For my final blog this month, I have chosen Georgia O’Keefe’s 1937 painting, “Chama River, Ghost Ranch.”  There are no human figures in this work, but there is plenty of shape!

O’Keefe reduces the landscape to a series of contours and relatively flat colored masses with few variations or shading.  The wide sweep of the river in the foreground draws the viewer’s eye up the canvas, where grassy ridges and red rock gullies descend in gentle curves to the river.

O’Keefe’s use of shape, contour, and flat masses creates a great sense of movement. … Read More

For my next example of shape in painting I have chosen “Nightlife” by the 20^th century American painter, Archibald Motley. This painting from 1943 depicts a lively cabaret on the south side of Chicago.

To capture the exuberance of city dwellers out on the town, Motley uses strong diagonal lines, such as the line of barstools and the legs of the dancers in the foreground.  These draw the viewer deeper into the painting.

Closer examination shows that most of the drinkers, dancers, bartenders, and waiters are posed obliquely. … Read More

For my next artwork I have chosen “American Gothic,” by the 20^th century American painter, Grant Wood.

In this work, a somber man and his daughter stand in front of an Iowa farmhouse.  It was the house that inspired the artist, while the couple are the kind of people he imagined living there.

Wood chose to pose the father and daughter in rigidly upright positions. The pitchfork the farmer holds as well as the lines in his face and shirt emphasize the vertical dimension. … Read More

For my first work of art, I have chosen a print by the nineteenth century French painter, Honore Daumier. Daumier was well-known for his caricatures satirizing the behavior of his countrymen.

In his black and white drawings, Daumier uses concavities and convexities of the torso to skillfully portray characters.  His use of shape qualities captures their relationships, often in a humorous manner.

For example, in this rendering of a couple, the fellow seems to be advancing while the lady is retreating. … Read More

According to Wassily Kandinsky, “Painting has two weapons at her disposal: 1) Color, 2) Form.”  With only these two weapons, a painter can convey feeling, action, atmosphere, and relationship.

While Kandinsky used this simple reduction to transform painting from representation to abstraction, artists for centuries have used color, line, and shape to depict human beings in motion.

In addition to effort, it is possible to find many elements of Laban’s spatial taxonomy in works of art. Find out more in this month’s blogs.… Read More

For my final effort mood in art, I have chosen “The Dinky Bird” by another famous American illustrator, Maxfield Parrish.  The work is named after the children’s poem it illustrated.

In contrast to the nightmarish mood created by Pyle’s “Flying Dutchman,” this painting captures a more pleasant and fanciful state of mind.

In the painting, a young nude is depicted in profile.  She is seated in a swing, suspended in mid-air before a beautiful castle floating in the clouds.  The complementary blue and orange tones contrast the sick yellow greens and blood reds in the Pyle illustration.… Read More

For a different effort mood, I have chosen “The Flying Dutchman,” by the great American illustrator Howard Pyle.  It depicts the captain of the legendary ghost ship, doomed to sail the seven seas forever without making port.

In Pyle’s illustration, the captain stands firmly on a slanting deck in stormy seas, arms folded across his chest. His cape billows in the wind.  His yellowed eyes stare fixedly at the viewer.  In the lower right-hand corner, three members of his ghostly crew also stare beseechingly at the viewer, their clothes in tatters.… Read More

For my next effort mood in art, I have chosen “Dance around the Golden Calf,” by the German Expressionist painter, Emil Nolde. In contrast to the dull colors, hard edges, and careful draftmanship of Hopper’s painting, Nolde’s painting is warm, exuberant, and loose.

The painting depicts a Biblical story in which Moses comes down the mountain from communing with God to find the Israelites worshiping a golden idol.  In Nolde’s painting, the crudely painted dancers raise their arms in ecstasy or frenzy, almost gyrating off the canvas.… Read More

For my next effort mood in art, I have chosen the American artist Edward Hopper’s 1953 painting, “Office in a Small City.”

In contrast to the hard-working laundresses in Degas painting, Hopper depicts a man sitting idly at his desk, staring out the window at the rooftops of the buildings across the street.

The painting is said to reprise Hopper’s signature subjects – a solitary figure, physically and emotionally detached from his surrounding and other people. The viewer is left to wonder – what is the man doing? … Read More