On the Need for More Rigorous Thinking about the Laws of Form

Vague terminology, lack of basic definitions--these are the foremost defects of art criticism. Music and architecture fare better, but in most writing on the visual arts, waffle and muddle add up to total irresponsibility--a situation that suits some artists and critics just fine, but deprives both of objective criteria.

Here in Leonardo, which has since its founding struggled to encourage a more "scientific" approach to art, I want to make the attempt--for my own sake and for that of colleagues whose help I would like to enlist--to define some basic laws binding on the maker of pictures and essential to the understanding of picture-making. First, though, it must be clearly stated that these laws do not exist in isolation but coexist and struggle in such a way that one law will appear to dominate a given space, thereby subordinating others. Essentially, however, all are equally valid for all work on flat surfaces, whether figurative or abstract, i.e. for prints, drawings and paintings. For monumental forms the laws are somewhat differently accentuated. For performance art and installations they are modified by theatrical considerations.

The Law of Contrast

Contrast is the relationship between opposites. Without contrast visual art is unthinkable. If we eliminate contrast altogether, we obtain an evenly painted surface. It then becomes the interior decorator's or exhibition designer's problem to locate the square on the wall, again involving the law of contrast, a law that necessarily presupposes two extremes and a classic mean.

The Laws of Color and Tone

These are best examined together, as one law. Using a color and tone chart, one sees that tone darkens when moving from center to circumference; the farther from the center the darker the tone, culminating in black. Tonal structure is modified by the Law of Contrast between extremes of dark and light. Color structure is similarly modified between the extremes of cold and warm. Possible variations within this basic theme are: dominant cold colors, equal balance and dominant warm colors.

The Law of Daub and Line

This law also finds expression in connection with the Law of Contrast. Possible variations are dominance of daub, equal balance and dominance of line. Since the Reformation, and right up to the twentieth century, line as such was ousted from the center of the equation and used mainly to indicate outline. Over the last 100 years, however, the importance of the free line has been restored.

The Law of Pictorial Space

This law is less dependent, or at least less obviously dependent, on the Law of Contrast. It is not subordinate to any system of perspective, whether linear or reversed. The formula here is above/below, or what is on what. The line is on the paper, the daub on the canvas. The spatial dimension in this sense cannot be ignored. Twentieth-century artists have sought ways to "flatten" space, a tendency that gave direction to the main thrust of artistic experiment right up to the 1960s. It has to be borne in mind that pictorial space is modified by optics. Our direct vision perceives an oval central space, flattening the picture, as it were, toward the edges. We perceive the center on three planes--foreground, middle ground and background; but the part of the picture seen with peripheral vision is perceived on two planes, and the edge on one.

The Law of Rhythm and Symmetry

Rhythm is repetition of basic forms with variations in detail; symmetry is mirror repetition. The exact repetition of form produces ornamental design. Rhythm is dominant on the surface of the frieze (i.e. in the Parthenon or ancient Egyptian art). Symmetry (the pictorial equivalent of balanced scales) is the sensation of a constant axis of tremulous tension within the limited space of the pictorial surface. The supreme example here is Poussin. If we take an isosceles triangle, where the axis of symmetry is straight down the middle, we...