Unified art theory

I found this  image on-line recently.
My definition of art being any visually enjoyable image, this is an art work in my everyday life.
The original sculpture which is very likely to exist somewhere at this moment is as remote as a galaxy.
Art exists at the moment of seeing it.

The replica of this sculpture is the same as the original in appearance: the original work minus originality is the replica.
A free size model in any material can be made, which I call solid model.
From the model many single views can be made.
The Arp sculpture becomes reproductions, which I call flat model.
The digital image above belongs to this model.

The first prints in Western art history were produced as the reproduction of painting for public
and the oldest masterpieces of Chinese calligraphy exist only as copy.
They are considered to be art work.
Digital work is this century's reproduction and is art.

The flat model has colour and texture impression.
This model minus colour is black and white colour model.
The texture impression becomes small structure of its own as a roof can be covered with tiles.
Subtracting the tone from this model the design appears.
Now we reached what Vasari said in sixteenth century: design is the basis of all the art.

These lithographs below by Picasso belong to the same series which shows that abstract process happened within iconic level.

In the right one we can recognize a head, two horns, a body, four legs, a tail, and a male organ.
The elements of the shape are clearly recognizable: it consists of eight lines and three loops.

there are some good examples of art with totally definable geometrical characteristics in art history: Tangram; Ancient Roman letter design.

According to Wikipedia,
"The tangram is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes.
The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape using all seven pieces, which may not overlap."
They say there are over six thousand five hundred shapes in the books published in nineteenth century.
It means that people in general can distinguish thousands of shapes easily and enjoy each of them.
I call this ability proto visual grammar.
this ability appeared as another pastime in Renaissance.

"The idea of geometrically rationalizing ancient Roman inscriptions became something of a pastime with Renaissance scholars. ....even Albrecht Durer published treatises on the subject, and the idea has been pursued, with varying amounts of success,
by artists and typographers ever since." (Wikipedia)

There is no art history but applied art history.
Pure art appeared occasionally when real artist among applied artists became aware of formal problem.
Serialists in music were very conscious of the significance of formal sound structure.
"In serialism the order of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale is determined pre-compositionally. The pitch rows are usually not repeated until the entire row has been played. However, pitches or a group of pitches can be repeated in succession. Total serialism extends the concept of serialism to rhythms, dynamics, tempos, meters and other non-pitch elements."
(Wikipedia)

Though some artists like Moholy-Nagy, Mondrian, Doesburg, Herbin, Max Bill used the formal method they were not aware of  using the same universal grammar which is like musical grammar.

Moholy-Nagy left the comment:
"In 1922, I ordered by telephone from a sign factory 5 paintings in porcelain enamel. I had the factory's colour chart before me and I sketched my paintings on graph paper. At the other end of the telephone, the factory supervisor had the same kind of paper, divided into squares. He took down the dictated shapes in the correct position. ...."(Experiment in totality)

Design with definably quantified geometrical characteristics belongs to perfect design model.
Let me start with an simple design: an ancient letter B; the type of B with two triangles attached on the right side of vertical line.

We need a line with certain thickness to draw any shape.
So I call it borrowed thickness.
All the visible geometrical characteristics are predetermined quantitatively and each characteristic is recognizable separately.
Removing one characteristic each time from the perfect design, we can conceive of the other models.

The proportion of the two triangles can be changed(proportion free model).

To recognize as B, the relative size of the two triangles should not be so different(partially proportion-free model).

The angles of the triangles can be various as long as the one side of the two triangles is aligned(partially angle-free model).

When all the angles are free the B-likeness disappears(angle free model).

A line can be curved like these:

I call this characteristic curved-ness.



These belong to the same group(curved-ness free model).

Tangram shapes are made of convexo-concave lines.

This puzzle suggests that convexo-cavity is essential to represent shape-likeness.

Without the smoothness of line, the shape can be drawn with shaky line or dotted line( smooth line free model =shape model).

Many artists used this type of line without sharpness, avoiding smooth line. Arp's relief with string is a good example.
Tapestry line and digital line are this type too.

The similarity of a triangle and a circle is being shape with no concave.
If a triangle is called a three sided polygon a circle can be called infinitely-sided polygon. These two belong to the same type of concave model.


Making a letter B with string on a sheet of paper, shake the paper a little.

It is no more readable as B but may look like two loops attached at a point.
The loops have  concavity( concave model).

Shaking further the loops loose tension and become loose strings attached at a point(string model).

Now there are seven models as total:
   Perfect model = Proportioned model
   Proportion-free model = Angled model
   Angle-free model =Curved-ness model
   Curved-ness-free model = Smooth line model
   Smooth line-free model = Shape model
   Shape-free model = Concave model
   Concave-free model = String model
Any design has these models and each model transformable to the next.
The transformation is reversible, starting from String model to Proportioned model.
The same idea can be expressed as diagram in two ways:

The ideas in my old blogs can be expressed as diagrams too.

Fine art is a sort of applied art.
Applied art is a sort of artefact
Artefact is a sort of natural object.

I see a bird drawing by Picasso(Art of code).
The bird looks like a white dove which is a symbol of peace( Art of symbol).
Without such knowledge it is still a bird(Art of icon).
With paying no attention on the semiotic content, I see the lines of the drawing(Art of form).

    Imagination is the faculty based on cognition.
    Cognition is based on perception.
    Perception is based on sense.
    To appreciate art formally only sense is necessary.

Each faculty makes its own world.
Sense makes art.
Perception makes physical world.
cognition makes real world.
imagination makes literature and religion.

C.S. Peirs says ethics is based on logic and logic is based on aesthetics.
I think aesthetics is based on visual grammar and visual grammar is based on sense.

Now I am ready to start establishing visual grammar.