Principles of Design

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Principles of Design
Some
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PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
Some
REPETITION VARIATIONCONTRAST BALANCE
symmetry/asymmetry EMPHASIS - accent ECONOMY
PROPORTION SCALE
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Repetition in Art
Creates visual rhythm ///////////////////////////
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Rhyme in poetry
The world is too much with us late and
soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our
powers Little we see in Nature that is ours We
have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This
Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds
that will be howling at all hours, And are
up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, For this,
for everything, we are out of tune It moves us
not.--Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in
a creed outworn So might I, standing on this
pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me
less forlorn Have sight of Proteus rising from
the sea Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed
horn.
William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with
Us (1807)
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Alliteration assonance in poetry
TO THE STONE-CUTTERS  Stone-cutters fighting time
with marble, you foredefeated Challengers of
oblivion Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock
splits, records fall down, The square-limbed
Roman letters Scale in the thaws, wear in the
rain. The poet as well Builds his monument
mockingly For man will be blotted out, the
blithe earth die, the brave sun Die blind and
blacken to the heart Yet stones have stood for a
thousand years, and pained thoughts found The
honey of peace in old poems. Robinson
Jeffers, 1924
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Andy Warhol, Orange Disaster No. 5, 1963
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Eadweard Muybridge, photographer
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Some repetition in music
PHILIP GLASS EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH (an opera)
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Monet Poplars . . .
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Monet Poplars . . .
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Monet Poplars . . .
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Charles Demuth, The Figure 5 in Gold, 1928
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Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned, 1280-90
TEXTBOOK p. 185
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VARIATIONthe alliance between repetition and
surprise
The extensive poem, moreover, satisfies another
two-fold requirement, one that is closely related
to the rule of variety within unity repetition
and surprise. Repetition is a cardinal principal
in poetry. Meter and its accents, rhyme, the
epithets in Homer and other poets, phrases and
incidents that recur like musical motifs and
serve as signs to emphasize continuity. At the
other extreme are breaks, changes, inventions -
in a word, the unexpected. What we call
development is merely the alliance between
repetition and surprise, recurrence and
invention, continuity and interruption. Octavio
Paz, Telling and Singing in The Other Voice
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The Four Evangelists, from the Gospel Book of
Charlemagne, early 9th century
TEXTBOOK p. 135
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dancers
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CAILLEBOTTE, GustaveParis A Rainy D ay, 1877,
Oil on canvas, 83 1/2 x 108 3/4"
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CONTRAST
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Martin MunkacsiBlack Boys on the Shore of Lake
Tanganyika(1931) photograph
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Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace (detail)Japan,
Kamakura period, second half of the 13th
CenturyHandscroll ink and color on paper16 1/4
x 275 1/2 in.
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David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with
Two Figures), 1971
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Contrasts Oppositions in Hockneys Portrait of
an Artist

• Diagonal/horizontal
• Straight/curved lines
• Air/water/Earth fire?
• Natural/artificial
• Clothed/(nearly) naked
• Tint/shade (light/shadow)
• colors

What is the psychological relationship between
the two men? Which of them is the artist in
the title? Is it two sides of one person, the
artist?
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Degas Waiting
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Contrasts in Degass Waiting (1882, pastel)
WHITE BLACK COLOR NO COLOR OPEN
CLOSED YOUNG OLD PERFORMER SUPPORTER BUSY
EMPTY INWARD GAZE OUTWARD GAZE
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TWO GIRLS FISHINGJohn Singer Sargent, 1912
(American, b.1856, d.1925) 22 x 28 1/4 in. (55.9
x 71.8 cm) 
organizational contrast just variation?
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organizational contrast A and Not A EMOTIONAL
CONTRAST A in tension with Not A A in conflict
and struggle with Not A A completed by Not A A
united with Not A A in harmony with Not A
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Rogier van der WeydenNetherlandish, 1399/1400 -
1464Portrait of a Lady, c. 1460oil on panel,
painted surface 34 x 25.5 cm (13 3/8 x 10 1/16
in.) panel 37 x 27 cm (14 1/16 x 10 5/8 in.)
Broad, plain areas contrast with tangle of fingers
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Winslow HomerAmerican, 1836 - 1910Right and
Left, 1909oil on canvas, 71.8 x 122.9 cm (28 1/4
x 48 3/8 in.)
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James McNeill WhistlerAmerican, 1834 -
1903Symphony in White, No. 1 The White Girl
1862oil on canvas, 213 x 107.9 cm (83 7/8 x 42
1/2 in.)
White-on-white,but what animal nature lurks?
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John Singer SargentAmerican, 1856 -
1925Nonchaloir (Repose), 1911oil on canvas,
63.8 x 76.2 cm (25 1/8 x 30 in.)
Appropriate clothes?
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Gilbert StuartAmerican, 1755 - 1828The Skater
(Portrait of William Grant), 1782oil on canvas,
245.5 x 147.4 cm (96 1/4 x 58 in.)
Stately, stable figure on skates!
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BALANCE
BALANCE
asymmetry
symmetry
E Q U I L I B R I U M
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Leonardo da Vinci, Proportions of the Human
Figure (Vitruvian Man)
TEXTBOOK p. 192
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Shiva, bronze temple sculpture, Chola Era
(9th-13th C.), South India
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DurerDancing Peasants1514
BALANCE
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Master of the Saint Lucy LegendBruges, active c.
1480 - c. 1510Mary, Queen of Heaven, c.
1485/1500oil on panel, painted surface 199.2 x
161.8 cm (78 7/16 x 63 3/4 in.)
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Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939
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Alfred Sisley, The Chemin de By through Woods at
Roches-Courtaut, St. Martin's Summer, 1880
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Assymetical balance?
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Assymetical balance?
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H. H. Richardson 1880-1883Crane Memorial Public
LibraryQuincy, Massachusetts
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Assymetical balancein music?
A concerto sets a soloist or small group of
soloists against an orchestra
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EMPHASIS
accent
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David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with
Two Figures), 1971
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Andy Warhol, Orange Disaster No. 5, 1963
not a good example of EMPHASIS
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ECONOMY
limitation of a composition to a few essential
elements usually a voluntary constraint that is
part of the creative process SPECIFIC TO AN
INDIVIDUAL WORK, NOT THE GENRE , TYPE OR MEDIUM
Examples in music deriving everything from a
single theme (musical idea), limiting the number
of pitches, type of instrument, etc. Steve
Reich, Music for Pieces of Wood, Clapping Music,
or other pieces DC Meckler, Bliss (1999) Morton
Feldman, Three Voices (1982)
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Picasso, Femme
ECONOMY very little suggests a lot
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Picasso, Guernica, 1937
p. 410
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PROPORTION
PROPORTION
PROPORTION
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Leonardo The Last Supper, 1498
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Diego Rivera, The Flower Carrier, 1935, 48x48 in.
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Joseph Mallord William TurnerBritish, 17751851.
Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead
and Dying, Typhoon Coming On), 1840Oil on
canvas, 35 3/4 x 48 1/4 in.
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Shahn, Ben, Vacant Lot, 1939Watercolor and
gouache on paper mounted on plywood panel, 19 x
23 in
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Carlo CrivelliVenetian, c. 1430/1435 -
1495Madonna and Child Enthroned with Donor,
1470tempera on panel, painted surface 125.3 x
50.7 cm (49 5/16 x 19 15/16 in.) including
unpainted margins 129.5 x 54.4 cm (51 x 21 7/16
in.)
donor
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Proportion in music
A matter of time, usually lots of time. Example
3 Beethoven string quartets (Op 59, 1, 2 3).
Each in 4 movements. No. 1 BIG 1st mvt No. 2
nervous 1st mvt, BIG 2nd mvt No. 3 BIG finale
(4th mvt)
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SCALE
SCALE - the size of a work compared to the
environment miniature, human, monumental. The
term can also apply to musical works, although it
has an entirely different meaning than musical
scale. (A symphony is a large-scale musical
work when compared to a song.)
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Claes Oldenburg, Knife Ship I, 1985
Vinyl-covered wood, steel, and aluminum with
motors, dimensions variable, maximum height 31
feet 8 inches x 40 feet 5 inches x 31 feet 6
inches.
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Miniature
Leaf from Futuh al-Haramain (Description of the
Two Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina), mid-16th
century Ottoman, 8x5 in.
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a bit bigger . . .
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Some examples of time scales in music
Less than a minute - Miniatures Chopin, Webern,
Schoenberg Pop songs 3-6 minutes Early
symphonies 25-35 minutes Later symphonies 45
min - 1 hr Longest Mahler 1 ½ hrs Short opera
2 hours Average opera 3-4 hours (including
intermissions) Long opera 5 hours Longest
traditional opera Wagners RING 18 hours
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Robert Motherwell, Elegy for the Spanish
Revolution No. 34, 1953-54
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Georgia OKeefe on scale flowers
Nobody sees a flowerreallyit is so smallwe
havent timeand to see it takes time, like to
have a friend takes time. . . . So I said to
myselfIll paint what I seewhat the flower is
to mebut Ill paint it big. . . . I will make
even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see
of flowers.
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Geogia O'KeeffeAmerican, 18871986, White Rose
with Larkspur, No. 2, 1927, Oil on canvas 40 x
30 in.
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Geogia O'KeeffeJimson Weed 70x84 in
Scale has to do with the size of the work itself
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PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
Some
REPETITION VARIATIONCONTRAST BALANCE
symmetry/asymmetry EMPHASIS - accent ECONOMY
PROPORTION SCALE
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George BellowsAmerican, 1882 - 1925Both Members
of This Club, 1909oil on canvas, 115 x 160.5 cm
(45 1/4 x 63 1/8 in.)