Unit 2UNITY

Gestalt: Theory and Application

Artists and designers use many strategies to create compelling compositions. Gestalt psychology offers a fascinating analysis of these strategies. According to this theory, visual information is understood holistically before it is examined separately. We first scan the entire puzzle, then analyze the specific parts. In this brief introduction, we will focus on six essential aspects.

1. Grouping

When presented with a collection of separate visual units, we immediately try to create order and make connections. Grouping is one of the first steps in this process. We generally group visual units by location, orientation, shape, and color.

Title : Rama and Lakshmana Bound by Arrow-snakes, from the RamayanaSahibdin and workshop

1. We first see the complete composition.

2. Next, we may notice that the composition is divided into three sections, each dominated by a distinctive background color.

3. Within these major groups, we can discern further subdivisions, including the two clusters of monkeys on the left, the four compositional goes on the right, and the throng of horsemen in the center.

2. Containment

Containment is a unifying force created by the outer edge of a composition or by a boundary within a composition. A container encourages us to seek connections among visual units and adds definition to the negative space around each positive shape.

Title : Tattoo Face ManLarry Moore

3 Containers are used in this composition:

1. The edge of the drawing provides the first container.

2. The curtains provide the second.

3. The face itself provides the third container.

3. Repetition

Repetition occurs when we use the same visual element or effect over and over.

Title : Panels of MovementAaron Macsai

In Aaron Macsai’s Panels of Movement, similar lines, shapes, textures, and colors were used in each of the 10 panels from which the bracelet was constructed:

1. A spiral shape.

2. An undulating line.

3. A sphere.

4. A triangular shape.

4. Proximity

In design, the distance between visual elements is called proximity. Careful use of proximity can create visual tension, adding energy to design.

Title : Creation of Adam, pre-cleaning, Sistine Chapel, RomeMichelangelo (1475-1564)

Careful use of proximity can create visual tension, adding energy to the design. A detail from Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam demonstrates the expressive power of visual tension. If the hands had been placed too far apart or too close together, the spark that animates both the man and the painting would have been lost.

5. Continuity

Continuity may be defined as a fluid connection among compositional parts. This connection can be actual or implied. With actual continuity, each shape touches and adjoining shape. With implied continuity we mentally make the connections.

Title : Lac Laronge IVFrank Stella

Movement creates deliberate visual pathways and helps direct the viewer’s attention to areas of particular interest. In Frank Stella’s Lac Larone IV, curving lines and shapes flow from one circle to the next, creating actual continuity. Color distribution creates implied continuity, which enhances this visual flow.

Title : The Raft of the MedusaThéodore Géricault (1791-1824)

Movement can play an equally important role in a representational design. In Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, a pattern of diagonal lines directs our attention to a single focal point, or primary point of interest.

6. ClosureClosure refers to the mind’s inclination to connect fragmentary information to produce a completed form. Freed of the necessity to provide every detail, the artist or designer can convey an idea through suggestion, rather than description. When the viewer completes the image in his or her mind, it is often more memorable than an image that leaves no room for participation.

Title : After van EyckDevorah Sperbe

Thousands of spools of thread have been connected to form blocks of color. Using closure, we then read these blocks of color as a man’s face.

Title : The Mexican Museum twentieth-anniversary posterDescription : Morla Design

Closure makes it possible for us to turn hundreds of dots into a face.

Student Work

Closure

Containment

RepetitionGrouping

Containment

Repetition

Proximity

Proximity

Repetition

Continuity

Containment

ClosureGroupingRepetition