Aspect Ratio (symbols)

[Julie H]

If Beauty equals imbalance it can only constitute indifference and forever be without any meaning.

 

 

I don't agree with that ... I think perfect balance is for seekers of Essence, where imbalance goes to the individual. To love imbalance is the opposite of indifference, to my mind. It's choosing to be attentive to, and to savor the meaning(s) of the particular:

 

 

... natural shapes are simplified toward elementary geometry when the more accurate shape is not known, left unobserved, or neglected as unimportant, or when it distracts from the essential. —

Rudolph Arnheim

A question from Arnheim:

 

Why do the distortions of Joan Miró's figures look humorous while those of a Giacometti never do and those of Picasso only rarely do?

 

I'll withhold his answer. You can think about it for yourself.

[Julie H]

That's not loving imbalance, that's choosing to find and see balance within imbalance.

 

 

Can we call it 'tension' and agree?

 

I realized after I posted my previous, that I should have specified that the 'balance' I was thinking of was 'symmetry.' Obviously balance isn't symmetry; Arnheim advocates relentlessly for balance — in total within the unified whole of a picture; contrived out of multiple imbalances — but not for symmetry. And I agree with him.

[Norma Desmond]

NM Edited July 11, 2017 by Norma Desmond