Reading Summary and 9/3 Lecture Summary Dominique Ingres

READING:
Gestalt psychology began in Europe in the early 1900's in a movement led by Max Wertheimer.
Gestalt is a demonstration of how the human brain works with visually identifying and categorizing objects that are organized in certain ways.  There are four aspects of Gestalt: continuance, closure, proximity, and similarity.

Practicality is the main concern for design.   There are four elements of design/form that are to be noted: conceptual, visual, relational, and practical.  Conceptual elements are elements of design that we as human beings create in our minds in order to break down objects we see but do not physically exist: point, line, plane, and volume.  When conceptual elements become visible elements they have shape, size, texture, and color. Relational elements of design refer to the placement of an object(s).  This refer to either the amount of space used or the amount of negative space.  Practical elements of design are as follows: representation(accuracy of imitation of nature), message, and function(when the design actually serves a purpose).

LECTURE:
Bill gave a lecture on the differing methods of representation are and why they exist. The question addressed was to "Present or Represent?"  The styles of representation are as follows:
-Naturalistic defined as how an object appears in nature
-Realistic defined as fashioning an image as true to life as possible
-Stylized defined as a simplified image of an object in order to emphasize certain attributes
-Abstract defined as a highly stylized image of an object

Non-representational art is totally separate from the above categories because it doesn't strive to represent reality in any way

Bill then showed us artists who made a name for themselves by working and specializing within one of the realms of representation.

Dwayne Henson chose to produce sculptures that were extremely realistic and natural.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres chose to paint realistically.

Lucian Freud displays a strong sense of realistic vision but also shows interest in stylized imagery.

David Bates bridges a gap between realistic art and abstract art with a moderate interest in both aspects.

Pablo Picasso became known for his extremely abstract paintings.

Though most artists adopt a single genre of representation to incorporate into their own method of image making, there have and will certainly be exceptions to this tendency.  Piet Mondrian was one of those exceptions; he began producing images realistically as a young artist and obsessed over the relationship of space within the image of plant life.

Realistic and Naturalistic

Reality and Naturalistic perspective still exist as the majority, but stylization becomes a part of his work

Stylization has become more important, the idea of realistic representation has partially vanished

Essence of reality still exists, but stylization has taken over as the majority of this piece

Piet has lost all interest in realistic representation and has focused on abstract as his means of image making