9. Artistic Ideals: Consistency
Professionalism in art, that is, knowledge of the traditions and pitfalls of visual art is a necessary, but no sole condition for creating works of art.
Consistence, however, is a condition sine qua non for any art form, including visual art. This might sound intimidation for an amateur convinced that art is a realm of feelings where rational though is unneeded. But that’s the way it is.
Igor Stravinsky, well known French/Russian composer, in a statement about his German colleague Arnold Schönberg claimed that even if Schönbergs music appeared to be cacophony without sense, he had deliberately chosen a musical system suitable to him. Inside this system, Schönberg was consistent and in strict harmony with himself. That made him a composer.
Works of art are based on concepts and conceptual patterns, playing different roles in the Game of Visual Art, either as significant foreground patterns or as harmonious background patterns, changing from one pattern to another when the game is played.
Concepts, however, need to be distinctive. They cannot be grasped or conceived unless they are precise. Without precision, they are merely background noise. Thus, an artist must possess a rational mind, besides being creative and sensitive and in strict harmony with himself.
A work of art is consistent, when the elements involved in the game can be perceived as concepts referring to themselves or as part of higher level categories. This is simple enough.
A cat knows the concept of a bird, a category of all feathered animals of a reasonable size. The cat will probably perceive geese within a conceptual category of dangerous animals, which also may include dogs.
Everybody, especially men, knows the concept of a blonde. The concept of the number sequences, 1, 2, 3,4 or 2,4,6,8 are evident to all. The number sequence 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34 constitutes a mathematical concept. If you are able to grasp the idea behind til numbers, you are able to continue the pattern indefinitely.
In traditional music, the conceptual patterns are well defined: rhythm, pitch, duration, melody, tonality, harmony, sound levels and so forth. We perceive these patterns as concepts, however unconsciously. This is the typical way of processing concepts, as we believe them to be inherent parts of our mind.
Some art theorists claim that visual art is different from music, as visual art is more abstruse. But the might be wrong. Like any other art form, visual art is a conceptual game. Accordingly, it needs to be consistent and distinct. Without any doubt, visual art differs from music, as the number of visual categories or patter at the disposal of the artist is endless. Perhaps it is only a matter of time, before this difference between visual art and music is equalized. Modern composers are inspired by the freedom of the visual artist and experiment abundantly with conceptual patterns and systems outside the classical range.
The artists of visual art are free to choose any part of the visual world as elements of the game. Much visual material is conceptual beforehand. Letters are part of the category of the alphabet. Consonants are sub-elements of the alphabetic pattern, selected according to a phonetic concept. Tones of grey colors are elements of a color palette, ranging from black to white or from light grey till dark grey, constituting different concepts of grayish. Warm colors are part of a pattern which includes red, orange, yellow and brown. Bluish green, blue, and violet are considered to be cold colors. Rectangles of different sizes and proportions vary a basic pattern of shapes with four corners and square angles. Elements with no similarity at all are part of an overall chaotic pattern, or what composers call a stochastic pattern. A certain texture may refer to the overall category of textures or a subcategory, a range of textures with family resemblances. Beds, blankets, mirrors, and bed lamps are parts of the category of bedroom equipment and are part of the conceptual game Bedroom Ensemble I by Claes Oldenburg (chapter 20).
In simple works of art, e.g. a picture based on a chessboard pattern the artist can easily be consistent. He only has to stick to his pattern. Many conceptual patterns are so simple that they can be developed with little intellectual effort. Anybody can buy furniture, draw squares and paint the tiles of the Limfjord Tower (chapter 4).
On the other hand, the artist may use patterns so intricate that the spectator must possess a high level of intelligence to grasp the idea of the artist.
It is no easy task for the artist to handle challenging visual patterns in a consequent manner. One exception confirms the rule, two or more are a mess. When the pattern is broken several times, it cannot be grasped as a concept. If the artist decides to deviate from his pattern, it must be done in a way that leaves no doubt that the deviation is performed with the deliberate intention of creating a different sort of concepts.
If an artist decides to restrict himself to the concept of vertical and horizontal lines, he must be obedient to this pattern. The introduction of lines almost vertical or almost horizontal confuses the spectator. Has the deviation a special sense or is it only lacking consistency? If the artist intends to use classical perspective in his work of art, he must use this system with consequence and skill, convincing the spectator that perspective and the significance of perspective is a conceptual part of the game.
The NO drawing by Saul Steinberg (chapter 13) is an instance of a deliberate and significant deviation from the normal perspective, as it includes two different representational systems in the same picture.
One of the problems vexing a visual artist is that the objects put at stake in the game are ambiguous. Any element may be part of several conceptual patterns. A red L-shape is a letter and a geometrical shape and a color spot. Sometimes, the artist has to choose between the significations and define the concept(s) he intends to introduce as part of his game, leaving no doubt of his intention. If he places some other letter next to the L-shape, the significance of the alphabet takes over.
The need for consistent thinking becomes greater, when the artist intends to merge several conceptual patterns, e.g. when he or she intends to employ a stroke both as a means of delineating a figure according to the traditional method of drawing and as an arabesque with a conceptual significance of its own. The artist has to respect to different systems at the same time and be consequent towards both, thus solving two problems at the same time. He needs to be rational and creative at the same time.
Raphael: Nude
This drawing by the great painter of the Renaissance Raphael (1483-1520) shows how a skilful artist succeeds in creating a naturalistic representation of his model, as done by a camera, while at the same time creating a significant arabesque pattern. Both patterns merge into a third convincing pattern, making his drawing a unique work of art.
Another example of the merging of a semi-naturalistic representation of a female model and the surface ornament of the arabesque can be found in the work of Henri Matisse: Grand Nu Rose (chapter 17). The artist has maintained a naturalistic approach to the figure. But he has deformed it violently, developing the concept of the arabesque to such a degree that it is out of question to reconstruct the model in 3D from the picture alone. The artist admits that he would be very scared if he met his deformed model on the street. This is not reality, it is a game!
When an artist experiments with the merging of patterns containing sub patterns, things get really complicated. The artist needs to be consistent and logical, also when concepts are intertwined and when he wants to introduce concepts that emerge between existing concepts as independent elements in his game.
To conclude: The prospective artist may choose any visual pattern as part of his work of art. This can be done at a modest level, with small concepts easy to grasp, or on a more advanced level with many and complicated patterns.
When the choice is made, the artist must stick to the system chosen. Inadvertent breaks in the pattern frustrate the player, be it the artist himself or the audience. If the project has not been carried out according to the systems chosen; everyone will be confused and uncertain about the meaning of the work. They cannot grasp the concepts which are supposed to be part of the game. Only an project thoroughly worked out with precision can be played satisfactorily. Without consistency, there is neither game nor art.