Rebel Artists- Breaking Composition Rules

Rules Were Made to Be Broken

I have spent the past month and half or so researching and writing about the 7 elements of art, the 8 principles of art, and 6 composition strategies. I knew that if I researched and taught myself about these topics and shared my findings with you, then we would be able to make more informed decisions when designing compositions of our own. Addionally, this knowledge would enable us to better analyze other artists’ works.

Now comes the fun part, which is looking at some examples of artists who broke the rules.

Art is very different today because we have a lot of freedom. The internet has created a time when we can learn from each other easier, we can post our works online and bypass galleries, and pretty much anything goes in terms of trends. Of course there are still galleries that some artists depend on, and they can be limiting in terms of what type of art they accept. But the point is that the internet has been an equalizer because anyone can get their art out there if they are determined enough.

When I think about how different the art world was 150 years ago, it makes me even more impressed by the rebel artists I’ll show you today. They came up in a time where there were certain expectations that artists needed to meet in order to become successful. Serious artists were classically trained and then created works that adhered to the same principles that the masters applied 100s of years before them.

I’ve been listening to an audiobook called, What Are You Looking At?, by Will Gompertz. In the book, he tells the story of art from the Impressionists until the present day. I highly recommend it.

I was especially fascinated about the stories he told of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. They were friends and enemies that spurred each other on to break boundaries and push the envelop when it came to “accepted” art.

The pieces below are from the 1800s. I think this time period best exemplifies artists who blazed new trails that we all benefit from today.

Edgar Degas, Danseuses dans une salle d'exercice

First off we’ll look at this piece called Danseuses dans une salle d'exercice, translated Dancers In An Exercise Room, by Edgar Degas.

By the time Degas painted this piece, photography had been around for 50 years. This artwork represents a snapshot-in-time, as a candid photograph might.

Degas was known for his fascination with ballet and his ability to capture the energy and movement of dancers in his work. This piece is no exception as it does a beautiful job showing the behind the scenes happenings as dancers prepare for a performance.

Degas wasn’t looking to balance his piece, as we can see by the chopped off dancers at the edges. He also doesn’t provide a focal point in this piece. Our eye is equally drawn to all three of the dancers who are each in a state of practicing or fixing a costume.

He also uses a muted pallette throughout the piece. He didn’t mute the background as the simplification prinicple might suggest he should have done. The subdued pastel pallette is typical of his works. It also helps to create a sense that there is no main focal point in the piece. Rather, the whole scene is the main idea.

This composition provides a very different feel than a planned arrangement. It gives the impression of spontaneity, and it shows his love for the subject.

Joaquín Sorolla, Fishermen from Valencia

Joaquin Sorolla was an Impressionist who was from the town of Valencia, Spain which is the title of this piece. He was commissioned to paint a representation of sea life, which he did beautifully in this piece depicting three fishermen.

In the painting, a group of fishermen are shown in their daily activities. Some are mending nets, while others are pulling in a boat filled with fish. The bright sunlight illuminates the scene, casting long shadows on the sand. The color palette is dominated by shades of blue and green, with pops of orange and yellow in the fishermen's clothing and the fish they have caught.

Sorolla's use of light and color is a hallmark of his style. He was known for his ability to capture the effects of light and shadow in his paintings. The bright sunlight creates a sense of warmth and vibrancy, while also highlighting the textures and details of the scene.

Note how the horizon line is up towards the top of the painting, not in the upper third portion as the Rule of Thirds would dictate. It still works for this piece, and I like how he chopped off the top of the boat’s sail. It focuses our attention on the fishermen. It’s similar to Degas’ snapshot-in-time technique that was influenced by photography, and it is very different than the planned out arrangements that were painted before the Impressionists.

Vincent Van Gogh, The Sower (Sower with the Setting Sun)

Vincent Van Gogh, *The Sower (Sower With Setting Sun)*, 1888

I’ve used a Van Gogh example in every blog post in this series. Can you tell he’s one of my favorite artists?

The Sower is part of a series of works by van Gogh that focused on rural life and the cycle of the seasons.

In The Sower, the farmer is shown walking through a field, casting seeds from a basket as he goes. The sky above him is a bright yellow with no blue sky or clouds to be seen. The colors in the painting are bold and bright, with blues and yellows dominating the composition. Van Gogh was famous for not using true colors of the subjects he painted. He prefered to use complimentary hues to explore the interplay of colors.

The farmer walks off of the canvas to the right, while a path through the field angles toward the left, and so the lines he created in this piece don’t serve a purpose as to draw the eye towards a main focal point. Instead the sun takes up center stages and is so bright we can really feel the warmth of it as it shines over the blue field.

Van Gogh rejected traditional academic painting and instead developed his own unique approach to color and form. He is considered a pioneer of the Post-Impressionist movement. For this piece he didn’t represent nature with true colors, he exaggerated hues, he put the sun at the center of his piece, he used large brushstrokes throughout, and he didn’t simplify the background.

This painting is widely thought to be a depiction of the end times judgement depicted in the gospel of Matthew when God will separate people in the end times according to their faith in Jesus. Van Gogh was originally going to become a pastor like his father and so he was known for his deep interest in spirituality and the use of nature as a metaphor for human experience in his works.

Picasso, Woman In Hat and Fur

Picasso painted one of his mistresses, Mary Therese Walter, several times even while he was married to his wife, Olga Khokhlova. Historians aren’t sure if his wife was knowledgeable about the affair.

The portrait is characteristic of Picasso's style during the 1930s, which is known as his "Neoclassical Period." During this time, Picasso was exploring classical themes and forms, and many of his paintings featured simplified, geometric shapes and strong outlines.

In Woman In Hat and Fur, Walter is depicted wearing a large hat with a fur trim, and her face is partially obscured by shadows. The painting features a limited color palette of blues, greens, and grays. Picasso utilized a range of values and yet the piece looks flat.

This particular piece exhibits his cubist style. Cubism is known for breaking the rules of perspective. You can see the lack of correct perspective on her face when you see that the eye on the left is facing forward and the eye on the right has a side perspective. Additionally, her nose is showing two perspectives as well.

The painting is known for its ambiguous quality. While Walter is clearly the subject of the portrait, her features are distorted and obscured, creating a sense of mystery and intrigue. This uncertainty has led to a range of interpretations of the painting, with some critics seeing it as a representation of the complexity and unknowability of the female form. Other art critics believe it portrays the troubled soul of Mary, who must have dealt with internal conflict considering she was involved with a married man.

Édouard Manet, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe

I saved the biggest rebel for last. Manet was a French painter who is often credited with paving the way for the Impressionist movement. He rejected the academic style of painting and instead developed a more spontaneous approach. His work was controversial in its time and often challenged the conventions of traditional painting. I say he was the biggest rebel because he was one of the first to break the norms. He paved the way for others like Van Gogh and Picasso.

Édouard Manet's most conentious piece was his painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the Grass). At the time of its unveiling, the painting was met with widespread shock and condemnation.

The painting depicts two fully clothed men and a nude woman having a picnic in a wooded area. The woman's nudity was considered scandalous, and the composition of the painting, which featured the subjects looking directly at the viewer, was seen as a direct challenge to traditional artistic conventions.

The painting was rejected by the Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Instead it was exhibited at the Salon des Refusés, which was a show of rejected works that was organized in response to the Salon's conservatism.

Despite the controversy, Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe has since become a celebrated work of art and a touchstone of the Impressionist movement. The painting is known for its bold use of color and light, as well as its challenge to traditional artistic conventions.

Conclusion

I hope you have found this series of blog posts to be as interesting as I did while I researched the topics. My desire is that this post in particular got your brain working on how you can create an unique composition and perhaps be a rebel in your own artistic journey.

If you want to more thoughtfully design a composition for your next piece I have a few pieces of advice:

Sketch out your layout first on a piece of paper.
Decide what you want to be the focal point, and think about how you can use one of composition strategies (from blog 3) to direct the viewer’s eye around your piece.
Make sure you don’t have too many competing elements of art in your piece. Select one or two main elements and let the other elements have a supporting role.
Pay attention to color and contrast. Consider the hues and values you will use in your painting and how they will interact with each other. This can help create a sense of depth and dimensionality in your composition.
Experiment with different perspectives. Try experimenting with different angles and perspectives in your composition to create a more dynamic and interesting painting. This could involve experimenting with different levels of foreground and background, or incorporating unusual angles and viewpoints.
Have fun with all of the possibilities!

Did you find this blog helpful? If there is something you’d be interested in me researching, let me know. Love to hear your thoughts.