07-25-2020, 09:17 AM
In nature as well as in our built environment, in our art forms as well as in our seemingly monotonous household chores, we find reflections of the various aesthetic fundamentals. The fundamentals are classified as the basic ELEMENTS of aesthetics, the PRINCIPLES generated by these elements, and the THEORIES formed by an amalgamation of these principles.
1. Relationship of dot, line and plane
If you were to analyse the natural and man-made environment, you would soon discover that the simplest object is the dot or point. The dot is generally small and uncomplicated in shape. If the dot is extended in its primary dimension of length, the object is known as a line. The linear object may be straight or curved, regular or irregular. However, when a line encloses itself, it has two primary dimensions; length and breadth. The resulting object is known as a planar shape. These shapes can be organic or inorganic or biomorphic. When a plethora of shapes are developed in a third primary direction, it is known as a solid or a more limited form.
2. Dot
We are constantly exposed to dots when we watch television. The television picture comprises of 40 thousand tiny dots that are used to stabilise the image we watch each day. New Impressionists or pointillist painters used the perceptual concept of retinal infusion. The hues and values produced in these paintings are extraordinary.
The 'bindu', in more universally accepted parlance, is the point. The most rudimentary element of design, it is dimensionless and it openly marks a position in space. Though in itself a visually appealing element, it is too small for sustained aesthetic interest, and is thus almost always seen in combination with other elements, with other points, lines and shapes.
A true colour output is obtained by remixing and separation of the dots of the four basic colours in any picture. Primitive societies also favoured point designs - in textiles and paintings, sculptures and jewellery, and even for decorating the human body with the art of tattoo.
Whereas a point in itself may be of little importance, it gains significance when it participates in a design. The thesaurus offers 11 meanings for the word 'point', two of which, seem relevant to this discussion. One is 'an item that goes to make up the whole' and the other is 'a non-curving, geometrical object unbounded in one, two, three or more dimensions.'
3. Constellations (Gestalt's Principles)
From the regular placement of motifs on a field of dots, we proceed to a kind of arrangement that dispenses with field-pattern altogether. Designs such as these would depend to a greater degree on intuition and spontaneous decisions.
Objects, shapes, figures and qualities are related to one another perceptually by certain principles, due to which we are able to create order out of optical chaos. These principles are: a) Proximity or nearness (similarity of location); b) Similar form pattern, as well as size, colour, and texture; c) Similarity of Principle of direction, orientation, continuance or speed; and d) Closure.
4. Line
Ancient cave paintings contain the line in its most primitive abstract graphic version. Geometrically speaking a line is nothing but an extension of points in one dimension. The shortest distance between two points is a line. It is the basic visual tool, and therefore any composition and any form can be broken down into lines. The process of drawing a line between any two points creates a system of tension in the design. The points no longer remain free elements in space; they become tight and rigid, responsible for holding the line between them and thus become frozen in time and space. Points fuse and form lines, while lines of different types and having different qualities come together and form images. These images will reflect one or more principles of aesthetics: depending on whether the lines are straight or curved, thick or thin, dark or light, and also where they begin and how they end. The primary characteristic of linear form is that it tends to imply activity and generally a boundary or demarcation. Visual artists use these lines primarily to communicate ideas in a simple, concise manner. Lines can be of following types (partial list):
1. Dynamic lines
2. Spinning lines
3. Curved lines
4. Parallel lines
5. Radiating lines
6. Whirling lines
7. Diagonals
8. Crisscross lines
9. Grids
10. Patterns
The line is an ideal tool for communication, because it has the potential to convey and generate a variety of messages and emotions. But it is also very sensitive, so one needs to have control over its flow - its length, its thickness, its value and its quality.
If a straight line conveys rigidity and discipline, a curvilinear one is graceful and playful. To modify these basic qualities and infuse it with a quality alien to its inherent nature is an artist's greatest challenge.
Of all design elements, the line alone is indispensable. "Line, depending on its use, may recall, inform, describe, amuse, make fantasy, signify subjective forces and arouse deep-lying associations - all with impressive economy. Lines as pictograms, ideograms or words - that is, lines as writing signify things, actions, concepts, qualities and conditions, across the spectrum of civilizations," says Calvin Harlan, in his book "Vision and Invention".
4 - 01 Lines of MF Hussain
MF Hussain, one of the greatest figures in contemporary Indian art is best known for his mastery over the line. Hussain has the knack of breaking up forms into their straight-line components, while retaining the grace of the original finished form. He has a flair for abstracting his subjects by eliminating the details and highlighting their symbolic contents. We, as a people, have applauded his distortion of Mother Teresa and at the same time criticized his disrobed version of Goddess Saraswati. After all, in both the cases, he has used lines and only retained those elements, which are essential to the understanding of the subject of his composition. If it is Mother Teresa's holy garbs that convey her compassion, it is the Goddess' paraphernalia of symbols such as the peacock, the veena and the lotus, which are sure indications of her divine presence. Why do we then consider her nudity as a Muslim's way of showing disrespect to a Hindu Goddess?
4 - 02 Lines of KK Hebbar
MF Hussain's predecessor KK Hebbar is another great Indian artist and is renowned for his simplistic line drawings which he calls them as 'singing lines.' In the preface to a collection of his drawings, he says, "A line is a series of dots in space. A line when drawn to reproduce a form, seen or imagined, becomes a drawing of that form or object." He says that as he achieved the skill of accurately reproducing what he had seen or imagined, he "started searching for the hidden beauty in the interplay of lines, the evocative quality of straight and curved lines. This quality of rhythmic movement of lines began to engage my attention more and more. I realised that lines were capable of singing and dancing."
Hebbar has his own peculiar style of eliminating details and only depicting the compositional characteristics of his subject. Their beauty lies in his ability to retain the 'soul' of the subject. So, whether it's the amorous sculptures on ancient Indian temples or dancers performing on stage, or just women huddled in conversation, his lines magically transport his subjects into the realm of the sublime.
That Hebbar's nudes have not evoked the wrath of the puritanical Indian society can be attributed to the fact that in simplifying his subjects into linear elements, he has also eliminated those details, which help in the identification of his sources of inspiration.
4 - 03 TYPES OF LINE
a. PARALLEL LINES (Horizontality and Verticality) :
Lines assume a technical role, when they start defining the intervals of space. Several vertical lines, of identical size, placed at regular intervals (equal distance apart), as in a picket fence, will create a sequence. The same lines placed at irregular intervals will guide the eye away from their powerful parallelism, to the spatial dynamics that arise between them. Qualitative differences in these parallel lines (such as making some lines thicker and others thinner, some longer, others shorter) will again draw attention to them, and their parallelism.
Verticals and horizontals are structural complements: lending proportion and character to each other. They describe the essential two-dimensionality of the surface upon which they are drawn. When they interact, they create open and closed areas associated with tectonics, systems, and structure of all kinds. For instance, the four minarets of the Taj Mahal are the parallel vertical forces, supporting and enhancing its inherent horizontality.
b. RADIATING LINES:
When the directional quality of the composition seems to emerge from, or converge towards, the actual centre of the format, or its focal point, it conveys radiation.
The sun with the rays of light emerging from it is the simplest example.
Another good example is the wheel; where the peripheral circle acts as a circular format, while the spokes of the wheel, emerging from the exact centre of the circle and radiating in all directions to the periphery, denote the inward pulling and outward pushing perceptual forces seen in the circle.
c. CURVED LINES:
Straight lines do not exist in nature. Neither do perfect circles. All natural forms, and events, are the results of a dynamic-static synthesis. Unequal tensions are the true order of nature.
Stress and strain, tension and compression follow curves. Growth follows a curve, liquids flow in the form of curves, objects hurtling through space follow a curvilinear trajectory and erosion creates curved forms and surfaces. The lever construction of the human body favours curved motion. Animals reveal the mastery of circular movements in the paths they make through woods and fields; so do birds in their graceful aerial choreography.
Consciously or otherwise, a designer works with curves- the serpentine lines of flow, the analytic curves or conic sections (hyperbola, parabola, and ellipse), the logarithmic spiral, catenary curves and flat curves. It may be noted that particularly appealing forms reveal considerable contrast in the kinds of curves (ellipses or parabolas) and shallow or fast curves (hyperbolas), long and short curves. They flow into one another with a naturalness and inevitability that is usually absent from the pure curves of mathematics.
4 - 03 TYPES OF LINE
d. SPIRALS:
The purest and most universal form of motion is the spiral; the counter-clockwise spiral being the one found most often in nature - in seashells and in the growth of trees, in the seed heads of sunflowers, and in the DNA helix of the human genetic constitution. The seed head of the sunflower is a double spiral, in which the clockwise spiral intersects with a counter-clockwise one.
Like curves all spirals are not the same. The equiangular or logarithmic spiral of the elegant chambered nautilus is one type that is also seen in the ram's horns. It is interesting to note that the double spiral of the sunflower corresponds to the ratio of the Fibonacci Series: if you count the number of seeds in a clockwise spiral and those in a counter-clockwise spiral, the two figures will be that of a sequence in the Fibonacci Series.
The DNA helix has been directly translated into architecture, in the form of a spiral staircase. It has also inspired great works of architecture. Wright, in his later work has emulated the spiral of a seashell.
e. DIAGONALS:
The horizontal and vertical scheme, while being the clearest, and in many ways the most useful, has one major limitation - it cannot distinguish between things standing at rest, maintaining themselves in position, and being in motion. The diagonal lines depict experience of motion - people walking, animals running and birds flying - and this is when a human being, from his childhood, discovers the importance of oblique lines.
The diagonal is at variance with the pull of gravity, as well as with the sense of equilibrium in the mind of the spectator and the parallel sides of the usual pictorial format. It signifies things in the throes of change - acting or being acted upon; and, as change must occur in time and space (the two being important elements and constant companions), both time and space find expression in works of art and architecture.
The use of the diagonal can be traced to the sixteenth century friezes of Michelangelo, and also to Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture of the 1930s, when he based the design of certain houses on the angle of 120 degrees of the hexagon, instead of the conventional 90 degrees rectangle. The result was a much easier flow of space, eliminating sharp corners. In the 1940s, Wright's concept of plasticity and continuity of space and structure led him toward the circle. Finally, in the late 1950s, as though following the logic of organic and aesthetic geometry, he favoured the spiral, as in the Guggenheim Museum of New York.
Cubism, because it placed so much importance on the straight line and the articulation of movements in space by means of directional planes, led directly to a kind of painting in which diagonal action would be of unique importance. So, it is significant in Robert Delauney's paintings of the Eiffel Tower, in Marcel Duchamp's painting 'Nude Descending the Staircase’, and in Paul Klee's multiple perspectives.
f. DYNAMIC LINES:
Lines generate visual dynamism, either when the composition lacks a strong focal point, or when they are conspicuously informal. The result, in either case, is that the eye does not remain on any particular element of the composition, but oscillates between the various elements. Indistinct background- foreground compositions and those with many colours also reveal visual dynamism. Informal lines, made by ink-loaded twigs or by blowing spilled ink, create a peculiar kind of dynamism, a linear agitation that borders on chaos. The best example of dynamic lines seen in nature is the black and white striped zebra.
Diagonals or curves, expressed either two-dimensionally as lines or three-dimensionally as planes, can be considered as the form-equivalents of kinetic energy. These dynamic lines are described in terms of thrust: a) Point Thrust, as seen in the arrow, the column and the steeple; b) Centripetal Thrust, seen in the clock spring, the spiral seashell, in all spiral forms, natural or manmade, where energy uncoils from a centre; c) Pressure or Pneumatic Thrust, seen in a balloon, in ripe fruits and vegetables, eroded earth forms, sea creatures, the human skull and the head of the femur, the egg, and all forms that are the result of tensions fairly & evenly distributed; and d) Radial Thrust, seen in the wheel, in certain seed heads and in explosions. These kinds of thrust are often seen in combination with elements of potential energy; as in a tent, a clothesline or a suspension bridge, where the point thrust of the pole or the nylon is complemented by the catenary arc of the canvas, the line or the cables, or contrarily in the association of continuous and discontinuous patterns in the formations of mountains.
Ar. Shirish Sukhatme
102, Sarkar Plaza, 1st Floor, Jn. of Hill Road & St. Peter's Road,
Bandra. Mumbai 400 050
Tel: 91-22-2642 4699 / 1991
Email: info@artinarch.com
1. Relationship of dot, line and plane
If you were to analyse the natural and man-made environment, you would soon discover that the simplest object is the dot or point. The dot is generally small and uncomplicated in shape. If the dot is extended in its primary dimension of length, the object is known as a line. The linear object may be straight or curved, regular or irregular. However, when a line encloses itself, it has two primary dimensions; length and breadth. The resulting object is known as a planar shape. These shapes can be organic or inorganic or biomorphic. When a plethora of shapes are developed in a third primary direction, it is known as a solid or a more limited form.
2. Dot
We are constantly exposed to dots when we watch television. The television picture comprises of 40 thousand tiny dots that are used to stabilise the image we watch each day. New Impressionists or pointillist painters used the perceptual concept of retinal infusion. The hues and values produced in these paintings are extraordinary.
The 'bindu', in more universally accepted parlance, is the point. The most rudimentary element of design, it is dimensionless and it openly marks a position in space. Though in itself a visually appealing element, it is too small for sustained aesthetic interest, and is thus almost always seen in combination with other elements, with other points, lines and shapes.
A true colour output is obtained by remixing and separation of the dots of the four basic colours in any picture. Primitive societies also favoured point designs - in textiles and paintings, sculptures and jewellery, and even for decorating the human body with the art of tattoo.
Whereas a point in itself may be of little importance, it gains significance when it participates in a design. The thesaurus offers 11 meanings for the word 'point', two of which, seem relevant to this discussion. One is 'an item that goes to make up the whole' and the other is 'a non-curving, geometrical object unbounded in one, two, three or more dimensions.'
3. Constellations (Gestalt's Principles)
From the regular placement of motifs on a field of dots, we proceed to a kind of arrangement that dispenses with field-pattern altogether. Designs such as these would depend to a greater degree on intuition and spontaneous decisions.
Objects, shapes, figures and qualities are related to one another perceptually by certain principles, due to which we are able to create order out of optical chaos. These principles are: a) Proximity or nearness (similarity of location); b) Similar form pattern, as well as size, colour, and texture; c) Similarity of Principle of direction, orientation, continuance or speed; and d) Closure.
4. Line
Ancient cave paintings contain the line in its most primitive abstract graphic version. Geometrically speaking a line is nothing but an extension of points in one dimension. The shortest distance between two points is a line. It is the basic visual tool, and therefore any composition and any form can be broken down into lines. The process of drawing a line between any two points creates a system of tension in the design. The points no longer remain free elements in space; they become tight and rigid, responsible for holding the line between them and thus become frozen in time and space. Points fuse and form lines, while lines of different types and having different qualities come together and form images. These images will reflect one or more principles of aesthetics: depending on whether the lines are straight or curved, thick or thin, dark or light, and also where they begin and how they end. The primary characteristic of linear form is that it tends to imply activity and generally a boundary or demarcation. Visual artists use these lines primarily to communicate ideas in a simple, concise manner. Lines can be of following types (partial list):
1. Dynamic lines
2. Spinning lines
3. Curved lines
4. Parallel lines
5. Radiating lines
6. Whirling lines
7. Diagonals
8. Crisscross lines
9. Grids
10. Patterns
The line is an ideal tool for communication, because it has the potential to convey and generate a variety of messages and emotions. But it is also very sensitive, so one needs to have control over its flow - its length, its thickness, its value and its quality.
If a straight line conveys rigidity and discipline, a curvilinear one is graceful and playful. To modify these basic qualities and infuse it with a quality alien to its inherent nature is an artist's greatest challenge.
Of all design elements, the line alone is indispensable. "Line, depending on its use, may recall, inform, describe, amuse, make fantasy, signify subjective forces and arouse deep-lying associations - all with impressive economy. Lines as pictograms, ideograms or words - that is, lines as writing signify things, actions, concepts, qualities and conditions, across the spectrum of civilizations," says Calvin Harlan, in his book "Vision and Invention".
4 - 01 Lines of MF Hussain
MF Hussain, one of the greatest figures in contemporary Indian art is best known for his mastery over the line. Hussain has the knack of breaking up forms into their straight-line components, while retaining the grace of the original finished form. He has a flair for abstracting his subjects by eliminating the details and highlighting their symbolic contents. We, as a people, have applauded his distortion of Mother Teresa and at the same time criticized his disrobed version of Goddess Saraswati. After all, in both the cases, he has used lines and only retained those elements, which are essential to the understanding of the subject of his composition. If it is Mother Teresa's holy garbs that convey her compassion, it is the Goddess' paraphernalia of symbols such as the peacock, the veena and the lotus, which are sure indications of her divine presence. Why do we then consider her nudity as a Muslim's way of showing disrespect to a Hindu Goddess?
4 - 02 Lines of KK Hebbar
MF Hussain's predecessor KK Hebbar is another great Indian artist and is renowned for his simplistic line drawings which he calls them as 'singing lines.' In the preface to a collection of his drawings, he says, "A line is a series of dots in space. A line when drawn to reproduce a form, seen or imagined, becomes a drawing of that form or object." He says that as he achieved the skill of accurately reproducing what he had seen or imagined, he "started searching for the hidden beauty in the interplay of lines, the evocative quality of straight and curved lines. This quality of rhythmic movement of lines began to engage my attention more and more. I realised that lines were capable of singing and dancing."
Hebbar has his own peculiar style of eliminating details and only depicting the compositional characteristics of his subject. Their beauty lies in his ability to retain the 'soul' of the subject. So, whether it's the amorous sculptures on ancient Indian temples or dancers performing on stage, or just women huddled in conversation, his lines magically transport his subjects into the realm of the sublime.
That Hebbar's nudes have not evoked the wrath of the puritanical Indian society can be attributed to the fact that in simplifying his subjects into linear elements, he has also eliminated those details, which help in the identification of his sources of inspiration.
4 - 03 TYPES OF LINE
a. PARALLEL LINES (Horizontality and Verticality) :
Lines assume a technical role, when they start defining the intervals of space. Several vertical lines, of identical size, placed at regular intervals (equal distance apart), as in a picket fence, will create a sequence. The same lines placed at irregular intervals will guide the eye away from their powerful parallelism, to the spatial dynamics that arise between them. Qualitative differences in these parallel lines (such as making some lines thicker and others thinner, some longer, others shorter) will again draw attention to them, and their parallelism.
Verticals and horizontals are structural complements: lending proportion and character to each other. They describe the essential two-dimensionality of the surface upon which they are drawn. When they interact, they create open and closed areas associated with tectonics, systems, and structure of all kinds. For instance, the four minarets of the Taj Mahal are the parallel vertical forces, supporting and enhancing its inherent horizontality.
b. RADIATING LINES:
When the directional quality of the composition seems to emerge from, or converge towards, the actual centre of the format, or its focal point, it conveys radiation.
The sun with the rays of light emerging from it is the simplest example.
Another good example is the wheel; where the peripheral circle acts as a circular format, while the spokes of the wheel, emerging from the exact centre of the circle and radiating in all directions to the periphery, denote the inward pulling and outward pushing perceptual forces seen in the circle.
c. CURVED LINES:
Straight lines do not exist in nature. Neither do perfect circles. All natural forms, and events, are the results of a dynamic-static synthesis. Unequal tensions are the true order of nature.
Stress and strain, tension and compression follow curves. Growth follows a curve, liquids flow in the form of curves, objects hurtling through space follow a curvilinear trajectory and erosion creates curved forms and surfaces. The lever construction of the human body favours curved motion. Animals reveal the mastery of circular movements in the paths they make through woods and fields; so do birds in their graceful aerial choreography.
Consciously or otherwise, a designer works with curves- the serpentine lines of flow, the analytic curves or conic sections (hyperbola, parabola, and ellipse), the logarithmic spiral, catenary curves and flat curves. It may be noted that particularly appealing forms reveal considerable contrast in the kinds of curves (ellipses or parabolas) and shallow or fast curves (hyperbolas), long and short curves. They flow into one another with a naturalness and inevitability that is usually absent from the pure curves of mathematics.
4 - 03 TYPES OF LINE
d. SPIRALS:
The purest and most universal form of motion is the spiral; the counter-clockwise spiral being the one found most often in nature - in seashells and in the growth of trees, in the seed heads of sunflowers, and in the DNA helix of the human genetic constitution. The seed head of the sunflower is a double spiral, in which the clockwise spiral intersects with a counter-clockwise one.
Like curves all spirals are not the same. The equiangular or logarithmic spiral of the elegant chambered nautilus is one type that is also seen in the ram's horns. It is interesting to note that the double spiral of the sunflower corresponds to the ratio of the Fibonacci Series: if you count the number of seeds in a clockwise spiral and those in a counter-clockwise spiral, the two figures will be that of a sequence in the Fibonacci Series.
The DNA helix has been directly translated into architecture, in the form of a spiral staircase. It has also inspired great works of architecture. Wright, in his later work has emulated the spiral of a seashell.
e. DIAGONALS:
The horizontal and vertical scheme, while being the clearest, and in many ways the most useful, has one major limitation - it cannot distinguish between things standing at rest, maintaining themselves in position, and being in motion. The diagonal lines depict experience of motion - people walking, animals running and birds flying - and this is when a human being, from his childhood, discovers the importance of oblique lines.
The diagonal is at variance with the pull of gravity, as well as with the sense of equilibrium in the mind of the spectator and the parallel sides of the usual pictorial format. It signifies things in the throes of change - acting or being acted upon; and, as change must occur in time and space (the two being important elements and constant companions), both time and space find expression in works of art and architecture.
The use of the diagonal can be traced to the sixteenth century friezes of Michelangelo, and also to Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture of the 1930s, when he based the design of certain houses on the angle of 120 degrees of the hexagon, instead of the conventional 90 degrees rectangle. The result was a much easier flow of space, eliminating sharp corners. In the 1940s, Wright's concept of plasticity and continuity of space and structure led him toward the circle. Finally, in the late 1950s, as though following the logic of organic and aesthetic geometry, he favoured the spiral, as in the Guggenheim Museum of New York.
Cubism, because it placed so much importance on the straight line and the articulation of movements in space by means of directional planes, led directly to a kind of painting in which diagonal action would be of unique importance. So, it is significant in Robert Delauney's paintings of the Eiffel Tower, in Marcel Duchamp's painting 'Nude Descending the Staircase’, and in Paul Klee's multiple perspectives.
f. DYNAMIC LINES:
Lines generate visual dynamism, either when the composition lacks a strong focal point, or when they are conspicuously informal. The result, in either case, is that the eye does not remain on any particular element of the composition, but oscillates between the various elements. Indistinct background- foreground compositions and those with many colours also reveal visual dynamism. Informal lines, made by ink-loaded twigs or by blowing spilled ink, create a peculiar kind of dynamism, a linear agitation that borders on chaos. The best example of dynamic lines seen in nature is the black and white striped zebra.
Diagonals or curves, expressed either two-dimensionally as lines or three-dimensionally as planes, can be considered as the form-equivalents of kinetic energy. These dynamic lines are described in terms of thrust: a) Point Thrust, as seen in the arrow, the column and the steeple; b) Centripetal Thrust, seen in the clock spring, the spiral seashell, in all spiral forms, natural or manmade, where energy uncoils from a centre; c) Pressure or Pneumatic Thrust, seen in a balloon, in ripe fruits and vegetables, eroded earth forms, sea creatures, the human skull and the head of the femur, the egg, and all forms that are the result of tensions fairly & evenly distributed; and d) Radial Thrust, seen in the wheel, in certain seed heads and in explosions. These kinds of thrust are often seen in combination with elements of potential energy; as in a tent, a clothesline or a suspension bridge, where the point thrust of the pole or the nylon is complemented by the catenary arc of the canvas, the line or the cables, or contrarily in the association of continuous and discontinuous patterns in the formations of mountains.
Ar. Shirish Sukhatme
102, Sarkar Plaza, 1st Floor, Jn. of Hill Road & St. Peter's Road,
Bandra. Mumbai 400 050
Tel: 91-22-2642 4699 / 1991
Email: info@artinarch.com