Art what is form

The twentieth century broadened the meaning of sculpture, though, heralding the concept of open and closed forms, and the meaning continues to expand today. Sculptures are no longer only representational, static, stationery, forms with a solid opaque mass that has been carved out of stone or modeled out of bronze.

Sculpture today may be abstract, assembled from different objects, kinetic, change with time, or made out of unconventional materials like light or holograms, as in the work of renowned artist James Turrell.

Sculptures may be characterized in relative terms as closed or open forms. A closed-form has a similar feeling to the traditional form of a solid opaque mass. Even if spaces exist within the form, they are contained and confined. A closed-form has an inward-directed focus on the form, itself, isolated from ambient space.

An open form is transparent, revealing its structure, and therefore has a more fluid and dynamic relationship with the ambient space. Negative space is a major component and activating force of an open form sculpture. Pablo Picasso to , Alexander Calder to , and Julio Gonzalez to are some artists who created open form sculptures, made from wire and other materials.

In drawing and painting, the illusion of three-dimensional form is conveyed through the use of lighting and shadows, and the rendering of value and tone. Shape is defined by the outer contour of an object, which is how we first perceive it and begin to make sense of it, but light, value, and shadow help to give an object form and context in space so that we can fully identify it.

For example, assuming a single light source on a sphere, the highlight is where the light source hits directly; the mid-tone is the middle value on the sphere where the light does not hit directly; the core shadow is the area on the sphere that the light does not hit at all and is the darkest part of the sphere; the cast shadow is the area on surrounding surfaces that is blocked from the light by the object; reflected highlight is light that is reflected back up onto the object from the surrounding objects and surfaces.

With these guidelines as to light and shading in mind, any simple shape can be drawn or painted to create the illusion of a three-dimensional form. The greater the contrast in value, the more pronounced the three-dimensional form becomes. Forms that are rendered with little variation in value appear flatter than those that are rendered with greater variation and contrast.

Historically, painting has progressed from a flat representation of form and space to a three-dimensional representation of form and space, to abstraction. Egyptian painting was flat, with the human form presented frontally but with the head and feet in profile. The sculpture takes up space and has height, width and depth. Two dimensional work can suggest three dimensional objects by including implied forms.

This means that lines or shapes are shown in a way that suggests they have depth. This is not the case when it comes to painting or drawing and many artists use this play with three-dimensionality to create mesmerizing examples of form in art which tease public perception. Using the notion of both positive and negative space, M. C Escher created amazing artworks which confused the eye and made it difficult for us to understand whether the highlight of the pieces was on the background or the shape [2].

Such images and murals produce the idea of depth within a two-dimensional surface and play with various geometric or organic forms to do so. By mastering the principles of form in art and playing with purely two-dimensional form, artists produce amazing three-dimensional forms on a flat canvas, paper or even pavement. Visual artists rely on the effects of light and shadow in order to produce an illusion of three-dimensional forms. The street artist Banksy uses this technique a lot and many of his celebrated images rely on the contrast between black, gray, and white.

Alongside Banksy, Aakash Nihalani uses the juxtaposition between colors to produce the idea of depth [3]. The famous sculptor Richard Serra creates massive free-standing forms by bending flat sharp metals while Jeff Koons relies on volume to create his large-scale sculpture. Form in art needs to be understood as a story concerning space and the idea of three-dimensionality as much as it is a tale of light and dark.

Alongside perspective in art, volume, the notion of the rhythm , and contrast , form in art helps artists become magicians and produce magic on a two-dimensional surface. This comprehensive introduction to art and design explores making artifacts as a process of making meaning. Art Term Form In relation to art the term form has two meanings: it can refer to the overall form taken by the work — its physical nature; or within a work of art it can refer to the element of shape among the various elements that make up a work.

Twitter Facebook Email Pinterest. Related terms and concepts. Formalism Formalism is the study of art based solely on an analysis of its form — the way it is made ….