In the previous post we talked about a powerful method to arrive at effective ideas: completing the painting in your mind. In this post we will talk about a directly opposite way, one of undoing the painting by using your imagination and other tools.
Although it may seem that simply reversing the first technique would do the trick, such an approach would give only partial results. Some basic principles indeed need to be turned on their heels but, undoing, or “undressing” a painting also involves procedures that were irrelevant to the completing process. In other words, this method is not an opposite equivalent, but a new and entirely different manner of using your imagination for interpreting art.
We have talked about the use of digital assistance before, but in this case technology plays a particularly important role. Indeed, what other better way is there to manipulate a reproduction of a painting than by using a computer and an image processing software? A computer program allows to discolor hues, rotate the image, remove parts of it, zoom in and out of the picture. Moreover, you may draw lines and make notes an the image without worrying about corruption (provided you made a backup copy), a helpful feature to denote carious underlying connections.
Sometimes the only way to get at the core idea of a piece is by getting rid of the secondary details. For this purpose, a computer program may prove to be an indispensable tool. If you are weary of using external technological aides for an assignment because it is supposed to be entirely yours, don’t be. Using modern technology is a known technique to extract information from art, it is being commonly used by art historian and critics. Professionals use X-rays and infra-red rays, we will settle for a strong PC.
Get to The Point
Usually you see it right away. It is that place on a painting that had your eyes fixed on it for longer than usual. Admittedly, for every interpreter that place would be different — but that’s the whole point of interpretation. You have to go with your gut and trust your intuition: use the software to get rid of the rest of the image, magnify that part and study it carefully.
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Faces: In human scenes and mass portraits it can be a single face, expression, a facial characteristic (mustache, faint smile, sneer, wrinkles). You have the ability to make an enlarged portrait out of any head on any painting; the artists themselves often resorted to this technique, including self-portraits in mass group scenes. Studying faces up close give you the psychological material to make supposition on the state of mind of that person — a step towards interpretation of the entire piece.
- Hands: These limbs are possibly the most expressive body parts after the faces; they are also follow in difficulty of execution. There are many signs hands may express (folded as in a prayer, political affiliation, secret society), look for them. Usually the hands comprise clusters of lines, so this is a good place to learn about the artist’s draftsmanship skills. Hands mean gestures and bodily movement on a local scale, they can teach you a lot about their owner. Try to study the hands before the heads — this will give you a more objective outlook on the depicted individual’s psyche.
- Still Life: A bowl of fruit is a bonanza of miniature still life paintings. Isolate each fruit, see how ripe and how seductive it is. Look for information about harvest times and find out whether the painting makes chronological sense. This data will back up your hypotheses regarding composition and color.
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Landscape: Look for the farthest, less expressed parts and try to realize how the artist uses and manipulates color; then compare to the foreground. Simply give the painting a look without some of its components, try to treat each area as an independent landscape. Depending on how natural these areas would appear, you will be able to make some conclusions about the artist’s compositional approach in particular and understanding of nature in general.
Look for Symbols
We have seen that undoing the painting means making countless mini-paintings from each isolated area, either the included or excluded one. These areas suddenly receive unprecedented attention; by focusing on them you discover secret links within the work and generate your own ideas about them. But even more importantly is the discovery of symbols. Because during the process of “undressing,” your attitude to a painted locus changes, you start to attribute symbolical significance to even the smallest and seemingly unimportant details. Indeed, many of these attributions would eventually turn out to be irrelevant but, some will give you penetrating insight about the painting as a whole.
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In part one of this chapter we talked about the power and the possibilities of imagination in general terms. In this next part we will get more specific and discuss a very effective method to interpret art.
Arrive Somewhere
Let’s continue with this basic premise: by using your imagination when doing art interpretation, your aim is to arrive somewhere. This place may be a new idea about the work of art, or a known idea, but coming from a different sphere of life and shedding light on the image from a fresh perspective. This place may be as complex as a system or a theory or as simple as a personal life story or event. Either way, the premise of this chapter (and, in fact, of all the other chapters as well) is to get from point A — the idea of the painting — to point B — your interpretation of it. Both the road towards that goal and the actual grasp of it when already there can be rewarding experiences.
But the most powerful feature of the finish line is also its problem: it, after all, is still an imaginary construct. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that you, the interpreter, is the only person in the world able to imagine your ideas in your unique and original way. This self-evident truth often gets forgotten and marginalized, possibly because of the responsibility it brings along. No one will ever be able to tell you what your finish line looks like — this is something you could and should be to telling everyone. What this chapter offers is some methods — some training — as to how to try and get a glimpse of it, what general steps to take, and in what direction.
Complete the Painting in your Mind
This technique presupposes that the image in front of you is either incomplete, or only a starting point for following (imaginary) events that would occur “later” in an imagined pictorial narrative. Creating that narrative — completing the painting in your mind — is your task.
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Let’s examine several examples. First, imagine that the painting you see is a part of a film. The image before your eyes is the only frame at your disposal, but it may give many useful and interesting details. If there is a scene involving a group of people interacting, try to visualize what they would do next. Look at each actor, see what he or she is doing, and guess what would be the most common and expected next action. Then, try to identify how the group dynamics, as a whole, would evolve. That way you get a more vivid, objective picture of the actual depicted event: the next frames allow to make a comparison and sharpen the mental focus of the existing frame. You may arrive at some surprising insights, which would already be your interpretation.
- If there are people or objects that move in a particular direction, imagining where they would end up may reveal important details about the rhythm of the work. If you see an executioner with a sword raised right above the victim’s neck, it is possible to assume with a considerable degree of certainty what would happen in the next few seconds — and how would the crowd below the scaffold respond. Try figure out from the executioner’s posture whether he intends to go through with his job, or is he struggling with himself. Follow the people’s expressions, see if they if they are terrified or vindictive. With this data available, you will be able to probe into the political climate, and interpret the painting from an entirely new perspective.
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In landscape painting it could be more appropriate to speak in broader time sweeps; in months, or even seasons. Is there anything that gives away the approach of the next time of year? If it’s the summer, is there some growth with reds and yellows, denoting the slow onset of autumn? Perhaps, the growth is so explicitly abundant as to imply dead-ripe stage (decadence) — overabundance which in turn signals a nearing decline. In a winter piece, a spot of blackened snow may hint at melting and the onset of spring. Weigh all this data against known natural elements and states and see to which of them (according to your understanding) the material you gathered gravitates. Congratulations, you have just made an interpretation.
No Limits
The frame limits the painted area, but not your imagination. Try to visualize what happens beyond the edges, as if the painted surface continues there. Often artists crop their subjects to achieve certain effects; you would be able not only to benefit from the bigger picture (literally) but to tap into the effects on the cropped object more objectively.
Feel free to manipulate the painting in your mind: add more people, more objects, more colors. This method is particularly effective for interpreting still life. Does the composition look too vacant? Can you tip it over by adding just one more apple? What does it say about the stability of the composition? Finally, do these discoveries make you enjoy the painting more, less, or perhaps neither? Either way, your honest emotional response to your own interpretation will strongly support the latter.
Stay tuned for part 3!
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I just wanted to make a small announcement that for personal reasons the next part of the guide will be delayed for a few days.
Thank you for you patience! :)
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It is said that imagination is the most powerful tool humans have.
You’ve got the Power!
We have touched imagination several times already while talking about brainstorming — but these were mostly motivational statements. Motivation is important, and you will find more of it here. However, the main purpose of this chapter is to suggest and discuss several practical methods which will give you the needed boost to launch your independent interpretation session. These methods prove that using your imagination is a skill that can be acquired and implemented by anyone willing to put in the time and thought. Considering you already have a bank of ideas to work with generated during brainstorming, you are off for a good start.
I would also like to encourage you to develop your own techniques. Nothing here is written in stone. I will try to reveal how I arrive at these methods, and hopefully outline the blueprint for the whole process — to offer the fishing rod along with some fish. However, when dealing with imagination, there are always the unknowables of inspiration, epiphanies, meditation induced revelations and such and sundry of mental and spiritual paths. Once again, I would suggest not to lock on a single known method and always leave room for… your imagination to work the wonders.
It’s Your Show
One of the crucial — for all of us — notions to internalize declares that when we interpret a work of art it doesn’t matter, at this stage, what we think the artist meant to express or convey. There is a widespread and generally accepted principle that once a work of art leaves the studio, once it is out there, it is yours to interpret any way you like. This is a heavy burden to take off of your mind; your imagination would soar like an air balloon after jettisoning some ballast.
Everything goes. Too many good ideas get stifled on the altar of “high” and “low” brow differentiations. There is no high and there is no low — there are only good arguments, based on good logic and supported by actual examples. Every work of art can be spun to suit your ideas, as long as you arrive at the conclusion via a series of sensible claims.
Some theories suppose that the artist’s personal biography is tightly linked with his artwork; psychoanalysis would be one such theory. However, there are also opposite views, which position works of art independently of the creator’s persona, making emphasis on the piece itself rather than on surrounding trivia. In my opinion, you do not have to adhere to neither of the trends: just be aware that they exist, and use either, when needed, for your purposes. Perhaps this is an intellectual opportunism, but then, art interpretation is an inherently opportunistic activity.
Even if the artist offers a ready made interpretation, his or her ideas cannot determine what the art piece means for you. The author does not own other people’s thoughts on his own creation and everyone has the right to interpret it. This leads, once again to incredible freedom.
The Possibilities
In many ways, imagination is all about the possibilities. The painting you see in front you was the arriving point for the artist, but it is one of departure for you. Paradoxically, our ignorance of the private process of painting puts us into an advantageous position. Even if you arrive at the same conclusions about the piece, you may choose a different route — and it is the route that matters, as it describes your own analytical interpretative process — something both an artist and an instructor would want and demand to see.
Therefore, “what could have been” and, subsequently, “what should have been” will be the focus of the next parts of this chapter. We will learn techniques to engage in a battle of minds and creative thought with the artist and her work, with the clear objective to win — to formulate concepts and theories and impose them on the work of art as if they were intended by the artist herself. We will learn to decipher and interpret art with the same tool the artist used to make it — imagination.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
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In the previous post we talked about brainstorming on lines and colors. I would like to recapitulate that first, although it may seem like there is a lot to know and remember in order to brainstorm effectively, most ideas mentioned in this chapter only point to the obvious. Let’s not forget that we brainstorm on visual images (commercials, logos, television) constantly during our daily lives — only we do not call it that way. Often, all I am doing is merely giving a name to something you knew all along existed.
And second, it is important not to allow the influx of seemingly “new” information confuse you and throw you off the track. Brainstorming is first and foremost an intuitive activity, and we all possess intuition. This guide stirs and shakes it, — it is about rediscovering and regaining it, in a way like an ancestral roots travel into your own mind. So if you are feeling a little bit overwhelmed after reading this chapter, just take a day’s break, and give it some time. It will all settle in and, hopefully, you will come out with a renewed sense of trust into your aesthetic intuition.
Different people possess different sides of their aesthetic intuition developed: some are more in tune with colors, others with lines and yet others with shapes and space. To those who are stronger in one particular kind of intuitive perception, points mentioned here that touch that particular kind would seem outrageously trivial but, to others they may actually reveal something. Once again, either kind is learnable. My personal advantage is that after having written more than 150 art reviews, I have trained myself to be in tune with all of the elements of art. You can do the same.
But let’s move on to the details. This preface is especially relevant to shapes, forms and space because these elements of art are usually tightly linked to the context of the painting you are working on. It is more difficult to outline bundles of concepts and traits pertaining to either element, and intuition takes a step forward.
Shapes
There are several things to notice about shapes, the two dimensional geometrical figures that appear on the painted surface.
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Use your general sense of proportion. If shapes jump out from the canvas as particularly big, small, or irregular, you should write down your impressions for further reference.
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Consider the shape of the frame, independently of what’s within its limits: do you think it suits the theme, overshadows it, brings out particular aspects of it?
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Round shapes, such as circles and ovals, often appear in important body parts (heads, eyes). They are also considered the “perfect” shapes.
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Note imaginary shapes, by using imaginary lines. There may be several centers of action, or of particular value (a spot of very bright color, a line’s angle) in the painting. What shape can you create by connecting the epicenters with imaginary lines?
Forms
Made up by alternations of shadow and light, the illusions of three-dimensional forms in some ways pose visual magnets. We seek three-dimensionality because we see it everywhere around us. Many painters exploited that human trait, creating illusionist paintings. One particular story is still well known: a visitor once came to an artist’s studio; the artist asked the visitor to remove the veil from the parrot’s cage, which stood in the corner of the room. To the visitor’s amazement, neither the veil, nor the cage or the parrot were real. (But the room was. I think.)
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In human forms, look for deliberate distortions that may conceal important symbolical meanings, such as irony, compassion and so on.
Space
This is probably the most difficult element to discuss. In some ways, talking about space is like talking about everything, at once. However, because you arrive here after having written feverishly on the rest of the elements of art, you in a way have already covered “everything.”
Finally, it is important to try to figure out the artist’s relationship with space. Some, even most experienced painters, struggle with space throughout their careers — and it shows. There is always some unresolved tension in their work. This is not necessarily a bad thing! Others are very confident with space handling, and this ability allows them to progress quickly, and experiment. This is where you, as the critic and the interpreter, need to get creative and go through your most tentative impressions — but you can use the brainstorming list for guidance. Good Luck!
Stay Tuned for the Next Chapter!
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