Structural Attributes of the image in Painting

Abstract

Abstract In the process of conceiving and achieving a work of art, a certain aspiration for order in the plastic image manifests itself discreetly and continuously, like a constitutive archetypal landmark, which may otherwise be found in all the biological processes that define any living organism. The problem of distributing forms in a plastic image is a challenge to which artists have found multiple solutions, from among which highlighted here is the internal construction known as the compositional frame. However, painting does not simply imply a plane surface. The suggestion of depth is achieved by means of geometry, of perspective and, via shadow and light, the area of the painting may be “curved”, modelled, thus completing the plastic arsenal which finally leads to the art of illusion. The forms in the painting, thus becoming “volume”, gain in weight and are embedded in its frame, turning into “masses” and inducing the sensation of visual “balance” or “unbalance”. Andre Lhote may be quoted in support of this argument. In one of his letters, he declares that “composition is the organization of analogies the whole is nothing but a science of compensating the masses” (1971, p. 120). Nevertheless, in the chronological enchaining of tendencies in painting, as the science of composition is no longer observed, the role attributed to instinct increases constantly. In contemporary art, each of these modes of composition is re- evaluated by each individual artist.