Side By Side, Color and Shape

When French artists like Manet and  Cezanne first saw Japanese woodblock prints in the mid 1800’s their minds were set ablaze with new ideas. Cutting, inking and printing a woodblock forced artists like Hiroshige and Hokusai to make pictures using flat shapes. Seeing these shapes as planes of luminous reflectance  changed the way Cezanne thought about biological vision as well designing pictures. He realized he could arrange an assembly of flat colored shapes and suggest solid forms.

Example 1 presents a Hiroshige woodblock. His simple flat shapes are capable of oscillating between an identity of illusionary space and subject vs. simple flattened shapes organized into a dynamic composition. Example 2 presents Cezanne’s expression of a similar approach but, with a concentration on both linear perspective and simultaneous color contrasts. Cezanne’s shapes also oscillate between their representational role and their identity as flat shapes of reflecting color.

example 1. Hiroshige woodblock.

example 2. Cezanne’s view toward Mt St Victoire.

Japanese woodblocks changed the direction of modern art. They continued to excite and influence the work of later mid-20th century artists like Richard Diebenkorn as he explored flat colored shapes capable of suggesting subjects, atmosphere and space while almost simultaneously presenting simply flat color  forms  on a flat surface. Example three demonstrates Diebenkorn’s use of flat shapes to express linear perspective, color contrasts and a simplified, coherent composition.

example 3. Diebenkorn’s 1962 painting.

Preceding Diebenkorn in 20th century abstraction was Hans Hoffman.  In example 4, Hoffman only uses abstract shapes and forms.  The simple shapes act to flatten the picture plane, the overlapping forms give it dimension and, the juxtaposition of contrasting color and analogous colors push and pull the space of the picture in and out. Unlike the Diebenkorn or the Cezanne we cannot be sure of the figure/ground relationships, a tantalizing ambiguity.

example 4.Hans Hoffman.

Ten years after Diebenkorn had painted his  work (example 3), Romare Bearden constructs example 5. Here is a collage of flat shapes composed like the Japanese woodblocks. However, Bearden crowds the space of the picture. We feel the side-by-side cut outs press toward the viewer.  Collaging offers a perfect opportunity for side by side contrasts of shapes and colors.

example 5. Romare Bearden.

I began my painting example without an initial program of using a side-by-side structure but, as you will see, I moved in that direction as my painting progressed.  Example 6, step one presents the original blurry photograph. Initially, I intended the painting to be about blurred motion. Example 7, step two demonstrates how I began the painting. I blurred large areas of ultramarine blue over an older city painting. By example 8, step three,  I recognized a new direction for constructing the painting. I began to separate the areas into more discreet shapes. By example 9, step four, I moved closer to Diebenkorn’s and Cezanne’s ideas of flattened shapes,  high keyed color and high contrast. I built these shapes from the outside (i.e. negative shapes described positive shapes). In example 9  I further exaggerated not only the discreet edges of shapes but, their value and color contrasts as well.  The painting has the graphic look of  a high contrast image with simple flattened shapes organized within a unitary design

example 6. the deliberately blurred photo.

example 7.step one, the lay-in.

example 8.step two,  the migration to autonomous shapes.

example 9. step three, the more graphic stage.

Graphic order and color contrast can be subverted by blurring edges. The blurred edges generate a feeling of motion and shimmer especially, when using complementary colors. The blurring edges of a simple design also help to unify the feeling of the painting. In example 10. Pierre Bonnard demonstrated this effect in 1911 with his street view to the water in St. Tropez. His shapes are still graphic and his composition relies on  vertical rectangles framing rectangles. In examples 11 and 12 I moved from a more hard-edged image toward uncertain edges to coax more unity, simplicity, and atmosphere into my painting.

example 10, Bonnard, St Tropez, 1911.

example 11. step one, sharper edges, clearer shapes.

example 12 step two, blurring atmosphere degrades edges.