Aboveboards

Norman Rockwell, 1968-69, Double Portrait for “The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper”

2012-02-08T22:48:00.001-05:00

This double portrait of Mike Bloomfield (left) and Al Kooper (right) was painted for the record titled,

“The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper”, released in 1969.

Degas likened a picture's composition to a crime scene investigation and if so, sometimes clues can

sit in plain sight for a long time without being noticed. In Norman Rockwell's double portrait, a well

worn record cover reveals the picture's composition to be a circle in a square.

A double portrait presents challenges because people don't like looking at two things at the same

time. It's just the nature of the way people see that they prefer to focus on one thing rather than jump

back and forth. The artist here chooses to unite the two men on a circle composition, with their dark

hair, beads, the treatment of flesh and background among other things to be noted below.

The actual record itself had fallen into the bottom of the sleeve creating a circle of wear slightly

lower than a circle on center, which is added above.

The circle sits on the ear at left and swings up parallel to the edge of Bloomfield's hair. It then
crosses over an arrow formed by the converging hair of both men and proceeds to a highlight

on the left eye of Al Kooper. It continues to where the turtle neck meets his hair and as the
circle swings down, it catches the edge of the artist's signature and crosses over some beads
before starting over again. Note, Bloomfield's collar is a curved arrow driving upward.

Another clue that quickly becomes apparent are the many highlights the artist uses as touch points,

or ends of the structure lines on the circle and the diagonals.

An accent of dark on Bloomfield's lip, a highlight on his eye, the edge of Kooper's lip and
corner of his eye are points drawn together by the diagonal line to the upper right. Subtler points sit
upon or are attached to the same diagonal at an edge of shadow on Bloomfield's nose, a touch of
shadow above Kooper's lip and an accent of shadow on his nose.

In the following images, I'll be rotating the diagonals together off the center point as above. We can

already see points are adding up between the circle and the two positions of the diagonals.

The line from the top of the image and through the beads is an axis that's being pushed rightward at

the top and leftward at the bottom by the converging beads and turtle neck entering from the right.

The backlighting behind Bloomfield is countering the higher positioning of Kooper. The shape

formed by background wrapping itself under Bloomfield's hair is a curved arrow and tails off as

the light dissipates from its source. At the other end of this shape, the blue is broken up by some

hair and this shape actually moves in both directions, first moving from Kooper to Bloomfield,

then as a secondary movement back up to Kooper.

Collectively, the relationship of the converging arrow at the top of Bloomfield's hair, the
position of the lines, especially the vertical axis to the beads below and the leaning of
Bloomfield's head are all part of a clockwise movement on the circle.

Above, a tuft of hair on Bloomfield's head lifts an curls to our right. Just above this is what

appears as a backlit cloud with an edge rising up, highlighted below.

With the cloud acting as a lever, the angle pours into the arrow formed by the converging hair,

then drops down through blue highlights between the men and it proceeds to the shape that

wraps into Bloomfield's cheek.

As well, the beads hanging across the bottom of Kooper's turtleneck act as both an entrance

and exit from the painting. The rising beads and the converging arrow formed by the hair
above are also connected through the blue highlights on Kooper's hair.

In the above position, the vertical line is now comfortably parallel to the cheek and brow of

Kooper. Below the vertical line rests at an edge of Bloomfield's hair. The line from left to right,

sits on the top of Bloomfield's brow, supports the hairline near the center point and crosses the

bottom of Kooper's chin.

The axis now begins the clockwise flow again as one diagonal meets red beads on Bloomfield's
shoulder at bottom and runs up to a highlight on Kooper's eye. In between, the same line flows
along the side of Bloomfield's face and through a point where Kooper's jaw meets his cheek.

The line across Bloomfield's forehead supports his hairline and runs parallel to his eyes.
It meets a point where Kooper's neck, chin and turtleneck meet.

Besides sharing points on the rotating diagonals, many of the same points share
connections on a circular orbit with other points, (white highlights have been added
to some points above).

The America that surrounded Norman Rockwell in his early career was that of silent movies,

Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and their self depreciating humor seems to have made

its way into the artist. As the fun faded with the '29 Crash, Great Depression, then WWII,

Rockwell's life affirming narratives were even more greatly appreciated. As some escaped the

hard times by fantasizing of being rich, Rockwell continued to identify with the ordinary, the
lowly worker, the remembered mother, the cop, the umpire, the cleaning ladies, etc.

One story conveyed to me went as follows, an older African American woman said, “Before we

saw Norman Rockwell's pictures, we didn't think white people had a soul.”

This double portrait really has nothing to do with illustration. It's a bona-fide portrait of two real

men and sells no product, although it's being used to sell the record. Norman Rockwell did a small

handful of paintings which were serious commentaries on civilization and transcended the purposes

of illustration, selling no product, ideology, nor requiring support of text or title.

1967 was still a time with perky hit tunes like “Windy” and Al Kooper's music was part of a
new audience gathered from the college set without the aid of a hit single. Such made it alternative,
but Kooper's music was cool in a relaxed way that loosened up one's neck and shoulders,
(“Flute Thing”, '66 “Season of the Witch”, '68). Al Kooper also wrote some unabashed love
songs in 1968 with Blood Sweat and Tears.

A love song is easy to ridicule and must be harder to write since there are so few good ones around.

In '68 and '69, a whole list of bands with very muscular sounds came to snatch a younger demographic
from the cradle and while many of these groups were spectacular, I don't think any of them wrote a
love song of the direct male to female type which Kooper wrote.

Stevie Wonder would breathe new life into the love song in the 70s, but it was competing with a

din of disco, bongo solos, scatological theater rock with fangs, dripping blood, ahistorical monsters,

an occasionally sacrificed rodent, thundering rock anthems, teeth grinding heavy metal, punk sneers,

rap and expressionless posturing all claiming to be in good fun, but senseless nonetheless, becoming

its own end. The love song went the way of young people dancing together, couples staying married,
children with something of a childhood and the living wage.

Mike Bloomfield was an intense soulful blues guitarist. He was the guitarist every musician wanted

to take the stage with in 1966-69. He was also a drug addict as are three million Americans today.

Bloomfield was one of a million Americans to die from drugs since the late 60s.

It's understandable that the record company wanted to heavily promote this record with a portrait

by Norman Rockwell, yet looking back, there appears to have been a bit of providence

at play as well, for in a funny way, the three men were soulful misfits in a world about to change

so radically that almost overnight, it would no longer be able to recognize, nor understand anything

about its former self.

Al Kooper's website

Al Kooper Wikipedia

A photo of the Kooper, Rockwell and Bloomfield together from Al Kooper's website.

New Music For Old People, an article by Al Kooper

A selection of Al Kooper tunes: I Can't Quit Her, Somethin' Goin' On,
I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know, Without her, Jolie

Mike Bloomfield Wikipedia

Mike Bloomfield dedicated Website

Dancers in Pink, Degas, 1880-1885, Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT

2011-12-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

Degas said, “Beauty is a mystery” and “Dancers in Pink” is one of Degas' most beautiful paintings
still, the painting's composition is so wonderful and complex it demands a closer look.

The primary movement is from right to left against the western nature of reading from left to right.
Four heads look left and that's the dominant force along with the dancer's pink dresses, which
combine to form a shape overlapping into the left side of the picture. The power of the dresses
is increased by burying the faces in shadows, which still retain their dominance, but less so than
if they were in light.

We want to look left, but we can't see what the dancers are looking at and so are driven back
to them after a quick detour to the dancers in green. It's a back and forth circulation often used
by the artist. The dancer's arm on hip forms an arrow and head of the overall shape. Another
movement is a slower draping effect between the upper left through the straps of the central
dancers and across the bottom edge of the dress on our right, which moves both ways.

We can also see a smaller circulation around the central two figures, as their dresses wrap
around their shoulders with a dark band going through the painted greenery behind the figures
and through their hair.

A larger circulation follows a diamond like movement which will become more apparent as
we progress through the following images. It flows around the central figures starting with the
downward looking dancer at our right and is picked up by dark line on the floor at the bottom of
the center line. This dark line moves with perspective to our left, picks up the dancers behind a
wall prop, then to the top center of the picture and back to the pink roses and spec of highlight
on the hair at right to repeat the clockwise circulation.

The diagonals are formed from the actual measurements provided by the Hill-Stead Museum,
23 1/4” X 29 1/4”, which reproductions didn't match. I placed the image to where I think it
would fall if the reproduction had matched the listed dimensions. Of course, I wish this could
be 100% conclusive, but there's more than enough to go on from this positioning.

The diagonal to lower right passes through two white highlights on the right shoulder of the dancer
with her arms on hips and this device of splicing two points is seen in the “Study for the Portrait of
Jules Perrot” and in “The Tub”. The diagonal then is braced by converging angles of pink on the left
shoulder of the dancer in the center. An accent at the arm pit is supported by the diagonal and then it
rides the edge of the back of the dress to the center line. The diagonal then supports a dark accent at
the center of the back of the dress and proceeds down to the right corner after passing through the
edge of shadow of pink and a joining of the dress and leg at the lower right.

The diagonal from the lower left runs through the top of the “D” in the artist's signature, touches
the edge of a perspective line between planks on the floor, dissects a dark accent on the elbow
and supports a dark line on the inner edge of the left arm. A pink mark rests upon it just right of
center and the diagonal moves up the dancer's right shoulder where a ribbon also comes to
rest upon it. The diagonal then continues to a dark accent at the fold of the dancer's right arm.
It proceeds to a fleck of white butted to it from the underside in a third dancer's hair and along
the edge of the top of the hair of a fourth girl before attaching to the corner.

The center line dissects a shadow at the bottom of a girl's leg and rises up to the earring and is
braced by two separate marks forming an upward arrow shape, the center line then dissects a
rose in the hair where a light colored pedal touches it and along the edge of a white structure.

A horizontal line has been added above which is established at the far left at the top of a dancer's
hair. The little arrow like shape comprised of two separate marks sits upon it at center and the line
then proceeds across to the top of one head of hair and a rose on the fourth dancer to the right.

Another horizontal just below the earring is established by a number of points from left to right as
follows: dissecting a bright highlight at the background dancer on the left, the top of the dancer's lip,
the earring at center, a light brown piece of hair attached from below, an ear of the third dancer from
left and the earring of the dancer looking down rests upon it.

A lower horizontal catches establishing points from left to right: a small highlight sits upon it in

the green dress at left, two highlights sit on the right shoulder of the first dancer in pink similar to

what we saw in the “Study for the Portrait of Jules Perrot”. The line then crosses through the top
of the neckband of the dancer at center, meets the right shoulder and hairline, pierces a rose and
ribbon where they converge with the lower right arm and across to the lips of the third dancer.
The horizontal then sits on a rose on the right shoulder of the dancer looking down and across
a highlight on her nose.

Above we have a closer look at the intersection of the horizontal line and the diagonal
on the first dancer's right shoulder.

A centered horizontal line above touches the bottom of a wall prop of bushes at left, then meets
the center point, where it converges with a diagonal from the back of the dress and onto catch
a highlight which comes up to meet where the strap begins on the right side of the back of the
dress. The highlight extends through the second folded arm of the dancer behind. The two
elbows, one above the other are forming the split tail of the arrowhead formed by the elbow
on our left. So in effect, there's a long arrow piercing through the two dancer's moving left.

The horizontal line then splices through two shadows of pink (forming a rightward counter
arrow to that of the elbows), in the dress of the dancer looking down. The horizontal line
continues on to ride a line designating the bottom of the breast and proceeds to the top of darker
pink on a rose and exits after meeting converging points of shadow on our right side of the dancer.

Collectively, the horizontal structure lines are noted above with establishing points

highlighted.

A series of diagonals run parallel to the perspective line on the floorboard visible at the

lower left, just above the artist's signature. Points designating edges, dissections and

converging points establishing the lines are highlighted in white and black dots.

On the floor we pick up two perspective lines going to our left and the light adds
another dimension to the perspective with the side but slightly frontal light landing on the
dancer at our right. We saw a more direct use of structure lines conforming to a light
source in Peter Hurd's, “The Oasis”.

The diagonals established at the corners have been moved around to different

positions similar to what we saw in “The Pieta” and “The Study for the Angel's Head”.
A number of points have been highlighted and we can also see the diamond like shape
of a clockwise circulation taking shape.

Another interesting highlight is in the hair of the dancer at right. Off the
center horizontal line, a triangle or pyramid is formed at top and inverted to form a
diamond shape. The line at top right rests on a rose and the white highlight.

The line at the lower right is supported at a point where the bottom of
dress of the center dancer meets her right leg and also a dark accent sits
under the diagonal on the inside of the same leg.

A bit of the dress runs parallel to this line and it meets a leg from the third
dancer and the dress belonging to the dancer looking down. As the line
moves right, a lighter converging shape in the dress rises to meet it and then
the line dissects a faint arc moving right.

Some additional parallel lines off the corners of the configuration in the
previous image also appear intentional. To put it mildly, “Dancers in Pink”
is a highly structured image where almost everything is linked to something
else, figure to figure, foreground to background and to the picture's circulation.

A conspicuous highlight lies on the dancer's chin on our left, which divides the

picture plane into a large shape pushing a small shape.

Pink is a color diluted with white and as such tends to drain the chroma or

vitality out of colors around it. The artist has overcome this “draining” of the

more intense pink highlights by placing them next to deep darks as on the

shoulders of the dancers to our left, or buffering them with white as in the

rose on the dancer bending forward at right.

In the middle ages, the subjects of math and science were categorized as arts, because they

expressed parts of reality as did the other arts. Just as we don't see music, hear art, feel math,
move when reading as in dance, each art or language expressed in its own way, different
aspects of the larger reality from which they were derived.

The larger reality referred to as the logos, or summa, considered love the apex of human

purpose, the betterment for which the languages or arts were meant to serve (in as much

as was possible). Beauty was then not simply a discovery of proportions, but a distinct

part of the larger spectrum of the arts, social behaviors, gratitude and joy with joy being
central to the concept of meaning.

With the rejection of the logos, the arts were splintered and math and science, being

engines of economy, developed a social hegemony, or became the languages of

interpreting reality, but such are incapable of translating the other arts because they are

entirely different languages, dealing with different dimensions of reality.

When we read a novel, we aren't moved to tears by a chemical reaction, but by something

that moves us in the writing and then a reaction takes place. The writing then is a unique

part of the larger reality, quite distinct from chemical reactions, which are also apart of reality.

“Dancers in Pink” possesses a beauty which hangs tough against reductionism and

remains a delightful reminder that visual beauty is indeed a distinct language with an

important symbolic and real place in the larger reality, even if such a larger reality for

the time being, is no longer accepted, understood, or simply neglected.

The painting is distinct even from its own structure lines which by themselves say

nothing similar to the picture, yet are clearly part of it. That's the beauty of the structure

lines, established by as little as two end points, they don't actually exist. They're virtual

or invisible, move at unlimited speed and possess unlimited strength, yet other

movements can flow right through them.

Sean Farrell ©2011

As the year winds down, I would like to say thank you to the readers from 75 countries
who visited this blog in 2011.

Have a Happy 2012!

Study for Portrait of Jules Perrot, Degas, 1875, Philadelphia, Henry P. McIlhenny Collection

2011-12-06T16:15:00.001-05:00

The teacher, or master stands resting his arms on a partially drawn walking stick.

We don't fill in the missing part of the walking stick with our eye, although we assume it's
there. The artist may be leaving out the walking stick to make a point.

Below I've drawn in the diagonals to get the center line.

The reproduction of this image didn't match the measurements listed for the drawing,

so I made a box the size of the measurements, which is why the diagonals are

exceeding the edges of this image.

The diagonal going to the upper right, establishes little but for one point where the

diagonal passes through the end of dark line rising from the lower jacket. The center line

butts against a white highlight above the back of the right shoe and goes up to dissect a

dark accent near the center point.

Upon the handle lie three interesting highlights. A horizontal line has been placed
below the upper highlight on the handle of the walking stick.

The vertical center line and the horizontal line are enough to create a stable and

balanced structure for the drawing. A simple “T” or cross is all that's needed to

bring stability to the drawing.

When a drawing is matted and framed it takes on the structure of the perimeter

verticals and horizontals of the frame, which is why almost everything looks better framed.

Likewise any vertical and horizontal will add structure to an image, but when structure

lines intersect, they also pin or unite the drawing to the picture plane.

The diagonal to the upper right now intersects the horizontal line at just about

the back of the man's coat.

The diagonal from the lower right slices through the two lower highlights

on the handle of the walking stick. This is similar to what I was referring to in

Le Tub, where a diagonal was spliced through, or braced between two points.

A third highlight nestles in the upper joint of the diagonal as it intersects

the horizontal line.

The same lines are shown above according to the borders as they appeared

in the reproduction, which doesn't match the picture's listed measurements.

With a painting, the artist makes clear the intended edges, but not always with

a drawing, which can be cropped upon framing.

So what I've done here isn't conclusive, although it does appear the three

highlights were designed to behave accordingly to the diagonal and horizontal.

Above, a second horizontal is placed upon a lower highlight on the handle and

this horizontal line extends to the end of a line at the pit of the sleeve and the weight
of the sleeve drapes off of this line and between the two points. Also notice the man's ear
and brow are drawn parallel to the diagonal line going to the upper left.

In historical context, it's very tempting to view all things according to modern precepts, such
as, authority and control, power and oppression, or repression and liberation.
We see here an older man with an aged slump, drawn compassionately yet still exhibiting
authority. Degas' young dancers generally exercise authority over their own domain, busily
and confidently adjusting their dresses, tying shoes or perusing a scene with a precocious

hand on hip.

As a child brings adulation to the parent, the student often brings the same, or desires
thereof to the teacher. To such, the concept of “indifferent love” was addressed. It's a
difficult concept to understand. It sets the teacher apart from the student as an adult
and this differs dramatically from our current methods of child empowerment, yet the
concept of indifferent love was probably still in some way part of society even if it had
faded as a concept by this time.

Likewise, today's definition of free will is generally regarded as the freedom to act upon
one's interests and desires. An older concept of free will, included an internal component,
a will, freed from undue attachments to pleasures and vanities, that would be those desires
that ever gnaw at an individual's peace and render the individual a servant to them; never
free from such designs upon self and others. Yet even after the individualism of the
Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the pluralism of Napoleon and growing challenges
from scientific positivism, the internal component of a freed will may have coexisted for a
time with that of the slimmer definition, which had birthed many violent and coercive
revolutions in search of an external order most accommodating to its definition; while
having dismissed the value of the internal component.

The concept of indifferent love is incomprehensible without understanding the older
definition of a freed will. Indifferent love is a love which seeks no return but the joy in
its own interior freedom. Such ideas were very real for people even as one age crossed
another and probably lived on in some remnant way before entirely dying out in the 20th century.
Today we should be able to see that our free will may well be a servant to our desires
and conveniences, not only personally, but that we are currently dependent upon such
to drive our economies. But are we missing something when we interpret all art and
history as if no other concepts had ever been taken seriously?

Today's college teachers are often hired for research purposes and they will rely on videos
and use of the internet to replace their presence. The very personal relationships with teachers,
mentors or masters, may also be slipping into history along with subtle concepts.

When examined on its own merits, art can remind us that people in the past were occupied
with some subtle concerns which escape history as seen through our modern precepts.

Please leave a comment if you care to.

Comments with profanities will be removed.

The Tub, (Le Tub) Degas,1885-1886, Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT

2011-10-27T21:58:00.000-04:00

The first thing we see in this pastel is the light striking this beautifully drawn figure,
but another strong influence isn't even in the picture itself. It's the artist's eye level
which is above the picture. The artist's eye level being above the picture gives the
picture plane an even stronger downward movement then if the eye level were in
the upper half of the picture. A second vanishing point below the picture draws
the eye further downward. So the primary force of this picture is top to bottom.
A second force is the upper left to down and right movement of light.

Degas counters the downward movement of the picture plane using devises we saw in

Michelangelo's Study for the Libyan Sibyl. Above from left to right I've highlighted arrows

and split tails in the drapery. A is a simple arrow shape pointing up. B is an

asymmetrical pair of tails of an arrow pointed up. The letter C sits just left of a split in a

tail pointed the right. The arrow then veers back to the left. D refers to a shadow pointing

up and splitting a large mass of drapery that's catching light. D is also coming off the

side of the woman's left thigh and is acting as an extension, or tail of the downward

movement of the woman. E is sitting on a shadow splitting some drapery forming a rising

and twisting arrow. F and G are formed by converging curves which we can seen in the

Study for the Libyan Sibyl by Michelangelo as well.

Highlighted above is a false horizon the artist created at the uppermost point of the woman

and the bottom of a white curtain lit with light. The purpose of this false horizon is to stop the

rising movement of arrows in the drapery. The false horizon line is also established by several

smaller marks and changes in line which attach to it.

The white cloth on the ground is also moving upwards, countering the downward movement
of the picture plane and figure. Upon the cloth is a pattern of lines running from bottom to top

which run parallel to the line next to the letter B. A simple grouping of folds converging as an

arrow marked as A move to an edge of B. B is an arc of cloth defined upward by its shadow.

The highest edge of the tub is also an arc moving upward.

The lower right side of the tub is in shadow and halts the movement of light from left to right.

This same shadow to the lower right of the tub, neutralizes the arrow at the corner of the
picture. The woman's head still holds a position of strength, but with her face turned down and

away, its dominant position in this picture is lessened, leaving other elements more competitive

for out attention. Such is the game Degas is playing in this masterful composition.

The diagonals also form four arrows pointing to the center point of the picture and these arrows

act as a counterpoint, pulling our attention away from the four corners of the picture. Below are

three counter arrows we see in older architecture and furniture. The first being a circular window

as counter arrow. The second is a counter-corner similar to an arc of cloth draped across one

corner of a picture and the third, a cutaway which inverts the direction of what would have

been a directional arc at its top.

I couldn't find a reproduction of this image that was actually a square and neither were they

cropped they same way and some were slightly distorted in width. So I layered them and

came up with a square which still wasn't conclusive but might better approximate what I

think is going on with the diagonal above.

On the diagonal from lower left to upper right, there are five points of note. The letter A

designates the D in the artist's signature which loops back around and attaches to the

diagonal. Letter B is a juncture between the shoulder and triceps. C is the most

interesting and here the diagonal line is threaded between the highlight of the ear and a

small light spec above it. The artist does this in other work which I will post another time.

At letter D the diagonal sits on a line delineating the waist and top of the pelvis. At E is a
small accent is attached to the diagonal. Details below.

If the image isn't correct as I've figured it, the diagonal might go directly through the spec of

light above the ear at C, in which case the diagonal would catch the top of the D in the artist's

signature but not the same way. Otherwise, the rest of the points discussed in this post are

unaffected.

The diagonal from the upper right lends support to a corner of drapery at the point marked A.

B is an angular shadow on the ankle that meets the diagonal at its leftward moving point. Note

the dark line at the outside of this ankle which lifts the foot off the background and acts

something like a highlight in reverse. The diagonal intersects the last two toes. Also notice that

the chair entering the picture from the left is parallel to the diagonal line and the light also

enters and strikes the woman parallel to the diagonal. Another point of interest is the shadow

where the letter C sits. It's been divided to act like a split tail, countering the foot pointing

towards the right corner.

One of the most interesting things in this pastel is a play on the depth of field. A traditional way

of creating the illusion of space takes place to the right of the woman's head where we see

that the two legs have been softly blended together and fade into space from the sharper

contrast and edges of the hair. Yet the woman is treated overall in a far more softened and

subtle manner than the elements behind her which are by comparison, graphic and linear in

nature. An almost stormy graphic effect brings the background forward to the picture plane

and thus there is back to front play, countering the front to back movement of perspective.

Movement is also created on the picture plane itself, uniting background and foreground in a

clockwise line of circulation. Besides the light that hits the woman from the left, several

arrows are formed at A, B and C, setting off a clockwise movement. At A, we see a distinct

arrow drawn into the drapery. B is a shape tapered for direction and C is another example of

two converging curves as we saw at the sides of the tub. We then travel around her outline to

her head, then hand, move along the arc of the tub and then jump to the cloth moving up to

the chair. A dark accent under the seat of the chair acts as a pointer directing us to the drapery.

We then move across the slender rectangle of light and back to the initial arrow at A to repeat

the clockwise movement. Degas understands the visual pleasure of riding curves and its a

design element he uses often in dancer's dresses, etc., but here it's the accented curve of the

woman's left hip on our right and the cylindrical shape of the tub.

Arrows formed by the calves to ankles also move the viewer downward to the feet, where the

viewer takes direction from the lit foot to the hand.

Other structure lines supporting this picture, without explanation, above and below.

I entered art school at the beginning of time later to become known as Postmodernism.

The concept of order at the time was associated with the external order; suppressive

governments or social orders designed to suppress the masses and so on. It was a bad

word also associated with ignorant resistance to change as well as tired formulas in art.

Such would have been fine, but almost all forms of order were dismissed as outdated.

This sort puzzled me as our biology was a kind of order, as is music. In truth, there

are many kinds of order, or possibly, order may be a multi-leveled reality upon which

science, math and engineering are all based. Even intimacy, trust and love require

order to develop thoughtfulness and a sense of the intangible concept of the future (by

which lovers become spouses). Order elevates one from the sentient realm of impulse,

want and novelty to the human or homo sapien dimension (capable of understanding).

A romantic notion of novelty and impulse replaced concepts of order during this era

and the art student left school often as mystified about picture making as they were to

their ever crumbling personal relationships based on the same.

What we see in the work of Degas is an intimate relationship with beauty and order,

perhaps seeing order and beauty as interrelated, as did the Greeks. Not only does the

artist use traditional structure lines to order his compositions, but he did so in the most

innovative ways, breaking though old formulas, which implies he didn't see order as

an impediment to creativity in picture making.

The structure lines aren't readily apparent to the viewer and in a pictorial sense they

are interior and supportive of beauty. In the work of Degas there appears to be an

awareness that beauty flows more elegantly through order. By comparison to the

almost habitual and miserable bickering over our external order, government, law,

money, etc., the art of Degas is like some kind of other worldly place, even

heavenly*, where the most refined observations of the ordinary, resonate with

deeply satisfying significance.

*At this link, in a 5 part series, scientists and doctors tell of heightened sensory

experiences in an orderly, thoughtful state, suggesting to me at least, that in peace,

understanding and order, our capacity for sensory experience may actually be enhanced.

In another article of interest titled “Postmodernism is Dead”, Christopher Hitchens
gives his assessment on our current state after decades of postmodernism.

Visit the original pastel at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington CT.

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Peter Hurd, The Oasis, 1945, Roswell Museum and Art Center

2011-10-01T18:34:00.000-04:00

The Oasis, 1945, egg tempera on panel, 47"x47", Peter Hurd, (1904-1984)

A writer once described falling asleep in 1905 in Lynbrook, Long Island just 18 miles from

Manhattan and hearing the sounds of the waves on the shore seven miles away! It's hard

to imagine sound traveling so far anywhere in our modern age. Such is the type of setting

in “The Oasis”, by Peter Hurd. A place where sound travels effortlessly, expanding a sense

of intimacy across long distances.

It's easy to understand what attracted the artist to this near ready composition. It's an old
windmill water pump and storage pool, which have been long replaced with motorized
pumps and deep narrow concrete pools to minimize evaporation, so the painting is also
an historical piece.

The windmill sits on one plane of space while the cylindrical shape of the pool is perpendicular

to it. The structure is a pyramid as is the composition of the picture. The diagonal from lower left

to upper right intersects the far corner of the wooden plank on which the boy stands. The center

line dissects a series of shadows in the pool. The upper left to lower right diagonal strikes a

corner of a supporting beam of the windmill.

The horizon line sits in the lower half and this I'll be referring to as a Standing Picture. The basic

movement of a picture plane with the horizon line in the lower half is from bottom to top. That is,

when the horizon line is in the lower half, the objects and people will rise up against gravity.

The upper half is basically weightless and floats above it. Since the boys in the lower section

are countered with the windmill at the top and the top of the pyramid, the circulation of the

picture is up and down.

At the same time, the clouds are moving from our right to left. Negative shapes in the

background form arrows behind the standing boy that drive from left to right. Along with the light,

a rightward movement counters a leftward movement of the clouds. The circulation then is back
and forth as well as up and down. The cylindrical pool provides its own swing of movement and
the smaller pool which animals would drink from on our right attaches the central structure to
the picture plane at the right side.

Off the actual center according to the borders of this scan, the pyramid doesn't match the edges

of the pool, but does ride along the back leg of the horse on our left. The line on the right is

established by the corner and center line.

The edges of the pool do form an irregular pyramid to the same center point at top, (below), as
does the center of the windmill and structure itself, but it's the pyramid to the corners, (above)
that draws the distracting arrows at the corners into picture.

An angle of the rain forms a line to a point on a post in the background and an interior shape of

sky is an arrow moving in the direction of the boy in the pool. The rain is dropping to our right

as the cloud itself moves left. The smaller cloud on our right is also moving left and has
a head and a tail falling back.

A vertical from the wooden plank cuts between the shadow and light of the horse's tail, dissects

the arc of the saddle and touches the boy's shoulder before passing through the point where
the neck and underside of the chin meet.

Curious about the angle of the longer side of the triangle and that of some accents across the

tree, I decided to duplicate the angle to see what they lined up with. I'm not going to explain

each black or white point because it would take too long, but you can see they are on, or

near changes in tone, angles, or through the centers or edges of shapes.

And a wider view above.

Stabilizing points on some other horizontal lines, above.

These two boys cooling off will grab their clothes baked dry from the sun and as they shiver from the
quick evaporation, the sensation of the warm clothes will create a comfort one never forgets.

The up and down composition, along with the arrows, triangle and other attachments to the picture
plane creates movement through a kind of multi-dimensional order. The structure of the picture is
not simply an end in itself, but through which flows an ordered moment of simple being.

I think every artist has experienced moments perhaps during or after studying a model for a period
of time, maybe while contemplating work just finished, or just washing up some brushes, when
thoughtfulness and perception seems to be moving at an identical pace with the body. In such a
state of being, time itself seems to be of order. It's such an exquisite experience, one never forgets
it. In “The Oasis”, something of this timelessness is captured in the life of two young boys.

The scans above don't justice to this painting which hangs at The Roswell Museum and Art Center.
Also to be found at the museum are paintings by Peter Hurd's wife Henrietta Wyeth. Drawings and
paintings by Peter Hurd can be bought or viewed at the Hurd La Rinconada Gallery. The website
has pages of information about the artist, his artist son Michael Hurd, N.C.Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth
and Henrietta Wyeth. Both sites are well worth visiting if you're planning to be in New Mexico.

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Michelangelo, Study for the Libyan Sibyl, 1508-12, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

2011-09-21T14:42:00.000-04:00

Scientists tell us that life as we know it began when the first simple organisms

developed a head and a tail, giving them direction.

It's a very useful description for explaining the nature of movement in pictures. Since nothing
actually moves in a picture, the artist uses directional devises and shapes to create a sense of
movement. The head indicates where a shape is going and the tail tells us where its been.
The head and its tail also express the force and velocity of a shape.

The first devise to point out is technically called a vector, but I'll be calling it an arrow.

In A, we see a shadow has been formed as a pointer or arrow driving into the upper arm
from the shoulder. The artist is articulating the shapes as they move into, or overlap
one another. At B, each tail of the arrow is stylized as an arrow itself. In C, a
group of muscles form a similar arrow and D and E are still simpler arrows.

In box A, an area of the hand in light has a split tail at its base and this expresses the
directional force of the highlighted shape moving towards the thumb. In box B, we see
the outer line of the arm is a shadow with a widened base forming an arrow driving
upwards. In box C, a reverse S curve drives upwards from a wider base and this
shape has another small shadow tailing off it. In box D, one small arc overlaps another
with each end acting as a kind of pointer after bulging left.

Above we have a bracket indicating the drive from right to left which is furthered by the light
treatment of the back of the head and right arm. The bracket signifies the end of the movement,
but brackets can also be used to further movement as we'll see in other pieces of art. Arcs can
be used in the same way, as indications to the end of movement, or holders, (as used in written
language as parentheses). Notice also that the artist has accommodated the bone structure to
create a tail off the eyebrow and the cheek is extended backwards likewise. A space created
by light allows free access for the downward direction of the eye. We also see the strokes
on the head going in the same direction with the head, as we saw in Da Vinci's
Study for the Angel's Head, The Virgin of the Rocks.

The arc of the forehead is also collecting momentum from the right to left movement across the
top of the picture and it's emphasized to tilt the head forward as the eye directs us downward.

Besides the twisting of the body, the drawing has three other major directional movements.
The first is the driving force up the back to the head, secondly the driving force of the upper
section indicated by the bracket from our right to left and the dominant force of the three is
the eye looking down over the shoulder.

Above, a shape with an arc head and split tail in the hand drawn separately.

In the “Study for the Libyan Sybil”, Michelangelo shows us to the three devises used to
indicate a shape's direction; the arrow, the bracket and the arc. We also got to see some
tails. The artist is designing or accommodating the existing anatomy in ways to emphasize,
velocity, force and direction. The facility with which Michelangelo employs the devises in
this indispensable drawing shows us just how familiar he was with their basic concepts.

Visit the image at the Metropolitan Museum website.

The black and white image was scanned from this D over Book.

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Study for the Angel's Head, The Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo Da Vinci, 1483, Turin, Bibleoteca Reale

2011-08-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

This deceptively simple drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci consists of number of directional
devises and considerations. The first is the eyes turning to our right. Then there's the
light coming in from the top left hand corner. The light burns away the hair on the far
side of the angel's face which is indicated with just a few strokes of line, merging it with
the light and allowing the light to enter the face unhindered. The fourth is the light
pushing a rightward moving arc of shadow formed by the side of the face. A fifth
devise is the direction of the silver point strokes.

When I first looked at this drawing I was immediately drawn to the angel's eye on our left,
which appears to pop forward. In the close up above, the white of the eye and iris are
nearly duplicate shapes and compete somewhat, but that A drives into B.

The iris (B) is a sealed empty space bordered by dark lines, making it a shape the eye
locks onto. It's also a point of high contrast. The pupil is also larger in the eye on our
left side than the eye on the right side of the picture. Together these influences could
account for the eye popping forward. As well, the eyeball, iris and eyelids are not
simply drawn as per anatomical accuracy but are clearly designed as part of a series
of converging arrows.

I placed a diagonal from the the top left to lower right and the pupil does sit right on
it. One property of structures lines is that things attached or sitting upon them also
become attached to the picture plane itself and this could be contributing to the
popping effect as well.

A diagonal is established by its attachments to the corners, but when something
is placed upon it, our eye goes right to it and the diagonal itself acts as illustrated
below, pointing to the object upon the line.

The diagonal itself is a directional devise moving in the same direction as the light,
but the placement of the eye on our left creates a counter movement back up to the
left side and the eye.

The eye on our right sits on the center line where the top of the iris meets the top lid.

The center line also dissects the shoulder and meets the point where the neck meets

the chin. It also just about dissects an open space at the top of the forehead.

The lips on our left side are now intersected by the center horizon line.

The edges of the paper are slightly irregular and it's possible the exterior of the box

I've been using isn't what the artist had in mind. I mention this because lowering the

center horizontal line would fit it snugly on a curl of hair at right, on the right edge of

the lips and it also pierces a curl of hair on our left more perfectly. This would require

moving the center line over just a bit and we see it fits more snugly to the iris,

dissects the neck at its center and also a space between two open lines delineating

the hairline on the angel's forehead. Now all fits really beautifully, above.

A diagonal added from the top center intersects an edge of the eye and a

crossing of lines lightly indicating hair, at about the center of a line now forming

a rightward triangle. A crossing of lines actually pins a piece of a drawing to

the picture frame, but even more so when on a structure line.

Also note on the lower right of the diagonal, a dangling line touches it just

above the studio seal. We saw this in Degas' Dancers on a Bench and although

this might seem a very minor thing, a keen eye like Degas' would have picked it up.

Finally, we test to see if the diagonal is adding to the sense of the eye

on our left coming forward. By moving the eye on our right to the center,

the left eye now comes off the diagonal and the eyes do appear to be

more in equilibrium. This may be subtle, because of the contrast, larger

pupil and near identical shapes we saw earlier still remain.

More remarkable still, the drawing appears to be designed as was The Pieta, from

multiple viewing points. Note the points at which the diagonals, horizontal and

center vertical lines are piercing, dissecting and touching, the base of the neck,

the edge of the nostril and piercing a series of strokes just to the right of the eye on

our right.

No doubt, Michelangelo and Leonardo had a close eye on each other's work.

Wikipedia on the Royal Library of Turin

The Bibleoteca Reale page in Italian

An affordable collection of Da Vinci drawings with The Study of the Angel's Head from
Dover Publishing

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Sean Farrell ©2011

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A Ballet Dancer in Position, 1872, Fogg Art Museum, Degas

2011-08-14T16:06:00.000-04:00

The Grid

In art school most of us learn how artists once drew through a piece of

glass marked with a grid to check their negative and positive shapes

and copy what they were seeing. We also learned how a grid is used

to transfer a drawing to a canvas, but the lines of a grid are structure

lines upon which things can be placed in a composition.

In “A Ballet Dancer in Position”, we see that Degas used the grid for

its structure. The lines of the grid as structure lines are a kind of

scaffolding which supports anything placed upon it or attached to it.

The center vertical line, diagonals, horizon line and the natural horizon

line of the picture plane are also used as structure lines. Things may

hang from as well as be supported by structure lines and points on

structure lines may be used to attach a line of circulation, or continuity

as they're usually referred to.

Although a viewer may not be aware of the structure lines, a drawing

attached to such lines is pinned to or united with the picture plane.

It's the marks upon the line which form the invisible structure of the line.

Two points creating an invisible line between them. In this case Degas

has left the lines for us to see which in the finished work would be

concealed, leaving just the accents to form the structure line.

Notice that the dancer’s fingers of her right hand and the thumb of her left

hand rest on the same line. Her right arm has been extended so the

fingers of her hand meet the line. The same horizontal line is intersected

by a vertical line which runs from the back of the foot through the edge of

her waist and a shoulder strap and you will notice that Degas has

accented each point of attachment with a darker line.

Looking on our right we see another vertical which runs from the back

toe up through the hand, arm and shoulder. This line from the back foot

meets a shadow line under the sleeve which is extended to and stops at

the structure line. Her dress though facing left is tailing off to the right

along with the foot and face which point to the right. The additional

directional movements of the foot and face render the tailing of the

dress into a pointer.

Note the accent of the eye on our right and the arc formed by the side of

her face. This is a Renaissance devise which you'll notice Degas uses

in other pieces. Also, a slight dark accent at the back of the dancer’s hair

lifts or pulls it forward and helps turn the head right. The line of the

sternomastoid under the collar aligns with the accent of the back of the

head and forms an arrow and triangle with the accented eye.

The accent of her right arm has the same effect as the dark accent at the

back of the hair. An accent of white chalk also forms a left to right moving

directional shape with the smaller accent of white on her left strap; also

with the upward line formed by the accent of white on the dancer's right

finger and her left wristband.

The treatment of the drawing overall appears less than strained, almost

indifferent in the dress, yet we can clearly see that a great deal of

attention is given to the structure lines and direction. Degas not only

carefully designed his pictures, but he designed this figure as a stand

alone piece of art. As Degas signed the study he certainly wanted the

viewer to take note of the structure lines of the grid, granting us a view

into his very deliberate thinking. The orderliness of the drawing is

greatly enhanced by the structural use of the grid, giving the dancer a

sense of poise and dignity which 140 years later is no less wonderful.

View more on the drawing at the Fogg Museum, Harvard University

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The Pieta, 1498-1499, Michelangelo

2011-08-06T11:46:00.000-04:00

I once caught a bit of a conversation on a bus in NYC between a mother and her young
son. The boy had said something and then added enthusiastically, “you know Mom, it's
not fun, fun, fun!”. His mother looked down at him and wearily said, “Fun, fun fun?” I
mention this little story because I wasn't much older than the boy when I first saw “The
Pieta” at the New York World's Fair. I saw it in Rome again some 21 years later but still
hadn't the maturity to gather myself as required to contemplate the statue.

I will approach the subject in lay terms, removing it from its religious content and tread
carefully because the subject is very real for many mothers whose sufferings they bear
alone or with little consolation. It's an inner or interior love and one of a physical bond
unlike other types of love, such as empathy derived from a shared understanding. It is
more substantial than the affinities of attraction, the ending of which can still be very
difficult. Because the love is of substance, it merits that it is a sculpture, of substance
and dimensions. Viewing the sculpture requires a bit of setting up.

Most people do experience heartache in their own ways and even a young person may
have experienced the joy of entering a coffee house and seeing the smiling face of one
deemed worthy of love awaiting them across the room. Upon entering that same coffee
house after this love is gone, the sounds of tinkering glass and chattering people which
were a kind of happy backdrop to joy, become nothing more than senseless sounds
made by unknown people.

Yet even in this hollow moment of heartache, a moment of clarity may also exist; a
moment where one is no longer carried away by the happiness of knowing and being
known, but in an involuntary way is returned to a reality of self. It's an unusual
experience, to be possessed of both yearning and this involuntary clarity of self and
one's surroundings, a paradox of two separate interior movements at the same time,
to yearn and being stilled. This clarity may return as one goes through the difficult
process of adjusting to the heartbreak. It's not the very same as that of Michelangelo's
“Pieta”, but it's a fairly common experience and in some ways similar.

The mother holds her son, brutally murdered for the convenience of a few men. Perhaps,
all crime is some matter of convenience to the criminal. In this moment, there is no
despair or crying out for vengeance as in an earlier sketch of The Pieta by Michelangelo.
She seems resigned to the terrible reality and yet is still possessed by love for her son.
The clarity of her love and sorrow is not that of dropping everything and floating to the
surface, nor is it the result of a trained mind dismissing distractions, neither is it the result
of some release of chemicals, or hypnotic voyage into a passive and peaceful state.

The power and clarity of sorrow is that it obliterates all pretense of self and all that is
superfluous. In this case, it isolates love and underscores our vulnerability and mortality.
Yet to contemplate upon this sculpture, returns one to valuable bearings too easily lost in
the comings and goings of life. Sorrow often causes us to reflect upon our own behavior
and so sorrow is a door to our conscience and this may lead to a life lived conscientiously.

There will be nothing more forthcoming for this woman now probably in her forties.

She will possess this love and yearning in her heart for the rest of her days and it will
become a lens by which all things are ordered and through which she embraces the
life around her.

How a 24 year old man could have had such an insight into sorrow is quite amazing in
itself, no less the sculpture. The Vatican website said he modeled the mother from
memories of his own mother he lost at 5 and that he rendered her so young, because a
mother's love never ages. Other comments are available at Wikipedia linked below as
well as the Vatican link.

Based on what appeared to be a logical start, I drew a diagram over the view above. This
same diagram will be placed over a number of vantage points to reveal an extraordinary
amount of design considerations. Note how the son's foot fits into upper triangle of the lower
right side. Also the center line dropping from the mother's nose meets a change in direction
of the fold at the bottom. The son's fingertip meets the diagonal rising from the lower left
and it also intersects the son's left wrist.

From a three quarter angle we can see that the same diagram appears to be working as
the center line drops down through the meeting place of chin and neck, then just above
the knee and dissects a little “s” configuration of folds at the base.

The diagonal to lower right crosses the nose and a highlight on the chin rests upon it.
The diagonal then proceeds to the knee and an edge of stone at the base.

The diagonal from lower left hits a point at the base where an angle of rock meets its
beginning. A small fold butts to it as the diagonal dissects a long arc of drapery at its center.
Below the thigh a small fold comes down to meet it before it passes a point where the leg
and drapery meet forming an upward triangular shape. A highlight rests on the line at the
knee and another highlight attaches itself below the line on the mother's left arm.

At the World's Fair, “The Pieta” was behind a glass wall and the viewers travelled
across a moving walkway from the left to the right. Behind the sculpture was a dark
curtain if I remember rightly and it was dramatically lit from overhead. The sculpture is
generally viewed as a frontal or lateral experience rather than a walk around as are
most sculptures. The view above is a slightly higher view than our first frontal view.
The horizontal line at center crosses a point where two pieces of cloth converge.
A series of horizontal highlights rests just above the line as it dissects the center and
the mother's middle and ring fingers touch the line, at right.

Note the center points of arcs, folds, shadows and highlights. Also note the ends of folds,
creases and joints which are used as a draftsman would attach them to structure lines as
Degas did in “Dancers on A Bench”, some 400 years later.

On the left vertical above, we catch the son's eye, edge of the elbow and pierce an arc
on the dress below it. The center line catches the edge of the mother's arm, also at
about the point of the line separating the thighs of the son and where his ankle meets
the dress. Our center line also dissects the mother's sandal at the bottom.

The diagonal from our top left pierces the center point of an arc of cloth on a shoulder,
the wrist of the son and a point at which the knee converges with the calf.

The diagonal rising to our right intersects the mother's wrist and a concave fold sits
upon it across from the son's lowered hand. The diagonal then intersects a long fold
at the bottom of the dress. Notice an accent of shadow under the son's thigh which
ends at the diagonal. The horizon line cuts across the top of the pelvis and an arc
of the loin cloth facing up towards a series of highlights descending down his chest.

The center point has now been dropped to the left. From this position there's just a whole
bunch of stuff going on. The diagonal from our lower left first touches an edge of cloth at the
perimeter of the sculpture, intersects the center line at the edge of the elbow, crosses the
mother's sash and touches her headpiece at her shoulder.

The center line catches a shadow under the son's lower lip, the tip of the mother's thumb,
From the center point below the forearm the center line drops to where two shadows of
cloth form an upward arrow. A fold just above it also butts the center line.

The upper right to lower left diagonal hits the piercing point of an arc of cloth flaring to our
left, runs parallel to the son's arm. In the lower right quadrant, the diagonal strikes through
the piercing point of a fold that descends and the edge of the mother's sandal.
The top horizontal line crosses between the top of mother's forehead and her head wear,
or veil.

Our center point has now been moved lower and to the right. The center line attaches to a
point where it meets the shadow of the cloth forming the upward arrow at the base. The
center line then catches the mother's pinky, the base of two fingernails and the edge of the
son's chin.

The diagonal to the upper right is attached to a highlight on the son's wrist, it then
pierces the center of some highlights on his side and catches the top of his abdomen.
It then crosses where his arm enters behind his abdomen and then proceeds across a
highlight on the mother's left breast.

The vertical at right meets a shadow where a ligament from thigh to the calf ends.

Above, a fold drops down on the center line from the mother's right shoulder and meets
a bending of another fold at the son's chest. The center line descends to intersect
between two fingers of the son and lines up with the edge of drapery at the bottom.

The diagonal moving up to the right sits on ledge of drapery in the lower left quadrant.
It then intersects the center point where his back meets some drapery of the dress. The
diagonal proceeds across the edge of the sash and through the mother's left shoulder.

The diagonal from top left to lower right, touches the edge of some curls of hair and
between crosses through two of the mother's fingers. It crosses the same center
between the son's back and drapery of the dress before center point before piercing
the seem of two circles of drapery at the bottom right.

As the center point is moved around, we see the same diagonals, verticals and

horizontal lines finding significant touch points being supported by the structure lines.

Moving the center point of the diagram to the wrist above, we catch a highlight and above

on the center line, the nipple on the son's chest and then very near the base of the neck.

Upon the diagonal rising to the right, sits a highlight on the mother's blouse. At its lower

left, it intersects a crease in a fold. A hole from a nail sits on the diagonal to the lower right.

In the version above, the left vertical cataches a highlight con the son's left arm and
the son's nose. The diagonal from the upper left corner attaches to the corner of the
son's mouth, the clavicle, the bend at the waist, a highlight of cloth protruding off the
mother's knee and the bottom back heel of the son's foot.

The center vertical meets the right side of a fold in the drapery at the base and
attached to it is a dark accent of shadow as we proceed upwards. The center line
then hits the same point at the mother's knee. A fold of cloth on the son's loin cloth
meets it below his left wrist. The line then catches the outer chest of the mother.

The top horizontal line crosses the son's nose and butts up against the bottom of
the mother's headwear at the center line.

A line of beauty, or S curve flows through the figure of the son both laterally from the
front and from this side view. The essence of a line of beauty is contemplative as it is
an uninterrupted movement through time and space, just as contemplation is uplifting
as an uninterrupted continuity of time.

We immediately notice the proportions of the son are fairly regular as opposed to
the heroic proportions used in the Sistine Chapel. The mother's shoulders and her
hand on our right appears larger than normal, yet not heroically large. We first notice
in this position of the center point, the diagonal that meets the upper edge of the son's
hand on our right and it proceeds to the point where the chin meets the neck.

At the center vertical, the mother's blouse meets a crease between the son's upper
and lower arm. A tip of folds under his wrist meet the center vertical line as well.

The position of the diagram has been moved left and upon the diagonal from the
lower left side are a pair of highlights on the son's abdomen. The diagonal then
supports a section of the clavicle and passes through the corner of a near right
angle where his hair and neck meet. Finally it supports the end of a fold just beyond
the mother's neck.

Upon the center horizontal sits a highlight and an accent of shadow further right, from
a crease on the mother's blouse. A fold of skin from the son's right armpit forms a line
to the horizontal line. A highlight sits just below the line on the outside edge of the arm.

The diagonal going to the right hand corner touches the son's fingertips and the
mother's pinky.

Moving the center point to a crease on the mother's blouse, it rises to meet a fold in
her head veil and below descends to meet an edge of the son's thumb.

The lower left diagonal meets an arrow shape of shadow off the son's thigh as the
loin clothe drops off near the lower left corner. It intersects a fold of skin at his waist
where a shadow meets light, crosses an edge where the pectoral muscle meets the
inner arm. As we move up and right, two folds, one from her veil and one from her
blouse converge upon the diagonal. The diagonal continues up meeting the end of
the veil as it folds back behind the mother's shoulders.

Moving the center point up a bit and to the left, we now have a center line which
drops off the mother's nose, through a crease on the mother's veil and meets the
edge of her top as is tucks between the fold of the son's arm.

The diagonal from the lower left meets the son's navel and nipple, the upper edge
of the mother's top and a fold in the veil.

With the center point at the outer shoulder, the center line now drops through the
navel and the diagonal from the lower left crosses the mother's eyes and meets a
crease in her veil.

The outer right vertical meets the inside of the son's thumb and the point at which
the mother's neck meets her chin.

The diagonal from the upper right to lower left intersects a crease of skin which
meets the inner arm and an accents on the folds under the son's hand.

The center vertical line now sits just above a crease tucked into it from below.
Above in the mother's veil it's met with the end of a crease of shadow. The
center line drops to the outer edge of the son's hand.

The left clavicle of the son rests supported by the center horizontal and his
right clavicle curves into the same horizontal line.

The diagonal from the lower left ends where the loin cloth meets his thigh and
cuts through a triangular shape as the diagonal moves just up and to the right.
It also catches the edges of folds of the cloth and the crease between his upper
and lower arm. Finally it hits a small fold on his mother's left shoulder.

We are now on the other side of “The Pieta”. The center vertical line is rising off
the edge of the son's mustache. It then rises and appears to meet that point at
which the mother's chin tucks behind her veil.

The center horizontal line intersects her lips and meets the end of a fold at the
center point and to our left, where veil meets the top of her shoulder.

The diagonal rising from the lower right crosses the son's forehead where his
hair drops back behind it, then rides up an edge of the veil and the edge of the
mother's eye. It continues up touching the edge of her veil.

Above, the center vertical line is moved only slightly to the right where it sits on
a crease in the veil and this brings the center horizontal line to support her head
at the bottom of her nose.

Michelangelo must have done a massive amount of preliminary work before
taking on this piece of marble. As you will see in the final images at above and
below, the diagram keeps on picking up the intents of design wherever it is placed.
The entire sculpture appears mapped out in a way that it is supported with
structure lines from every possible angle.

Dropping the center point just a bit reveals connections of structure such as
the chin and the fold in the veil to the left of the center line. Also, a highlight
sits on the diagonal crossing through son's left eye. The same diagonal catches
a shadow on the mother's cheek.

Here I will leave you to observe some other vantage points.

The diagonal from the lower left supports a highlight on the mother's cloak and veil.

The image above looks far more complicated than it actually is. What I've done is
connect horizontal points and vertical points. Each line represents two points of
connection, be they an accent of shadow, turn of cloth, crease, edge or center of an
object or shape. Looking at one line at a time is the way to observe the lines on this
image.

When a celebrity tragically passes away at a young age, many tweet their sympathies,
while others may quibble about the person's talent and all this is thoughtful, fair and
good, yet somewhere is that person's mother, who knew and loved that celebrity in a
way others can't possibly know. For centuries, a mother's love was understood to be the
primary source of love in any society. Hope springs eternal from the mother. With
exception of extreme cases, a mother's excesses, her doting worries, fears and attempts
to control all outcomes for her children must be forgiven because they are apart of the
sufferings of the flame of love.

Earlier this year, Benedict said something which I'll paraphrase here, he said the
crucifixion was a symbol of the vulnerability of the individual in the face of the crushing
power of the world. If such is true, then the suffering of all mothers is what is referred to
as collateral damage. As collateral damage it means the mother's sufferings are
insignificant because they are individual and not shared by the masses. A mother's
sufferings then warrant not even a footnote in history books. Yet we all have a mother.
What Michelangelo left for us was far more than a footnote, but an unequivocal work of
genius. He left a monument for all mothers. It's also a monument to people who haven't
forgotten where they came from and to a love that never ages.

If you're an art lover or history buff and have never been to Rome and the Vatican, it's a
trip you will never forget. A page of the Vatican Museums can be found here.

Some You Tube Videos provide other angles from which to get a closer look at “The
Pieta” here and here.

A number of replicas now exist in various cities and can their locations can be found on
the internet.

For more information on this remarkable work of art see Wikipedia and St. Peter's Basilica.org

Please leave a comment if you care to.
Comments with profanities will be removed.
Sean Farrell ©2011

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Charles Dana Gibson, 1901, Everything in the World That Money Can Buy

2011-07-10T02:51:00.000-04:00

Another use of structure lines is in the letter forms used in compositions. The use of
letters as compositional structures evolved out of the medieval manuscripts.

The letter forms don't have to be anchored to other structure lines supporting a picture.
They can also be skewed, flopped, cropped and turned upside down.

In this drawing by Charles Dana Gibson, there appears to be several letter forms holding
together a separated couple with the husband gesturing across a horizontal format. All the
action in this picture moves from left to right with the light also moving in the same
direction. The table acts as a kind of second tail to the woman and we would exit right out
of the picture but for an empty space around the woman’s face, which is a curved arrow
arching up and around her face and back into the picture.

I couldn't determine the exact bottom of this image and so the anchor points might not

be as perfect as I had hoped, but most of it is close enough to determine intention.

The first diagonal establishes a point at the bottom of the chair on our left and catches

the corner of a vase on the way to the top of the woman's hair. The second diagonal

from the upper left to the lower right establishes points at the shoulder of the man,

corner of a decorative vase below his arm, a corner of the underside of the table

where it intersects the other diagonal and creates the center point. The center line

dissects the mantle and the side of a leg of the table.

A horizontal line through the center point sits on a long line underneath the table top and
catches the bottom of the man's jacket.

The two halves of the picture now have diagonals which will be used to determine the center
points in each half with the addition of another set of diagonals added below.

We can really start seeing just how many of the pieces of the image are anchored to structure
lines, uniting the background and the foreground as well. The diagonal added in the left half
runs through a decorative edge on the leg of a chair, a line delineating the inside of the man's
right leg and the crease of the upper and lower arm, also an edge of a decorative column. The
diagonal on the right intersects a point where the dress meets and edge of the table, follows
some ink stokes of her shoulder and upon an edge of her eyebrow.

Now three verticals are established upon which the W is formed below.

A leg of the W on the left, touches the man's right arm and a fold at the lower right leg. Moving
up the second line of the W, it crosses the top of his left shoe, center of the decorative vase,
wrist and edge of an arc above what appears to be a clock on the mantle. The third line of the
W catches the arc on the other side and the edge of a picture frame. The fourth line of the W
touches the woman's knuckle and across the line designating the back of her hand.

Turning the W upside gives us an M and the M also attaches itself to points of significance and
is part of the overall design.

Initially, without having gone through the piece closely, I read this image off a false center the

artist created with the finger and a piece in the fireplace. As compositional devises, the letter

forms aren't required to follow exactness of proportion, that is, the legs of the W don't have

to possess identical parts and can be shifted. Though as structure lines, they do need to attach

to edges, or dissect significant points to be established. In some compositions, the letter forms

are not made up of structure lines but represent areas, as the parts of the letter are thicker

representing wider areas of space upon which parts are placed.

Note the artist has a white space on the right side of the false center line just ahead of the finger

and this white shape is also a pointer, a kind of continuation of the finger.

An excellent collection of Charles Dana Gibson Drawings is available from Dover Books here.

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Giorgio Morandi

2011-06-08T02:06:00.000-04:00

Still Life (Natura morta), 1956

Oil on canvas; 11 7/8 x 17 3/4 in. (30 x 45 cm)

Museo Morandi, Bologna

Giorgio Morandi (Italian, 1890–1964)

If intimacy can bring one to the doorstep of the mystical, then the paintings of Morandi are

as fine an example as can be found in art.

Morandi's little paintings of bottle have been described as humble, intimate, disarmingly

simple, gentle, lyrical, of classical order, compositionally balanced, quiet, of contemplative

repose, exalted in execution and even empathetic, (see link below). Morandi is himself

described on Wikipedia as having been of noble background, optimistic and enigmatic. He was

an artist of both modern and medievalist sensibilities, an admirer of Cezanne and several early

renaissance artists including Giotto.

Fluffy descriptions of Morandi's paintings they are not, for Morandi's paintings engender a

highly civilized sense of being in the viewer which is quite real and can be described as

possessing the very same qualities used to describe his paintings. If your education included the

notion that life in the early renaissance, or that of the early western mind was dismissible and of

nothing more than preoccupied with superstition, then Morandi is the artist to prove you missed

a big part of the story. Morandi's work brings one to an interior disposition which was a deep

part of western mysticism and contemplation, not that it encompasses all of it, but the very

descriptions applied to Morandi's paintings were once considered highly prized human virtues

and a measure of a person's self possession, even up until the late 19th century.

In “Dancers on a Bench” by Degas, we saw how movement was supported and anchored to

the picture plane with the use of structure lines. In Morandi, we see the opposite, we see how

still life painting is rendered even more still by the same structure lines, along with a limited

palette of halftones or an absence of direct light, leaving just the slightest variations of tinted

color, shapes and edges to dance, shimmer and quiver as if alive.

Below are some of the structure lines bringing order to the painting.

The center line is going to play a major part in the composition, but the diagonals establish

nothing other than the center line.

A pair of verticals form a kind of tryptic altarpiece. The folds don't really reach to the

center as they would in an altarpiece, 2/3rds ratio or golden rectangle. The line at

right is not established yet at two points, but let's assume for the moment that it will

be established later.

A horizontal line is established off the back of the table on the left side to the

edge of a cylinder right of the center line.

The X in this box is established by its diagonals intersecting center points of arcs,

bottles and also the edge of the white bottle at right. Although there is no mark at

the top of the right vertical, the intersecting diagonal and horizontal does

appear to establish the vertical previously assumed.

A diagonal is established from the top of the center line to the edge of the white bottle

and to the back of the table on our right.

A pair of perspective lines are anchored at the top of the center line with the lower one

intersecting the center of a side on the yellow bottle.

The bottom of a beautiful triangle is established off a line running across the top of the

yellow bottle and intersecting joints on the white bottle at right. It hangs from the top

center point as well as sitting on the horizontal, which also happens to run through

the center point of the smaller X established in the box of structure lines we saw a

few images earlier.

With many thematic artists, to see one of their pieces is to see them all. With Morandi

to see many of his works at a large show is to better understand one of them. For with

Morandi, the very slightest of changes in earth tones, here tinted red, there tinted blue

and often colors that defy easy definition, causes such sensitivity to the viewer's eyes

that upon leaving a show of Morandi's work, colors pop out of places one would never

have noticed, yellows and pinks in concrete, etc. It is no doubt a residual effect of

viewing a number of Morandis together. But even if a large show has but one Morandi,

its power to arrest an entire room is undeniable.

On the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Morandi is described

as one of the greatest painters of the 20th century.

At the following link is a post called The Origins of Empathy in Art, in which the writer

credits a little known German concept from the late 19th century for what so many

experience standing before a Morandi. I really didn't know what to make of this, but

then thought about the almost flesh like earth tones and little groupings mentioned

and wondered, cold there be something to it? It's a thought worth consideration.

However, Morandi connects the modern viewer with an orderly interior experience,

a state of being he must have been well acquainted with, one that was once

known to many in the tradition of western contemplative life, but has since become

something of a lost secret, even a complete mystery to modern people.

See more Images from the 2008 Show at the Metropolitan Museum, NY

Giorgio Morandi at Wikipedia

View a Google search of Giorgio Morandi images.

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Dancers On A Bench, c. 1898, Degas, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum

2011-05-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

One evening a friend pointed to a storefront in NYC with a heavy curtain and a small sign

in the right hand corner with a picture of the sun. He explained to me as the sign was in

a foreign language, that it stated that it was a place of meeting for a group who

worshipped the sun, as in actually worshipped the sun. As well, people vacation where

the warmth of the sun and light lend their disarming effects. Stories also abound of near

death experiences describing a place drenched in light and then there's the extraordinary

You Tube video of the lights at Assuit, Egypt. Is our attraction to light primordial, spiritual
or simply that which gives variance to all things, rendering the ordinary and inanimate
somehow alive and beautiful? Our desire for an answer may never suffice but to explain
what light is and not why it has such an effect on one's spirits and why people find such
delight in it. Perhaps we must accept its visual power of attraction simply as a given.

Light is the first we thing we notice among purely visual elements. We will gravitate to

a face before other things in a picture due to its content unless measures are taken to

redirect us elsewhere, yet light has a similar effect and ranks second only to the human

being in attractiveness. Degas was aware of both and in “Dancer's on a Bench” he

uses both elements as compositional devises to create movement.

By placing the standing girl's head in shadow, its power is subordinated to that of the

light and a lack of details on the girl's face sends us onward where we follow a black

accent down her shoulder and into the figures on the bench. We are initially attracted to

the light coming in through a curtain behind the standing figure and then cascade down

a succession of dancers bobbing down, then up, then down, from back to front. The face

of the fourth dancer is not drawn in so we don't get caught up there either but follow her

arm to her slipper which is dissected by the diagonal line. We then return with the light,

but this time ride all the way back up the diagonal to the upper left corner and discover

a second curtain with light we first overlooked. Given there isn't much to look at in the

light, we then hop over to the point of highest contrast where we repeat the circulation.

The structure lines supporting the composition are as follows; the first is the horizon

line touching the top of the fan and crossing the eye of the standing dancer.

The diagonal is an invisible line suspended from the corner arrows and thus moves both

ways. It doesn't exist until things are placed on it, as in touching it or, intersected as is

the slipper on our lower right . Note below, the light falling one one side of the diagonal
forming a light side of the slipper which butts the diagonal line. The second dancer left is

attached to the line at the forward shoulder and Degas has accented her waist with a

dark line going up to and stopping at the diagonal.

The center line is pivotal in any picture as it divides the picture into two equal parts.

Degas has attached the inner corner of the leg of the bench and ankle and chin of a

dancer to form the invisible line.

In this diagram we can see some of the connecting structural lines forming direction.

Interesting is the use of an arrow formed with the tail of the dress of the second dancer

and top of the standing dancer's arm from her eye to the top of the second dancers bun,

marked A. This arrow counters the movement of the standing dancer looking to our left.

Another interesting arrow, marked B, is one formed from the back of the foot of our

second dancer to her first finger resting on the line and outer wrist. The arrow aids the

returning movement up the diagonal. Also note the black accent underlining the left

breast attaches itself to the vertical line on our right and stops at the line.

Four additional vertical lines formed by accents and edges of shapes are shown above.

Line A drops from a vertical line of the wall to the back of the slipper of the standing

dancer. Line B is formed by an accent on the inner slipper, the shoulder meeting the

biceps, the back of the top of the dress and frill on the standing dancer as well as her

inner arm. Line C is formed by the inner slipper, center of breasts and back of the

dancer's hair. Line D aligns the back of an ear to a point where the foot enters the

slipper and ankle. Notice the black accent of the ribs meeting the line above the breast.

Several other structure lines of note, even though they aren't vertical, horizontal or on

the diagonals. A is a line connecting the chin and corner of the wall and runs along edge

of the fan. Line B, is one that dissects an arrow moving right and is marked at the
following points; the eye of third dancer, under the nose of the second dancer and runs
through and through the center of the back of the arm where a thick line tapers into
a light line at the center point. I've extended the line to the back of the dress, but the marks
in the dress butting the line are quite faint. The line ends at what appears to be a very
faint vertical line which may be a line of a grid underneath. It may be stretch to extend
the line to this point at the back of the dress, but it does show the power of the acute
arrows created from the larger and slower moving arrow. As well, line C is one that
is also driving and acute and unites the girl in the background with the foreground.

Along with the back and forth movement of light and a diagonal suspension line, the

standing dancer's head forms a counterpoint or counter arrow along with the returning

movement of light, even though the standing dancer is clearly part the whole group of

dancers moving right. C forms a rightward moving arrow from the standing dancer’s

head to the left foot of the bending dancer on our right. Line C intersects some
established points along the way, the top of the second dancer's head, her nose. Line C
also intersects the bottom left to top right diagonal at the edge of the arm of the third
dancer from our left and forms an X, which pins the figure to the picture plane.

There are other things regarding the mentioned lines to discover in the pastel drawing.
As well, the arc of the fan and color orange have not been commented upon, yet they
are playing a role in this beautiful tumbling and returning composition. Certain lines
are formed by the rhythms of the body naturally, but for lines B and C, the lines
highlighted in this post were accentuated in a manner leaving little doubt they were
intentionally formed. As one studies Degas, they discover he was an artist who left far
less to chance than his relaxed subjects, their movement, or his drawing and use of
medium would lead one to believe.

View Dancers on a Bench at the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum

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draft

Reclining Woman in Fur Trimmed Robe, 1927 Jules Pascin

2011-05-06T10:57:00.000-04:00

Leslie Sacks Fine Art

Pascin seems to have had an uncanny understanding of the human condition as an
inherent vulnerability which may animate or inhibit the human personality. I can't say he
understood it exactly as such but, his drawings were done with a sensitivity to subject
and tender observation, not often associated with men enthusiastically given to what
used to be called the dissolute life. Yet this drawing as well as Pascin's portrayals of his
wife Hermine possess a rare unsentimental dignity. In the manner stated above, he
seemed acutely aware of his subjects. Indeed, the subjects of Pascin's work were
individual people.

The figure rests on a diagonal and truncated triangle. The head is turned away and differs
from some of Pascin's more popular direct portraits. The open treatment of head and
torso reflects the lesser gravity above the center horizontal line and a volume of space
allows for her gaze. A series of movements are captured in the floating contour of her
right cheek and chin. The line designates the momentum entering the face from opening
on the right and from the interior converging shape her chest. The line of the cleavage
also acts pointer from below. The movement of this shape traverses a very soft shadow
below the jaw to the floating contour and her gaze. The space on the subject's left
shoulder allows room for the head to turn and a sweep of hair on her forehead counters
the movement of her head. The fur trim is drawn as a pattern of scribbles on the surface
of the picture plane and recede into their proper visual space only because we understand
what these scribbles represent, not because they much look like fur.

As we move down and turn with the hip into the upper thigh, the drawing takes on an
amazing sense of volume as three lines of distinct weight create the shape of the thighs;
capturing light, shadow, weight, downward movement and surface qualities of flesh.
Intimacy and movement are furthered as the knees caress, with the lower wrapping itself
around a turn into a stocking. The calves are joined with the omission of the line which
would have separated them and movement comes to a rest on a line slightly arching
upwards. The tail of the robe is a beautiful arc and arching shape driving upward as well
as falling away. The shoes act as a tail rather than pointer. A combination of brilliant
observation and spontaneous indifference makes this a ceaselessly enjoyable drawing.

In historical context, the 20th century was a collection of “isms” promising to solve the
difficulties of life for all. From this century of self confident tragedies, we entered the 21st
century with many asserting that we are but a collection of molecules in search of
endorphins. Such makes Pascin's compassionate and sensitive observations in
“Reclining Woman in Fur Trimmed Robe” no less salient than they were in 1927, on
the eve of economic collapse and yet more senseless ambition and inhumanity.
If sensitivity and vulnerability are fundamental in the human foundation, then the
drawing is a kind of reminder that when we wander off in heady ambition, we are
leaving behind an inescapably true part of ourselves and perhaps the best part, which
we are poor without and must rediscover again and again.

“Reclining Woman in Fur Trimmed Robe” enters into the realm of poetry and is a
remarkable drawing. This master drawing would be quite at home next to the two
wonderful paintings by Pascin hanging at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY.

The drawing is available at Leslie Sacks Fine Art which is host to exceptional work of
other master artists. It is a site well worth visiting and adding as a bookmark:
http://lesliesacks.com/artists/jules-pascin/art/reclining_woman_in_fur_trimmed_robe_1927

Jules PASCIN (1885-1930)

Reclining Woman in Fur, painted in Paris, 1927

28 ¾ x 23 5/8 inches (73 x 60 cm)

Oil and pencil on board laid down on panel

Stamped with signature Pascin lower right (Lugt 2014a)

PASC907

Provenance

Estate of the Artist Galerie de l’Elysee (Alex Maguy), Paris Anon.

Sale Christies N.Y., 5-11-89, lot 307

Perls Galleries, N.Y. (acquired at the above sale)

Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York Private Collection

Literature

Y. Hemin, G. Krohg, K. Perls, A. Rambert, Pascin, Catalogue raisonne peintures, aquarelles, pastels, dessins, Paris 1984, vol. I, p. 308, no. 607 (illustrated)

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Singer With Glove, 1878, Degas, Fogg Art Museum

2011-05-02T20:58:00.000-04:00

In general, we only need one strong element to make a picture clear and perhaps we
can strengthen it with a second element, such as adding contrast to a head. But in
“Singer with Glove”, Degas is playing with a bundle of the strongest of visual elements.
The most obvious three are, the contrast of the black glove against light, the human
head and the red stripe against its complimentary green. The battle for our attention
causes a lateral movement between the three elements. The center line is key as it adds
extra strength to the glove over the other two elements.

A pyramid pattern aids the upward drive of the theatrical light as it moves to the glove.
Degas is also playing the hard edge of the glove off the softer edges. The hard edge
brings the glove to the foreground as the softer edges recede. The hard edge is also a
point of focus and gives the fur and woman’s face a sense of movement as in a blur of
movement. As the woman’s face curves and transitions into shadow, we accept that it’s
falling into the black of the background. The background looks awfully deep, yet it’s
the same tone as the glove in the foreground. It’s a depth of field play using our
understanding of space.

Singer with Glove involves the hierarchal ordering of powerful visual elements.
Below is a list of how they rank in this picture.

1. Black and white contrast, or our attraction to light is the strongest purely visual
   element.
2. The human head takes dominion over light and contrast which by itself lacks sufficient
   interest to hold our attention.
3. The center line is a power point on the picture plane and gives strength to anything on
   or attached to it.
4. The color red ranks fourth in this group even with the help of its complimentary green.
5. The initial upward movement of light is noticed on the face, but on the arm is seen only
   after the previous elements have been observed.
6. The Pyramid pattern, or directional arrow ranks in the sixth position of this picture.
7. A single sharp edge against a field of softer edges, glove and fur.
9. The downward return to the light’s source.

Of course, the order can be altered by arrangement and proportion as we’ll see in other
pictures, but this beautiful and extraordinary work is a clinic on how Degas handled
contrasting visual elements.

In nature, or a world of greens and blues we do see the color red first, but as Rembrandt
noticed the eye goes to the point of highest contrast. In the Singer with Glove, Degas has
tipped the scale in favor of contrast by adding the powerful element of placement on the
center line to its advantage.

I remember a b+w film in art school whose subject was film itself. The film strobed
between black and white frames and had lots of black scratches which flickered over the
white frames. At one point I started seeing red spots and asked the teacher if they were
in the film and was told they weren't. I can only conclude that there's something
equivalent between the color red and black and white contrast.

Degas was aware of the near equivalent powers of contrast and the color red. In
many of his pictures he would combine the two using red against black resulting
in the most vivid reds anybody has ever painted. Degas also painted red against muted
colors to create similar blasts of color.

One of the things that made Degas’ art so dynamic was his ability to use strong visual
elements which challenged the picture’s subject without defeating it. Degas is
demonstrating here an intimate understanding of a hierarchal ordering of the strongest
visual elements, but also the underlying structure of the picture plane upon which
elements are placed and together he's created an incredible sense of order out of
elements which would wind up a mess in lesser hands.

©2011 Sean Farrell

View image (Chanteuse de Cafe) at the Fogg Art Museum

Interesting posts on contrast can be found at Illustration Art, here and here.

A good post on depth and edges can be found at Gurney Journey.

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