Composition

The Anatomy of Picture Making

Harry Sternberg

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486465951
• eBook ISBN: 9780486146133
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Difficult to grasp and harder still to achieve, composition is a chief concern of artists at every level. This clear and focused introduction exposes the compositional devices that underlie successful artworks. Its many examples reduce pictures to their basic formal elements, offering a concise treatment of an oft-neglected topic.
Author Harry Sternberg, whose works appear in major museums throughout the United States, was a student and instructor at New York's prestigious Art Students League. He draws upon his extensive background as a teacher and professional to provide an approachable view of applying composition to graphic works. Novices and experienced artists alike will benefit from his well-illustrated explanations of handling such elements as the picture border, flat space, tensions, positive and negative space, geometric design, and volume, as well as the processes of analyzing pictures and communication through design.

ANALYZING PICTURES

Analysis serves as a means of design dissection to bare the underlying structural elements in a picture.

When looking at a picture, we experience a complex set of visual experiences. The story, the symbols, the details, all the elements of the picture, interfere with seeing the design structure. These distractive elements must be pushed aside in order to observe the structure beneath. This can be accomplished by analysis.

All literary detail must be eliminated. Each object in the picture is then reduced to a basic shape. It is only then that the structural skeleton of the design can be seen. In this chapter various analytical means are discussed and demonstrated.

EL GRECO.

Kneeling Saint.

GRUNEWALD.

Altar Triptych.

Photo Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Analysis of Blacks.

Analysis of Blacks, Whites and Grays.

BREUGHEL.

Peasant Dance.

The analysis of the Breughel on the opposite page is particularly interesting because it gives evidence of the beautiful abstract design that underlies the literary communication. Note, in the analysis, the depth of spatial feeling resulting from diminishing the scale of the shapes as they recede. Breughel’s inventiveness in varying the size and activity of the shapes in the picture results in an exciting visual experience.

VAN DER WEYDEN.

Pieta.

Photo Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Analysis of Value Patterns.

TINTORETTO.

Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes.

Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The use of the triangle as a basic design element was common to the Renaissance. The analysis of the Tintoretto at the left makes this quite evident.

The analysis to the right dissects the volume movements of some of the figures.

GIOTTO.

Detail.

The use of overlapping planes for spatial recession has been discussed in previous chapters. Giotto’s use of this principle is demonstrated in the first analysis.

His use of blacks to activate and unify the space is evident in the second analysis.

JACK LEVINE.

Apteka.

Collection of Dr. Michael Watter.

The design of the Levine painting is based on planes tilted into perspective. The planes are arranged so as to move swiftly and recessively, penetrating into deep space. The direction of the planes is indicated by the arrows.

MARSDEN HARTLEY...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• INTRODUCTION
• COMPOSITION
• THE PICTURE BORDER
• FLAT OR SHALLOW SPACE
• POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SPACE
• THE ACTIVITY OF SHAPES
• VALUES
• COMMUNICATION THROUGH DESIGN
• GEOMETRIC DESIGN: VOLUME
• ANALYZING PICTURES
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS