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Form:
Shape |
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More than meets the eye
Artists take shapes that by themselves have no meaning and use them to represent their vision in a form that we can recognize and understand. Form, then, is shape made meaningful by the artist's skill and vision.
How to tell a head from a hat
Consider the following analogy. Can you recognize what the three shapes below represent? You can probably identify the middle shape as a human head in profile. The other two shapes do not provide enough visual information to make them recognizable. All we see are shapes, because the artist has not created an expressive form.
Formless, factual, fascinating
Now consider the three images below. The first image initially appears to be just a shape — the artist hasn't provided enough visual clues for us to identify it as a recognizable form at first glance. If the first image is somewhat obscure, the second is obvious. The artist tells us just what we need to know to recognize the subject, but nothing much more than that. This representation is minimal and matter-of-fact; the artist does not add to, enrich, or complicate the woman's profile. This form is informative, but not particularly interesting. In the third image, the artist has chosen a more unusual point of view, and added contrasts of light and shade. The resulting form may seem somewhat distorted — but it suggests much more to us than the second image, and is therefore more compelling as a work of art.
Shape shifting
As we see in the series of three photos above, a simple change in point of view can transform a shape from obscure and unsuccessful, to straightforward but uninteresting, to distorted and quite interesting. To give shapes meaning, an artist must make the right decisions about lighting, viewpoint, arrangement, and perspective.
Forms we can relate to
In this exercise, we have deliberately concentrated on the form of a work instead of its content (the subject or main ideas) — which is the opposite of how we normally approach a work of art. If artists are successful in finding the appropriate form to express their ideas, we will hardly notice the form at all. Consider this analogy with architecture: If the architects have done their job well, you will think of a building as a home, workplace, or theater — and not as a random collection of intersecting angles. Likewise, it takes a gifted artist to convey a childhood memory or a spiritual awakening with shapes on paper or canvas.
Is there an artist in the house?
If you are tempted to say, "My kid could do this!" when you look at an abstract work of art, think that transforming a collection of shapes into an integrated, meaningful composition takes skill, training, and years of trial and error. It takes a gifted, dedicated artist to breathe life into a composition.
Next:
Light & shadow
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