Review of compositional strategies, texts and symbols – the Structural Frame

This symbol is immediately recognisable to almost everyone in the 21st century.It has multiple layers of meaning for us…

JMW Turner, Snowstorm: Hannibal and his army crossing the alps, 1812. The use of tonal variation as a compositional strategy. LOTS of Dark against light.

Other factors in this work are the strong diagonals. By contrast, the work below has anemphasis on the horizon line, and the verticalproduced by the sunlight and its reflection, creating a central column of gold.

JMW Turner, Norham Castle, Sunrise, c. 1845. Lots of tones similar to each other – contributes to a calm atmosphere.

Alphonse Mucha, Nature, 1900, Gilt bronze, silver, marble, amethyst. 69 x 27 x 30cm. The choice of various media produces a certain effect and can convey meaning. Such as what?

Andy Goldsworthy, Stone and snow arch, Dumfriesshire, 1986.

Manzoni, Artist’s shit no 14, 1961. The choiceof media is important…. What is this conveying?

Be aware that over time, different mediacan mean different things. This wouldbe an important point to note in an essay.

Metro station design, Paris – Art Nouveau, around 1900

Use of line as a compositional strategy…with different meanings conveyed in each of these works.

Sol Lewitt, Wall drawing 88, (detail), drawing on wall, 1971, re-created 2008

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1890

Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907-8, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 180 x 180cm. What strategies have been used here to convey meaning?

Kathe KOLLWITZ, German 1867-1945, Woman with dead child, etching, 1903,42 x 48cm

What compositional strategieshave been employed here, andto what effect?

Jackson Pollock, No 11 (Blue Poles), 1951. This work shows expression and gesture. What meaning may be conveyed with this?

A different meaning is conveyed with the treatment of this work: Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, Amarillo Texas 1963, oil on canvas, 162 x 303cm

Donald JUDD, Untitled, 1968, stainless steel and plexiglass. This Minimalist sculpture is another example of lack of personal expression, and also use of certain media to convey meaning. Positioning, too is a factor here.

Ricky Swallow, b.1974, AustraliaiMan Prototypes, 2001Injected-moulded resin with colour tint, four pieces, each 16 × 11.5 × 18.5 cm.

Use of symbols is a compositional strategy. Swallow has combined some interestingsymbolism in this work.

Salvador Dali, Lobster Telephone, 1936. use ofReadymade objects is a compositional strategy. For the Surrealists, it opened up a fantastical world; a world of inner reality that shook conventional ways of thinking. An emphasis on the imaginative; the dream-state.

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

Duchamp reckoned he just foundstuff with no aesthetic considerationsat all. Either way, his very early use of readymade objects really challenged people’s notions of what an art object could be.

Imants Tillers, Hiatus, 1987. Use of text within a work is a compositional strategy which conveys a certain meaning. What might that be?

Picasso, Bottle and wine glass on a table, 1912. One of the earliest uses of collage, sometimes with text being used as a joke.

LEWITT, SOL_ALL TWO PART COMBINATIONS OF ARCS, working drawing, 1977

Joseph Kosuth (U.S. b. 1945), Titled. Art as idea as idea (water), 1966. Photocopy, mounted on board, 121.9 x 121.9 cm

More text in artworks…with differingMeanings being conveyed.

Janet Laurence & Fiona Foley, Edge of the Trees, installation 1995. Use of text with an added edge.

Dan Flavin, Pink out of a corner (for Jasper Johns), 1963, fluorescent light, 243.8 x 15.2 x 13.6 cm

The location of a work can be a compositional strategy.

Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped coast, Sydney 1969 – use of techniques having some cultural meaning, such as wrapping and packing. What meanings could this convey to us?

The Pont Neuf wrapped, 1975-85

Kathe Kollwitz, The Widow, woodcut, 1922. (German Expressionism.)

Leonora CARRINGTON, Portrait of the late Mrs Partridge, 1947. (Surrealism)

As the 20th century progressed, inner states, emotion, psychology; dreams – the subjective - all became more important to artists. This had its roots in the 18th/19th century with Romanticism, where the power of God was contrasted with the puniness of humans. The state of being human was being considered in art.