Organization in the Visual Arts

Organization
The order in a work of art is its organization.
The primary demands made of any organization are two:
It must make sense.
It must be interesting.

It has to do with the arrangement of parts, the overall design or

plan of a work.

Plan
Can be called the skeleton of the work of art
It holds the work together.

Organic Structure
The interrelations of the elements of the plan unity and variety, or
repetition and contrast
The elements used must be repeated enough to become familiar
but varied enough in character to provide contrast.

Sistine Madonna
Raphael

Basic Plans in the Visual Arts

Pyramidal
Symmetrical
Vertical
Radial

Pyramidal Plan
The pyramid is almost as common in painting as the symmetrical
plan is in architecture.

The broad base gives a sense of solidity, and the apex gives
emphasis.

Madame Cezanne in the Conservatory

Paul Cezanne

Castelfranco Madonna
Giorgione

Mona Lisa
Leonardo Da Vinci

Symmetrical Plan
The two sides are similar and relatively equal.
This is a favorite plan in architecture, where the two sides are
identical.

Annunciation
Simone Martini

Jan Arnolfini and His Wife

Jan van Eyck

The Two Fridas

Frida Kahlo

Vertical Plan
This plan consists of a single vertical figure or other object.
It is used greatly in sculpture.

The Broken Column

Frida Kahlo

David
Michelangelo

Thinker
Thomas Eakins

Radial Plan
The lines of the picture form radii which meet at a point in the
center.

Death of St. Francis

Giotto

Last Supper
Leonardo Da Vinci

Plan in Abstract Art

The organization is based entirely on the repetition and variety of
the elements.

The artist is not interested in developing a center of interest in the

traditional sense, or in creating a traditional balance, but rather
wants to produce a record of the act of creativity.

Number 1
Jackson Pollock

Alpha-Pi
Morris Louis

Where
Morris Louis

Broadway Boogie Woogie

Piet Mondrian

Balance
Sense of equilibrium
Achieved by controlling the direction of lines
Symmetrical and asymmetrical balance

Dancers
Practicing at
the Bar
Edgar Degas

Strangers in Paris
Honor Daumier

Jan Arnolfini and His Wife

Jan van Eyck

The Mill
Jacob van Ruisdael

The Blind Leading the Blind

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Journey of the Magi

Sassetta

Proportion
Is the aspect of plan that has to do with the comparative size of the
parts of a single work

This is a matter of relative size, never absolute size.

A picture is not too large or too small in itself but too large for this
space or too small for that.

Palette of King Narmer

Frame
In an arrangement of parts, consideration must be given to the
frame and the relation of the parts to the frame.

Since the design must fill the shape, the choice of shape partly
determines the design of the picture.

Madonna of the Chair

Raphael

Unity and Variety

Unity occurs when all of the elements of the piece combine to
create a harmonious, complete whole

Variety refers to combining elements of art to achieve

relationships in a composition
Unity in variety

Annunciation
Fra Angelico