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1993-10-29
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309 lines
FINE ART
Part 1:
An Introduction
to Issues Relating
to the Making of Fine Art
by Ron Upton
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Biographical Information
I am an artist who works in both two and three dimensions.
Currently, my Amiga is one of the tools I use when developing
concepts and ideas for works of art. I do envisage a time when
works undertaken by me on an Amiga will have the same status as
the rest of my visual art work, that is, the works will have their
own integrity and not rely on references to other art forms.
Introduction
The response to my offer to write an article on issues
relating to the visual arts, with a view to making a contribution
to the knowledge and understanding of Amiga users who would like
to explore this area of creativity, has been positive.
What I offer must not be seen as an attempt to provide a
prescription for the making of visual art. There is no magic
formula; the complex set of events which culminate in a work of
art will probably never be fully understood. One might think of
an artist as being a traveller on an endless highway - whatever
the speed or build up of momentum, the destination is always just
around the corner.
It is my intention to break the article up into three parts as
follows:
MD36 An introduction to the broader issues relating to the
making of visual art from the point of view of the
expressive artist.
MD37 A close look at the building blocks, or elements, of the
visual language.
MD38 An exploration of some of the issues relating to
composition.
Readers with backgrounds in related visual arts will identify
with many of the formal problems.
As in painting and drawing, all traditional fine art made on
our computers will be to do with illusion, that is, any sense of
space will be a result of the viewer applying knowledge of systems
and conventions, as all that really exists are marks on a flat, or
relatively flat, surface which is called the picture plane. To
gain a visual understanding of the relationships between the eye
of the artist, the nominal subject matter and the picture plane in
the context of Renaissance art, please refer to Durer's engraving
(Page 181, Reference 1). Anything that exists in front of the
picture plane has traditionally been called sculpture. I raise
the issue of sculpture here as it is now possible to have
holograghs which are illusions of three dimensional forms in real
space; at Montage 93, International Festival of the Image, USA,
both laser and computer holography was on exhibition.
At this point, it may be helpful if I explain the difference
between the terms expressive and communication in the context of
the visual arts. The expressive artist attempts to express a view
or idea or concept. I know of no artist who is satisfied that the
work lives up to the expectations which existed at the time of
embarkation on the undertaking - I've heard it said that an artist
spends a lifetime making the same work of art over and over again,
each time hoping that the final product is the one which really
encapsulates what exists in the mind. It is possible for two or
more viewers to experience different aesthetic emotions when
viewing a particular work of art and not regard the work as being
ambiguous in its message and, as a consequence, a failure. On the
other hand, the communication artist, usually called a designer,
has to receive a consistent response for the work to be seen as
successful. If an illustration of an eagle is not perceived by
the viewer as being a symbol for an eagle or a road sign leads a
traveller to the wrong place, then communication has broken down
and the communication designer has failed.
Throughout the article, references will be made to works of
art which can be readily found in the form of reproductions in
library books - I'll provide titles of specific references where
books are very well known. I expect to utilise programs such as
Deluxe Paint, Imagine, IntroCAD and PictSaver when illustrating
important points.
Visual Language
Visual language has an identifiable form and the capacity to
at least match the powers of languages such as the written and
spoken word, music and mathematics.
Unlike the written and spoken word, visual language, like
music, is universal. Knowledge and understanding of and skills in
this language are not dependent upon another language. Individual
artists do not have a personal language, they have what
academicians refer to as a style. Style is what results from an
artist having a predilection for certain building blocks of the
language and certain ways of orchestrating them. Frequently,
artists are oblivious of the characteristics of their work which
determine what constitutes their particular identifiable style; an
artist's only concern is that which relates to the expression of
an idea or concept.
For those readers with a background in mathematics who may
have some difficulty in coming to terms with the concept of a
visual language, it may be useful to think of the grammar and
syntax in terms of an algorithm. I am thinking of an algorithm as
being some special method of manipulating symbols, especially one
which uses a single basic procedure over and over again; the key
factor being that it converts certain quantities into other
quantities using a finite number of transformation rules. Art,
too, cannot tolerate random changes in the juxtaposition of the
building blocks of the language; just knowing the building blocks
is not enough for one to be able to create a work of art.
At this point it may be appropriate to say something about
symbols. A symbol is an entity, material or abstract, that can
denote or refer to any other entity. In general, a symbol must be
able to be used and interpreted as representing some kind of
information. Symbols do not always retain their meaning when they
cross cultures; systems and conventions of culture determine
meaning or otherwise. An African bushman artist would not read a
symbol in an Italian Renaissance drawing as the artist intended,
as knowledge of linear perspective is required; a symbol for a
side of a building, shown as a dynamic plane, would probably be
read as a flat shape wih some form of decoration.
Why is visual art such an important component of a mature
culture?
Howard Gardner's work in relation to the theory of multiple
intelligences provides us with some insight into why certain
individuals are more comfortable with, or more attracted to, the
visual arts than other areas of human expression.
How does Gardner define intelligence? He says that
intelligence is human intellectual competence which enables the
individual to resolve genuine problems or difficulties and, when
appropriate, create an effective product. Also, he says that
intellectual competence provides the ability both to find and
create problems from which new knowledge can be gained.
Gardner identifies spatial intelligence as being a discrete
form of intellect equal in status to linguistic intelligence,
music intelligence, logical-mathematical and bodily-kinaesthetic
intelligence.
I think most visual artists could relate to the sentiments
expressed by Einstein in the following statement:
The words of the language, as they are written and spoken,
do not seem to play any role in my mechanisms of thought.
The psychical entities which seem to serve as elements in
thought are certain signs and more or less clear images
which can be voluntarily reproduced or combined... The
above-mentioned elements are, in my case, of visual and some
of muscular type.
What are the building blocks, or elements, of the visual
language?
They are as follows:
line
shape
size
colour - hue (redness, blueness etc.)
- tone (degree of darkness or lightness)
- chroma (intensity)
texture
direction
How does the artist utilise these building blocks?
The artist composes. Composing is the process of creating
orderly complex combinations of these elements. Composing may be
thought of as being the means by which the artist struggles
against randomness. Decisions, in terms of appropriateness and
emphasis, have to be made at all stages of the process. Poignancy
is dependent upon coherence.
Issues Relating to the Evaluation of a Work of Art
The following extract from Christopher Heathcote's art review,
The Age, Melbourne, 24 September 1993, is a useful starting point:
A few years ago, I was present at a lively exchange
between an economist and a writer over the value of a work
of art. The economist took the strictly utilitarian
approach that value should be gauged according to function
and usefulness. A car is useful, therefore it has a
certain value; a toothbrush is useful, so it has another;
and so on. Thus he concluded, we delude ourselves in
attaching any merit to paintings sculptures, music and
poems, because they are basically useless things which
``don't do anything worthwhile``.
The writer countered that works of art do have a function,
although it cannot be measured in such crude material
terms. Painting, poetry and music offer a psychological
transport; they alter the way we think, feel, and imagine.
Sometimes the experience of the work of art will
considerably intensify and reconfigure our perceptions of
the world, more often they are adjusted just a little. In
any case, a necessarily important event has taken place -
our outlook has changed.
Given that all classical art possesses some degree of
romanticism and all romantic art possesses some degree of
classicism, the viewer has both an intellectual and an emotional
response to a work of art.
Examination of biopsychological and sociological factors
relating to the artist and the work should provide greater insight
into the meaning of the work of art; value and meaning are
inextricably linked.
The viewer's capacities to establish meaning are constrained
by personal prejudices. Historically, it is common for artists to
be seen as being insignificant at the time in which they produced
their work; it would appear that it takes most people a long time
to enter a state of objectivity and, as a consequence, be able to
come to grips with new concepts and ideas in a new aesthetic
order.
An orderly way for the layperson, and maybe others too, to
approach the problem of evaluating a work of art would be to take
the view that it will operate on a variety of levels, depending on
the stance of the viewer; responses to nominal subject matter,
real subject matter, the formal pattern of the elements for their
own sake and the craft component will vary from viewer to viewer.
Nominal subject matter (trees, people, squares, rectangles and
such) is that collection of symbols to which the viewer can
readily relate. Real subject matter (joy of life, poetry of
inherent order, inevitability of mortality and such) is that which
underlies the nominal subject matter. Formal pattern relates to
relationships in terms of form and space. The craft component is
that which pertains to skills displayed when manipulating the
materials and tools used to create the work. If the nominal
subject matter becomes dominant, the work may appear prosaic or
illustrative or literal or even pedestrian. If the formal pattern
becomes dominant, there is a risk of the work degenerating into
decoration for its own sake, the sort of thing we associate with
wallpaper. If the craft component becomes dominant, the raison
d'être for a work of art will be lost as focus will be diverted
from the end to the means.
I am of the view that every person has something of value to
express about the nature of reality. As a consequence of each
person being different genetically and no two people experiencing
any particular environment in exactly the same way, every
individual has the potential to provide others with a unique
perspective on reality. If an individual chooses to, or feels
compelled to, undertake this task, then it is essential that this
person, the artist, attempts to become as fluent as possible in
the appropriate language, continues to develop appropriate skills
and remains resolute in the quest for truth.
From the point of view of the consumer, the critic, the better
one is informed, the more valid the judgement.
References
1. J. Bronowski, The Ascent of Man, BBC, London, 1973
2. H. Gardner, Frames of Mind, Paladin, London, 1985
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