Tale in Six Constructions. 1922. Illustrated book with

letterpress cover and six letterpress illustrations, 10 15/16” x 8 7/8” (27.8 x 22.5 cm). Publisher:

Skify, Berlin. Gift of the Judith Rothschild Foundation (89.2001.5).

Examples for Discussion

Georges Seurat. The Black Bow. c. 1882. Conté crayon, 1’ 3/16” 9 1/16” (31 x 23 cm). Mus仔 dﾕOrsay, Paris.

Georges Seurat. Silhouette of a Woman. 1882-1884. Conté crayon on paper, 1’ 8 7/8” (30.5 x 22.5 cm). Collection of McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas (bequest of Marion Koogler McNay).