Art: how do you construct the world by looking?

Artist William Kentridge explores perception with his images -- and promotes fighting against entropy. As he explains in an interview with Belinda Luscombe in TIME (requires a subscription to read):

What did you mean when you wrote in your new book, Fortuna, that the job of the artist is to fight against entropy?
Entropy in its simplest form refers to the tendency of everything to collapse. If you smash a vase and throw the pieces in the air, they won't reland in the shape of the perfect vase. But the job of the artist is to smash the vase and then fashion something coherent out of those shards.

Artist Kentridge is definitely a thinking person's artist.  Look for it in the works below. To see an extended collection of his works, take a look at this MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) presentation of  his works:  "William Kentridge: Five Themes."  Click on Explore Themes to see the works (It's a flash presentation, so hard links aren't always available or don't work as expected).  Here's a sample from within the exhibit: "Thick Time/Soho and Felix: Sobriety, Obesity, and Growing Old."

Here's a glimpse of the artist in his studio and the piece he's working on, titled "Breathe":

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This next video, titled "Return," is part of a larger project, "Repeat."  Two things that are interesting about this work -- he designed it knowing it would not be watched (the video explains) and, as the piece rotates, now you see a recognizable form, now you see just pieces moving around.

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Artist Kentridge says about perception at Art21:

I’m interested in machines that make you aware of the process of seeing and aware of what you do when you construct the world by looking. This is interesting in itself, but more as a broad-based metaphor for how we understand the world.

-- Marge

Nuts and bolts of visual arts, part 1

Most artists like the freedom of creating whatever they damn well please, however they please.  But to communicate effectively in a visual medium, a little learning is a good thing.  There are rules for composition, and design elements to consider.  Remember though, some of the best art breaks at least one of the rules, but probably not all of them.

Marvin Bartel speaks of composition and design from a teacher's perspective. It all boils down to what you want to emphasize in the work and how to present it cohesively. As an artist, you must consider the viewer and direct the viewer's eye.

Meaning in art can be elusive.  It's pretty clear in Goya's "The Third of May, 1808" what the artist intended.

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Van Gogh's rapture is pretty clear in "Starry Night." Note that the Moon isn't in the center of the image; it's almost off the edge. What is in the center is the flow. The trees act as a counterpoint to the Moon.

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But what do you take away from viewing Mondrian's "Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow"?

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Piet Mondriaan, "Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, Wikipedia

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Seems to me that some works are done with a message in mind or result in having a message, but some may be just eye candy (or they may have messages few can interpret).  If you have something to say that is larger than what you're working on, that needs to be practiced too.  For an excellent discussion of meaning in art, check out this from a forum at xkcd.


-- Marge