COMPOSITION


When you put on clothes you have to decide which elements will go together. When artist creates a work of art he or her has to decide what composition of lines, colours, shapes and sizes will be the best and which one will express the mood and theme of a work of art.

1. Symmetrical composition

In a symmetrical composition both halves on two sides of an axis are identical or very similar, while a rhythm in a composition is the repetition of the same or similar stains, lines or forms after certain distances. Similar patterns can be found in nature. For what else is heavy, silver coloured rain, circles formed on a water surface after throwing a stone into it or even a row of similar hills in the horizon if not rhythmical patterns made by nature? Now let`s look closely at an oak or chestnut leaf, the cone-shaped silhouette of a spruce, insects, animals, people. We will notice that their structure is symmetrical, an ideal alikness of both halves of their forms occurs.

And here are other compositions used by artists, eg:

2. Assymetrical composition

3. Open composition

4. Closed composition

5. Composition with an accent

assymetrical - most of paintings contains this type of perspective - the left side of a painting is not the same as the right side,
open - gives an impression of not finished, it looks like if it can be extended out of edges of a painting,
closed - all objects fit edges of painting, it gives an impression of finished,
with accent - in form of colour, size or shape.


Balance

The rule of BALANCE has as its aim the sorting of elements that form an art work - stains, lines, figures. Here is Jean Helion's painting made out of simple geometrical elements of different colours and sizes, that are spread in an appropriate way on a canvas. On the first illustration the work is not yet completed (illustration 6). Simply one element has been removed and it appears that something is missing in the composition. It gives a distressing impression - as if in a moment, because of the unbalanced proportion of stains on the right side of the painting it was to "incline" in that direction.

Illustration 6

7. JEAN HELION Circular pressures 1931 - 1932

Now you can see the entire piece (illustration 7). After adding the missing stains it lookes stable and secure and doesn`t possess the tendency to incline in either direction. The composition has been balanced again, just like the artist himself had done it.

To compose a well-balanced painting an artist must consider both the size and colour of the stains as well as the way they are spread on a canvas.

It appears that in painting warm coloured stains give the impression of being heavier than the ones painted in colder coloures.

8. HENRI MATISSE The music 1939

Here you can see a rather complex composition where this rule clearly applies. Henri Matisse`s painting called The music shows two women. If to ourselves we split this composition into two halves then on the left side you will find the woman wearing a yellow dress and on the right the one in the blue coloured dress. Knowing that the left side of the painting is much heavier due to the warm colours of the lady`s clothing the artist made the person on the left side bigger (she was wearing a cold-coloured garment). The painting gives even more a good impression of a well composed piece thanks to the balancing slants (here only a speculation). The first slant runs from the lower left corner (person in orange), through elements of a red background, up till the orange guitar (the effect is emphasised by the position of the legs and guitar). The second slant is made up of cold colours - it is marked in the bottom right corner by the dark blue dress of the figure, further by the blue elements of the background in upper part of the painting.

9. PAUL CÉZANNE The card players 1890 - 1895

Careful analisis of the painting The music will allow us to look in a more experienced way at Cézanne's scene The card players. It is a nearly symmetrical composition, in which the axis of the painting splitting it into two halves, runs through the bottle standing between the hands of the people holding cards. The person on the right has been partly "cut off", but is marked with warm colours (and therefore heavier ones) so that the figure on the left shown completely and painted in cold colours balances it.

10. VINCENT VAN GOGH Rest of harvesters 1889 - 1890

Now let`s analise Vincent van Gogh`s painting showing a scene in a village with two sleeping persons and a carriage in the background (illustration 10). It seems as if the composition is unbalanced because nearly the entire lower and upper part of the painting has been painted with warm colours. However the artist "broke" this enormous amount of warm coloured stains by balancing the upper left corner with an intensively blue stain. All this has contributed to that fact that although the strong contrasts (warm-cold) the piece is harmonious and perfectly composed.

11. ALBERTO GIACOMETTI Point á l`oeil 1932

The rule of balance applying in painting and drawing is also important in sculpting. The sculpture in illustration 11 is made up of two figures of completely different shapes. It might seem as if the elongated (the bigger) figure directs the entire weight in her direction, but the small round figure on the other side thanks to its compact form is a strong accent and therefore balances the composition perfectly.

12. ALEXANDER CALDER Mobile

Now we would like to present you an example of a composition in a work called a spatial form. On the left you can see the composition of Alexander Calder named Mobile. The aim of this work of art was mainly to create an impression of movement (the sculpture does in fact move when the wind blows) in space. But here, as can easly be seen, while constructing the twisted metal elements with endings in the shapes of spades the rule of balance has been applied. Calder`s sculptures seem to be floating in space by marking orientation points, which are the "knots" of the composition. Some of this artist's sculptures (mobiles) are painted over which has a big effect on the composition. Even though it is a three-dimensional work of art (and therefore from each side it looks differently and the composition changes slightly every time wind blows on it) you can be certain that the artist made sure that when observing the sculpture from different points of view the impression of balance would be maintained. And this was certainly not easy.