Blanace – Imbalance

Artist: Abdur Rahmanmamun
Title of Work: Unknown – in “Rangamati Tour”
Year Produced: Unkown
Medium: Photography
Source: http://bdfoto.net/portfolio-3

Artist: Donte
Title of Work: Unkown
Year Produced: Unkown
Medium: Photography
Source: http://photosbydonte.com/Balance

The idea of the balance of imbalance is basically that you can achieve balance in a piece even if the subject matter is imbalanced. Both of these pieces are really good examples of balanced pieces that have an imbalance in  subject matter. In the top, the coffee bean sits on the right of the piece, causing that side to be heavier than the other, but the fact that the other side is very plain, and that there is more of it, with no competing images, somehow brings a balance to it. The bottom image is very similar, the flowers act as a heaviness on the right side, while the larger space on the left, being much brighter than that on the right, brings about a balance.

Balance – Asymmetrical

Artist: Katsushika Hokusai
Title of Work: The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Year Produced: 1829-32
Medium: Woodblock print
Source of image: http://totallyhistory.com/art-history/famous-paintings/

Artist: C.M. Coolidge
Title of Work: Dogs Playing Poker
Year Produced: 1903
Medium: Oil Painting
Source of image: http://totallyhistory.com/art-history/famous-paintings/

A piece can also obtain balance through asymmetry. This means that even though the piece is not the same on both sides of a division, the forms in it create a sort of balance, which can be achieved in many different ways. The top piece managed to create a balance between the sky and sea, with them taking up similar amounts of space in the piece, though not symmetrical. The bottom piece contains a similar amount of weight on each side of it, even though it is using greatly varying figures, to achieve balance. Even though there are more figures on the right, the figure in the chair and the chair itself seems weightier that those on the right side, thus achieving an asymmetrical balance.

Balance – Symmetrical

Artist: Kazuya Akimoto
Title of Work: Nazca Symmetry
Year Produced: 2007
Medium: Acrylic
Source of Image: http://www.enantiomorphicchamber.com/2008/03/kazuya-akimoto-nazca-symmetry-2007.html

Artist: David Gordon Whittaker
Title of Work: Under Pier Clouds
Year Produced: Unknown
Medium: Photography
Source of image: http://www.photographyblogger.net/symmetry/

The symmetrical form of balance is basically when you could divide a piece in half and both sides would look the same, as if they were mirror images across the division. Both pieces above are symmetrical on both sides from a vertical middle line. They repeat nearly perfectly.

Emphasis – Isolation

Artist: Andrew Wyeth
Title of Work: Christina’s World
Year Produced: 1948
Medium: Tempera on Gessoed paper
Source of Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina%27s_World

Artist: Claude Monet
Title of Work: Impression, Sunrise
Year Produced: 1872
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Source of image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression,_Sunrise

Another way to provide emphasis on a figure in a piece is to have it isolated from any figures. Both of the pieces listed above use this technique to create emphasis on focal points. The first piece uses the isolation of the bare field to create an emphasis on the sitting girl, and then the farmhouse, though the girl is the first and main focal point due to the fact that she is closer to the viewer in the piece, as well as being larger than the farmhouse. In the second piece, the abstractedness of the lake and background causes the closest boat to be isolated and emphasized in the fact that its a much sharper image compared to the rest of the piece.

Economy

This is a great example of using economy in artwork. Economy is basically restricting the use of any element in artwork. In this, he has limited his use of line as well as color, leaving as little as possible while still being able to recognize the figure he is portraying. (Marilyn Monroe)

Artist: Ali Jabbar

Title of Work: Marilyn Monroe

Year produced: 2010

Medium: Unlisted

Source: http://flavorwire.com/103971/pop-culture-icons-as-minimalist-posters/

Unity: Continuation/Continuity

Both of these are great examples of continuation as well as continuity. In both pieces Picasso utilizes continuation by having most of the subjects share lines with each other or the background, basically continuing lines throughout the piece without distinguishing where the line of one thing starts and another ends. Together these pieces display continuity because even though they are so different in subject matter, they are extremely similar as far as the elements and principals that he uses in them, they are stylistically the same.

Joie De Vivire:

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Year Produced: 1946

Medium: Oil on canvas

Source: http://www.pablopicasso.org/joie-de-vivre.jsp

Guernica:

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Year Produced: 1937

Medium: Oil on canvas

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_%28painting%29

Unity: Proximity

This piece is a good example of unity through proximity. This would have been a much less interesting and unified piece if the circles in his piece had been scattered around instead of grouped in similar locations. By using proximity, he creates focal points and larger objects out of the smaller ones, creating more interest.

Artist: Wassily Kandinsky

Title of Work: Several Circles

Year Produced: 1926

Medium: Oil on canvas

Source: http://arthistory.about.com/od/from_exhibitions/ig/kandinsky_retrospective/kandinsky_gugg_0910_25.htm

Emphasis: Contrast

Artist: Kenneth Noland
Title of Work: And Half
Year of Production: 1959
Medium: Unlisted – Paint
Source: http://fugitiveink.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/remembering-kenneth-noland/

In this piece, the focal point or emphasis is created through contrast. The contrast of the powerful red color surrounded by the bright yellow ring against very neutral colors creates an immediate emphasis on the circle in the middle.

Unity: Repetition

Artist: Ugo Rondinone
Title of Work: Clockwork for Oracles
Year Produced: 2011
Medium: Mirrors, newsprint
Source: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/new-contemporary-galleries/featured-artists-and-works/ugo-rondinone/

This piece effectively utilizes repetition to create a very spectacular sight. Though varying, the repetition of the rectangles on the wall creates a very unified, impactful piece. If it were many different shapes, I don’t think it would have the eye-catching power as it does now.

This is another good example of repetition used effectively. In this piece, he repeats nearly the same slice of cake over and over which creates a definite sense of unity. However, he manages to create interest in such perfect repetition by painting the viewpoint from an interesting angle as well as adding a dramatic shadow.

Artist: Wayne Thiebaud

Title of Work: Boston Cremes

Year Produced: Unlisted

Medium: Oil on canvas

Source: http://timeisart.org/?p=136

Scale and Proportion

Artist: Kurt Wenner
Title of Work: Unlisted
Year Produced: 2010
Medium: Chalk
Source: http://kurtwenner.com/galleries/pavement/pavement_3/pages/StreetPaintingGallery3.003.htm

This is a great example of proportion and how it can create depth in a piece. Even though his entire piece is flat, the way that he creates some things proportionally smaller (the things that are supposed to be further away) than others (the things that are supposed to be closer) creates and extreme sense of depth.

 

Artist: Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen
Title of work: Spoonbridge and Cherry
Year Produced: 1985-1988
Medium: Sculpture
Source: http://www.sophia.org/tutorials/design-in-art-scale-and-proportion, Minneaqpolis Sculpture Garden

This is a good example of how scale and proportion can be used to create an interesting piece that would otherwise be uninteresting. The fact that this sculpture depicts a spoon an cherry much larger than their real life sizes draws interest to the piece. Though they are proportionally the same, their scale is much larger than usual.