CHAPTER 7 ___________________________ Other Formal Elements

Other Formal Elements Texture: the surface quality of a two-dimensional shape or a three-dimensional volume. Pattern: a repetitive motif or design. Time and Motion: these can be introduced into a work of art in a variety of ways.

Texture Types of Texture: Physical Texture Visual texture Invented Texture

Physical Texture Physical texture creates actual variations in a surface. The woven texture of a canvas, the bumpy texture of a thickly applied paint, and the rough texture of wood grain are common examples. Every material has its own inherent textural quality. It is very difficult to achieve textures that are contrary to the material’s inherent quality.

Robert Ryman, Long, The artist thickly applies the paint, and each brushstroke is not only evident but seems to have a “body” of its own. This textural effect if referred to as impasto. Ryman’s subject matter is actually the brushstroke itself, and its relation to the canvas on which he layers it.

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888.

Michelangelo, Pietà, Marble is beautiful, and it is naturally a lustrous, cold stone. Michelangelo possessed an uncanny ability to transform marble into lifelike forms. The surface begs you to reach out and touch it, to prove that it is indeed cold stone.

Visual Texture Visual texture is an illusion. It can be created using multiple marks or through descriptive simulation of physical texture. When you look at an artwork that emphasizes visual texture, you would expect it to feel different that the actual surface’s texture.

Max Ernst, The Horde, The surface appears to have rough texturized areas to it, while it actually feels rather smooth, as the paint remains close to the surface of the canvas.

Allan Rodewald, Dream Series 8, Rodewald’s mastery of paint deceives us into thinking we could reach out and feel the wrinkles of the fabric. He hints at his illusion by pairing the fabric with a lofty cloud scene.

Pattern Any formal element that repeats itself in a composition – line, shape, mass, color, or texture – creates a recognizable pattern. In its repetitive and organized use of the same motif or design, pattern is an important decorative tool. Pattern as decoration can be pleasing to the eye.

Paul Strand, Abstraction, Porch Shadows, The repetitive white shapes form a striped pattern across the table.

Still from the film Stray Dog, directed by Akira Kurosawa, Shadows form a striped pattern that makes the shot more visually complex and interesting. In this case, the pattern is an important clue to the story: it suggests prison bars, and the possibility that these men may end up there.

Kente prestige cloth (detail), Ghana; Ewe peoples, 19 th century. Patterned textiles are closely associated with social prestige and wealth among the Ewe and Asante societies of Ghana.

The Oriental Circlet Tiara, made by Garrard for Queen Victoria in Diamonds, rubies, gold. The repetition of the pattern forms an elegant design, and increases the complexity and intricacy of this beautiful object.

Time and Motion Painting and sculpture are seen as spatial media, where we experience the piece all at once; the work of art is before us in totality at all times. It is often unclear how to determine a work of art’s beginning, middle, and end with reference to time. Time still plays an active role in art. Even representational works that strive to give us a “frozen moment” are often part of a larger narrative, or story.

Gianlorenzo Bernini, David, Marble, life size. Although this moment is captured forever in solid marble, Bernini presents a piece that is inevitably part of a larger story. The action suggested through David’s defensive stance, the sling ready to shoot the rock, and David’s intense stare, all leads us to perceive the events that preceded this event, as well as the events to follow.

Isidro Escamilla, Virgin of Guadalupe, Oil on canvas. This painting tells the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In the top-left corner, we see Juan Diego first encountering the Virgin. In the bottom-left corner, we see him picking the miraculous roses, as instructed by the Virgin. In the bottom-right corner, we see Juan Diego opening the cloak, and the miraculous image of the virgin on it. In the top-right corner, we see a group of saints (winged like angels) accepting the Virgin as one of them.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970.

Op Art and Motion Op Art subtly manipulates formal elements to stimulate the nervous system into thinking it perceives movement.

Eadweard Muybridge, Annie G, Cantering, Saddled, December Work that utilizes cameras (photography, film) is naturally concerned with motion and time. Here we see an early photograph in which the goal was to capture motion.

Left: Nicolas Nixon, The Brown Sisters, Right: Nicolas Nixon, The Brown Sisters, Nixon has an ongoing series of photographs of his wife and her sisters, taking a single black and white photograph of the four every year since The photographs not only document the aging of the women, but the continual changing dynamics of their relationships to one another.