Drawing a Comparison between Single Gun Theory by Polly Apfelbaum and Parents and Children by Matthew Ritchie - Essay Example

A Comparison of ”Single Gun Theory” by Polly Apfelbaum and “Parents and Children” by Matthew Ritchie By Nicole Schubert Artists are consistently breaking the barrier or pushing new ideas as well as old onto their audience. This provokes emotion, and intentional reactions in the viewers who may or may not relate to the message being relayed. Artists are creating and recreating their artwork, shaping it to express a part of themselves. The same is true for artists Polly Apfelbaum and Matthew Ritchie because they uniquely mold their work to best represent who they are and what they desire to communicate to their audience. Polly Apfelbaum was born in 1955 in Abington, Pennsylvania where she pursued art at the Tyler School of Art before proceeding with her career in New York City, present day (Polly). She is known for her “fallen paintings,” i.e. artwork that “exists in a contentious space between painting, sculpture and installation” (Polly). What that means is that Apfelbaum incorporates a lot of intricate fabrics and undermine shapes, and arranges them into distinctive patterns on the floor. She enjoys tackling cultural topics such as feminism, postwar and other popular culture (Polly). Apfelbaum does not stray from this description in her famous painting entitled, “Single Gun Theory.” The painting depicts various shapes and colors splayed out across a wooden floor. It is evident that the art is on the floor due to the bordering white walls and wall liners. The colors appear to have a “spilled” effect, creating the illusion or idea that multiple colored-pencils or pint has been dropped vicariously across the floor. The painting also has a 3-D effect where the top of the painting gives off the impression that is further away. It gradually gets larger from there until the bottom half overwhelms the viewer into making it seem like it is closer, like it is coming off the page. The walls themselves help issue the illustration where it is narrower at the top and wider at the bottom. The elements of design come in an array of options that can be applied to artwork. This includes, but is not limited to: line, shape, direction, size, texture, color, and value (Art). Each of these designs, or structures can be attribute to Apfelbaum’s “A Single Gun Theory” painting due to the fact that it is so expressive and dynamic. The liner marks are more distinctive on the surrounding edges where the colors are elongated. There is minimal sharing of the lines to each other because they are all marked individually by specific colors. The colors are one of the most vibrant aspects of Apfelbaum’s painting. It is what embodies the positive space of the artwork. Every color can be seen like red, green, purple, blue, black, orange, yellow, etc., and all shades in between. The colors taking up the negative space in the background are neutral: white and off-white. The play of light and dark, or value, in the painting helps establish contrast and sections of activity. For example, the lighter colors make up the negative space of the artwork, and the darker shades the positive space. There is also black color displayed throughout the center and outer edges of the focal point that encourages interest and breaks up the mass of colors into identifiable groups that the eye can follow. Shape also contributes to positive and negative space in that the circular shapes overpower the bland, expansive, rectangular shapes. The rectangle shapes act as the background, or negative space while the circular ones appear to be on top or overlapping the large rectangle shape, thus establishing positivity in terms of space. Arguably one of the most important elements of design for Apfelbaum’s painting is direction. There are multiple horizontal, vertical and oblique lines in the artwork. The direction a line takes produces “feeling of balance, formality, and alertness” if it is vertical, “calmness, stability and tranquility” with horizontal and “oblique suggests movement and action” (Art). The majority of direction Apfelbaum utilizes is oblique. Her colors form round shapes, oblique in fashion, that then form vertical and horizontal lines. What this does is implement a basis of movement and action while at the same time maintaining a sense of stability that suggests a balance of organization and chaos. The emphasis of vertical and horizontal lines is placed on the outer edges of the painting. It creates a kind of containment for the mass of oblique direction hounding the center of the artwork. Size also takes up an important part of the painting due to the fact that the smaller shapes help form larger shapes just by the simple fact that they are grouped a certain way. Design principles differ from design elements in that it contains separate factors used to dissect art. These principles are: balance, gradation, repetition, contrast, harmony, dominance, and unity (Art). Balance is self-explanatory in its definition, and applied to Apfelbaum’s it is seen as the four corners of the focal point, or chaotic portion of the illustration. The horizontal and vertical lines on the edges create balance because of the two-on-two design with the oblique groupings in the center. There is certain monotony or repetition in how Apfelbaum forms her shapes. For example, she repeats the horizontal and vertical patterns, but not identically. They are of various sizes and ranges of color, and the monotony ends in the central focus of the painting. The graduation is evident in the lines of the wooden floor, and smoother where the mass of colors pool together. There is distinct contrast displayed in the variation between the color array and the negative space of the white, which enables the viewer to perceive the painting as 3-D. The harmony is lacking in her painting due to the fact that the main focal point is chaotic as she uses action in the direction. The dominant feature of the painting is the color display over top of the nude background. Unity is prelevant because it links all of the design principles together, despite the fact that some do not correlate with one another. “Single Gun Theory” is an abstract painting because it does not mirror any natural, or realistic scene in life. It lacks universal recognition, although it does take on a similar appearance of spilled paintbrushes and paint on the floor. The artwork “Parents and Children” by Matthew Ritchie is considered one of his most noted paintings. He went to Camberwell School of Art (1983-1986) then New York City in 2988 to pursue his career in painting, photography and sculpturing (Biography). Ritchie incorporates a mixture of art, science and religion into his pieces (Biography). “Parents and Children” is no different. At first glance it appears to be a mass of chaotic swirls of color and direction. At the bottom of the painting is a smear of red color with yellow on top of it then followed by blue and white as if it is set up in layers. Green rests over blue then the painting appears to come to life. In the background there are shades of green, the most striking shade has a yellow ball overlapping it. Stemming from the yellow ball are white lines going every which way in all directions. Seen in the very back of the painting are neutral colors and designs of white and soft, light green, although there are markings across the white rear of the work to the left of the massive detailed, colored action. For the most part, the lines in Ritchie’s painting are both shared and separated from one another. The groupings of colors share the space, where one line is used by two shades. However, in the bigger picture, the lines are separate due to the fact that there are different colors implementing the separation. The shapes are mostly oblique across the bottom of the painting as well as the top, which encourages the idea of a lot of action. The difference is that the lines take more of a horizontal appearance. This suggests calmness, or stability vs. the current chaotic feel the top of the painting ensues in its viewers as if whatever is stemming from the chaos has now settled into determinable layers. Color is equally as important because it speaks to the viewers, relaying a story. The focal point, or point at which the eyes are initially drawn to, is the red color at the base of the painting. Red can be interpreted in this sense to mean “energy, strength, passion, and love” (Color). Utilizing that as the focus of the painting as well as positioning it at the bottom of the piece helps establish a basic understanding of what is occurring like the relationship between parents and children. Yellow on top represents, “cheerfulness, intellect, mental activity” (Color). Having it there compliments the meaning of the red color. Where lighter shades of red stand for femininity, blue compliments masculinity and it is associated with “depth, stability, faith, and confidence” (Color). It appears to be mother and father identifiable in these colors with the emotion of happiness between them. Not only that, but green surrounds them, i.e. the red and blue, and it symbolizes “growth and fertility” (Color). With that and the yellow color together at the top of the page, it illustrates action where white is pooling out from the combination. White represents “innocence, purity, virginity” (Color), which coincides with traits that go along with babies, or young children. The value and the shapes help establish understanding in the artwork. The value seen in the shades of color, especially comparing deep, rich colors to lighter background makes the action, or movement seemingly come alive. The dynamic of the shapes in that the larger ones appear to be more eye-catching over the small ones directs the viewers’ eye where to go. Also, by incorporating rounder shapes throughout the painting, it produces unity, which is a principle of design. Unity is seen through the colors, shapes and sizes portray the scene of parents and children. The balance becomes evident in the way Ritchie locates points-of-interest by showing stable layers o the bottom that are similar in size, then enlarging the ones on top and creating different shapes. The gradation appears to be smooth and effortless, encouraging feeling of unity. The same goes for contrast where the various colors represent or disparity with one another. On the lower half of the painting resides the parents. On top, a new child or children that oppose the parents because of the differences to each other. A child is opposite an adult. Repetition is implemented by reusing the color green throughout the majority of the artwork. It is also apparent in the way the layers mirror one another by how they lay in the painting. Dominance is most prelevant in the color red followed by the array of green, and finally the swirling white. These became specific points-of-interest at which the viewers’ eyes follow to institute an important message, or meaning. Lastly, harmony is a major part of the painting as it helps convey a plot, and shows the natural peacefulness that goes along between a new child and his or her parents. Ritchie’s painting “Parents and Children” is an abstract representation of the relationship, or elements that oppose one another between parents and their children. It is not an obvious mirror of this, to say the least, which is why it does not fall under the category of naturalistic. Apfelbaum’s painting and Ritchie’s painting are both similar and different in various ways. First, the differences are seen in the lack of obviousness in Ritchie’s painting over Apfelbaum’s work. Where she attempts to illustrate a mess on a recognizable floor, even making it seem comparable to artist utensils, Ritchie’s portrayal of parents and children is very difficult to determine. The viewer can almost immediately piece together Apfelbaum’s intention, but not with Ritchie. Another difference is that there is a lot less balance ensued in Apfelbaum’s painting. The chaos itself has points of contrast to help the audience gauge stability, but it is not to the extent that Ritchie does when he paints layers on the lower half, leaving chaos for the upper half, which enables the viewer to literally cut the piece apart horizontally with his or her eyes. Apfelbaum prefers to be more direct in her artwork, but Ritchie enjoys telling “two stories simultaneously from two points of time and from a perspective only he understands” (Jones). The two paintings have more in common then they do differences. Both illustrations portray chaos that is countered by stability as seen in the negativity space as well as the parts that give it balance. The gradation is equally similar because it is a smooth display of unity. What happens when paint and brushes fall on the floor? Every thing mixes together. The same is true for “Parents and Children” where the colors used to represent people poise an effortless relationship and meaning between the characters. Depth is another aspect relevant in both paintings. Apfelbaum’s artwork gives off a sense of depth when she makes her objects smaller, narrower on top then gradually expands the piece to a greater size. Ritchie does the same thing, but in a different manner. He makes his objects overlap one another to create a 3-D effect, especially in regards to the white swirls. Value is also evident in both paintings because it builds interest and seduces the viewers to looking at specific points of the painting. For example, Ritchie uses contrasting red with white, etc., and Apfelbaum utilizes mostly vivid, dark colors in her chaos with the lighter value prominent in the background. Polly Apfelbaum and Matthew Ritchie are two abstract artists that relay messages in similar, yet different manners in their paintings, “Single Gun Theory” and “Parents and Children.” They both incorporate daily experiences, but pronounce them in various ways. No matter the manner in which it is given, it is universally understood that Apfelbaum and Ritchie use their work as a means to express their own ideas and emotions in unique approaches. Works Cited "Art elements." The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Web. 01 April 2011. "Biography for Matthew Ritchie." AskArt. N.p., 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. . "Color Meaning." Color Wheel Pro. N.p., 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. . Jones, Ronald. "Matthew Richie." Frieze. N.p., Apr. 2001. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. . "Polly Apfelbaum." Tamarind Institute. N.p., 3 Apr. 2009. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. . Read More