Art Made Simple(r) II: Texture, Shape, Form, and Space

In my previous article, I covered three of the basic elements of art: color, value, and line. Now I will cover the final four elements in the same fashion, with explanations and examples that fit each of the principle terms.

If color, value, and line produce the "look" of what is seen on the page, then texture gives the audience a good idea of what the surfaces represented in the art might feel like if touched. Sometimes the textures of art can be simply the result of masterful brushstrokes, and other times artists will actually create textures using a variety of materials.

Let's first revisit Artemisia Gentileschi's painting from the last article (Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes). In this painting the texture of Judith's dress contrasts with the dress of her servant. Judith's dress is made of a shiny, high gloss fabric, and her servants' with a rough and plain material. The way the fabric moves in the painting gives a great deal of information about the texture. Judith's cloth moves stiffly and creases easily.

The candlelight reflects off of the yellow gloss of the moving fabric. From this, we can infer that Judith wears a kind of satin as an outer garment, and so we can mentally "feel" the texture of the dress. The maid, who is shrouded in darkness, yet gives us important clues about her dress. Hers is a looser, less formal dress that can be felt as softer and less regal in style than the ornate satin of Judith.

All of this information is intentionally given to the audience to clearly mark the event of the Bible that is being described, and to carefully connote the social standings of the individuals therein. All of this comes just from the texture of the two dresses.

Other artists pursue the latter method of introducing texture, by incorporating items that give the desired effect. Anselm Kiefer represents one of these artists, and the texture of his To the Unknown Painter (http://img.search.com/thumb/2/24/Kiefer.jpg/300px-Kiefer.jpg) certainly produces the desired effect. "To the Unknown Painter is a powerful statement of the human and cultural catastrophe presented by World War II" (Janson 812-13). The painting stands as a monument to the great artists destroyed under the Third Reich.

To create the scorched earth around the woodcut monument at the pinnacle of the painting, Kiefer has incorporated straw to add the necessary texture. Latex and shellac have also been used to enhance the post-apocalyptic feel, the ploughed-up undulations of the ground surrounding the monument. A beautiful example of the difference texture can make.

As important as texture, shape also plays a significant role in art. Shape has a clear relation to texture, color, line and space in that it can be created by any of these other three principles. As such, it can be defined amorphously as any area set off (or apart, as you prefer) by the other three elements. Space and shape can be defined so closely together that we will deal with them together here. Space simply defines the space above, below, behind or within seen objects. In other words shape can be the object, and space can be that object's position in space or in the composition of a piece of art.

Examples abound of these two principles in practice but Louise Nevelson provides a beautiful example of each. Her work is neither sculpture nor painting, and it contains innumerable shapes and spaces towards which one can focus attention. In Black Chord

(http://www.whitney.org/www/collection/images/featured/blackchord.gif), Nevelson has produced a curious assortment of compartments filled with clearly defined shapes and spaces that appear to each involve a little world all their own. The carefully placed shapes themselves, and the shadowy spaces they inhabit, give the imagination an immense quilt with which to feed off of.

The mind begins to imagine each open space as a door to mystery, and each boarded off space as an indication of the sinister places that lie within. In a way, this exploration of shape and space mirrors the compartments of our own subconscious minds This work gives an excellent example of both flat and three-dimensional work that stays true to the idea of "real" space even as it produces very little of it.

Form itself only relates to three-dimensional space. An object with three dimensions has form, and anything else has shape and space. Nevelson's piece actually has all three, but to give a more specific example of form, we must turn instead to true sculpture, not just a basically flat assemblage.

As a final example, we must move back to the classic work of Auguste Rodin. In his The Kiss (http://www.lewes.net/rodin/kiss.jpg) we see two lovers in the midst of passionately engaging in, well...a kiss. The movement of the forms in space immediately gives us a sense of the importance of form in art, for the twisting of the lovers to meet each other gives the audience an indication of the sheer energy and passion of the kiss.

Janson notes that "knowing its original title helps us to understand a salient aspect of the group: passion reigned in by hesitancy, for the embrace is not yet complete" (719). The motion of the kiss has not yet ceased, for his hand still rests only on her thigh. Viewed romantically, this hesitancy adds to the spontaneity of the kiss, and the intimacy of our view. Form has rarely seen such an avid participant as Rodin.

I hope that these two articles have helped you to uncover some of the mysteries of art, has deepened your experience of it, or at least has left you wanting to learn more. In any case, you should now have a little more information with which to appreciate what you might see at the next museum. The key is to keep an open mind and heart, for art is the deepest expression of the human soul, even if its base is in theory.

Janson, H.W. A History of Art. Prentice Hall: New York, New York. 1995.