Composition

Where composition lives…

• In literature• In music• In dance

• In visual art

Composition is a collection of individual parts

to create a unified whole

Robert Wilson/Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach 1975

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmX_GgozpQs

Composition in Visual Art

…is made up of Variety (individual parts)

& Unity (unification of those different parts)

Vija Celmins’ Ocean Series, Graphite Drawing

http://c4gallery.com/artist/database/vija-celmins/vija-celmins.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/vija-celmins

“Excessive unity can be monotonous, while excessive variety can be chaotic”

–Mary Stewart

We are looking for a delicate, yet charged balance between the two.

Michael Burmeister’s Spiderman Series, oil on canvas, 2008

Sol Lewitt’s Wall Drawing #65, National Gallery of Art, DC“Lines not short, not straight, crossing & touching, drawn at random using four colors, uniformly dispersed with maximum density, covering entire surface of the wall.” 1971: 1st installation

Jackson Pollock’s #1, house paint on canvas, 1948

Gestalt Theorypsychology that visual information is identified all-at-once,

before it is examined by individual parts.

• Grouping• Containment• Repetition• Proximity• Continuity

• Closure

Grouping

Visually similar elements grouped together by location, orientation,

shape, color

Michael Burmeister –Spiderman series 2007-2009

Marc Chagall’s Binding of Isaac – The Akiba

Containment

A type of border or boundary surrounding parts of whole

composition

Wassily Kandinsky’s Circle in a Circle 1923

Proximity

The distance between forms: the more space creates isolation, the less space

creates tension. Some forms can be so close together, they merge or fuse, resulting in

shared edges.

Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Painting: Eight Red Rectangles, oil on canvas, 31.5 x 24.4”, 1915

Michelangelo’s Excerpt: Creation of Adam Sistine Chapel, Fresco painting, Rome, Italy 1475

close-up

in context…

Repetition and “The Grid”

Same visual unit repeats itself over & over again…Creates a motif

Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie, oil painting on canvas, 1944

Wassily Kandinsky’s Trente, steriograph, 1937

Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup, screen print, 1962

Continuity

Fluid connection from one component into another, suggesting

movement or visual pathways.

Van Goghs’ Self Portrait, oil on pasteboard, 1887

Frank Stellas’ Agbatana III., acrylic on canvas, 1968

Closure

Our mind fills in the blank, closes the gap, completes the information an

artist leaves out—invites viewer participation.

Jim Dine’s Untitled (C Clamp) from Untitled Tool Series. Graphite, charcoal, and crayon on paper, 25 5/8 x 19 3/4"1973

All examples of Gestalt . . .

The Rama Setu to Lanka being built by Monkeys and Bears Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India 1850

In-Class Exercises

Exploring new terrain: discovering a variety of Textures, inventing new Marks, and unifying those textures

1) Revisit Name: create All-Over GESTALT 2) Go on a hunt. Explore our room, the hallway & outdoors,

identifying & collecting 20 different textures. Are you

viewing it from the micro level or macro? Invent a new MARK for each new TEXTURE.

Media: artist pen/markers/ink pen & pencil in sketchbook.

3) On a scratch piece of paper, delineate 12 spaces (diagonal, vertical, horizontal, spiral, circular etc.). This will be the UNITY part of your composition: organizing your textural motifs in a Repetitive GRID-like system.

4) Choose 12 different TEXTURES and assign them to their own space. Set your textures in motion, moving them across their space allowing them to repeat and grow, creating a PATTERN of evolving marks. This is a visual unit that REPEATS itself—aka MOTIF

5) Create one value scale inside your sketchbook: 2” tall and 9” wide. Each value should be 1”wide X 2”tall. Make a smooth transition from light to dark, excluding pure white and black.

*Tip: use any texture you’ve collected or use simple straight lines, overlapped with straight lines to create varying degrees of darkness.

Media: Artist Pen / Marker / Ink

INTRODUCTION TO: Project #2: Textural Signature