What is common in these images?
All of these images are made of curves and straight lines.
Each line can be seen as a chain of different curves like a melody.
We have ability to distinguish the degree of curvature, though we may not exactly see the division of each curve.
The visibly smallest part is a curve of the same curvature and this can be enclosed with a rectangle on grid, which is like a musical note.
When the same work is made repeatedly for practical purpose, the shape line becomes smooth.
And usually the design becomes simpler, which means that the shape is made of smaller number of units.
Each line becomes a chain of simple curves like a melody with pure sounds of instrumental music.
A typical example is Matisse's two paintings called [dance]; Dance Ⅱ has more smooth lines than Dance Ⅰ.
The contour of each apple in this Cezanne's still life is almost a chain of arches, each of which was enclosed by a rectangle on grid.
How only Cezanne could see the unit curves is his way of seeing.
It is said that he watched the motif until the apples became rotten.
To see the same thing all the time means that he neglected ever-changing natural lighting: shade and colour.
What he saw all the time is the shape.
Cezanne's oil painting of still life is the evidence of his way of seeing the object.
And his drawing is the result of his understanding about art.
Each of Picasso's early Cubist painting was the experiment to examine the unique structure of Cezanne painting.
Picasso eventually succeeded to invent Cubist method: the composition with curves and straight lines.
These three works show his stages of understanding what art is.
The individual work must be analysed for proper understanding of his idea.
He deducted unessential factors from his painting little by little.
In the first painting, what he eliminated are chromatic colours and naturalistic proportion.
In the second painting, the contour is still expressed by tones but the volume and shading are not natural and the outlines are more emphasized.
Finally he drew contour lines.
Pablo Picasso
Artwork has four layers: code level; symbolic level; iconic level; formal level.
And each can be seen separately.
Seeing this Arp reminded me that Arp is considered to be surrealist. I call this level art of code(or index or reference).
We may associate from this something like animal with two eyes. This level is art of symbol.
Each seer may associate different thing but a black shape with two holes is anybody with common sense sees. This is art of icon level.
Seeing a loop with two smaller loops inside is the level of art of shape, which is non-associative sense activity.
Hans Arp
Unlike Picasso Matisse did not conceive any model beforehand; he never adopted Cubist method.
But he reached the same realization from Cezanne's Bathers that artwork is made of lines ,as seen in DanceⅡ．
This shape was cut by scissors; cutting each curve must be more conscious than drawing a curve; for each curve the scissors must be re-adjusted.
Henri Matisse
In calligraphy we should distinguish the difference between executed line and model line.
It is like the difference between played music and written music.
The model line is definitive though the outline of the touch may be accidentally shaky.
In general the executed line can be various, depending on a used tool for making a line, as a melody sound various , depending on what type of musical instrument is used.
When the practical purpose requires making many products, the line becomes more polished.
Brice Marden
This Kelly's work is a green shape with characteristic contour.
The shape is so simple that we become aware of the way of seeing; to see the unique shape is to see the contour.
The contour is a ring of various curves, each of which can be recognized separately because of the difference of curvature.
Practically any curvature can be expressed as a part of a circle.
We can see an oval having very gradually changing curve, but this is not the way of seeing a shape when we see an artwork.
We tend to see it as a ring of a few arches.
Cezanne gradually became aware that our way of seeing is not analogue but digital, as we see a plate shape in his still life changing from oval to more distorted shape with a fewer curves at later stage.
Ellsworth Kelly
This ancient Chinese jade is usually treated as artefact and the historical background is little known. (code or referential level)
As a consequence the practical use is unknown. ( symbolic level)
We can see this stone artefact with a hole is standing. (iconic level)
This image is a loop with a smaller loop inside. (formal level)
Ancient Chinese jade
This is a typical case out of many neglected formal artworks without which a sound art theory is impossible to establish.
The western academic art world regarded ancient Greek sculpture as ideal.
Consequently painting was considered to be the most advanced style of art.
When our curious mind tries to see every artefact on the formal level, we may be surprised to realise that much grammatical knowledge have been already known by the ancient.
Actually Cezanne's discovery of formal art was rediscovery.
Attributed to Hokusai
This is an old Japanese game one person play; the rule is the player must draw the picture using the ten letters on top taken from the poetry on the left side; while reading the poem the drawing must be finished.
I picked one letter "no"which was handwritten variously.
The way of seeing the contour of Cezanne's apple is the same to seeing the letter.
As a sign five units are enough to make "no" letter,
As calligraphy the meaning is irrelevant and the shape matters; the number of unit can be increased.
Alfred Bar's famous diagram says that modern art developed into two types: geometrical art and non-geometrical art.
But every shape is geometrical; the difference is degree of complexity: the number of units.
If we once realise that semiotic level of art is irrelevant and every shape is made in the same way, art theory becomes very easy to be established.
Art criticism is for those who want to talk about art; they talk what words can express.
Artwork as image is for those who want to see it for enjoyment; they know words alone cannot explain why they get artistic sensation.
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