By Rosalind: East Asia Correspondent
In most structural analyses, color and line are regarded as two of a painting’s essential components. These two components appear in a variety of paintings across genres.
Additionally, when beginning a painting, these two aspects are frequently the first things an artist considers. The artist may choose to begin by outlining the contour of the thing or to prioritize the hue such that the shape of the object is defined by a variety of colors.
For example, if one wants to depict a blue coffee mug, she or he could start with the contour of the object, tracing the outline of the mug with distinct lines. The color blue will then be filled in within the confines. Alternatively, one focuses on the color of the mug and directly represents it with blue paint. In this approach, the mug’s shape is defined by the contrast between the blue portion and the area that remains unchanged.
As a result, there are two ways to create a painting: line before color and color before line. As a newbie painter, the difference between these two approaches is purely practical. Given that novice practitioners are unskilled with tool application, color-goes-first-line is less preferable because it needs hand-on dexterity.
That is why, in most cases, academic art instruction focuses on, at least initially, the competence of drawing lines.
However, as history progressed into the modern age, peripheral ideas consistently challenged the mainstream. In the arts, there was a growing interest in modifying the interpretation of a work.
Rather than focusing on similarity and achieving ultimate precision, as previous impressionism and academic art did, the revolutionary avant-garde coined the term ‘expressionism’ to encourage direct expression of lost notions of authenticity and spirituality. As a result, the demand for unfettered expression influenced not just thematic alterations but also technical factors, undermining a line-based art technique.
Here, line and color, two intricately linked components of a painting, underwent a transformation that examined the expressive nature of the hue. What appears rational to an academic art student is plausible to an expressionist.
Addressing the lack of dexterity in line drawing is no longer required. The twisted patterns and vivid colors on the canvas were a passionate tribute to the artist’s inner world. In this scenario, color-before-line was regarded as a crucial method to expressionist painting, whereby an especially good example is the art of Jawlensky.
It exemplified color liberty while retaining an autonomous spirit. We explain to kids that mastering line drawing makes color easier. As a result, the initial devaluation of color leads to a strict artistic approach.
Conventional academic art institutions educate artists through this disciplined art practice, a tradition that goes back to The Renaissance, when the success of an apprenticeship depended on mechanical skillfulness, which included rule comprehension and hands-on experience.
Let’s revisit the initial example to further illustrate how the expressionist’s brush can represent the world differently. Based on the rigid line-oriented practice, outlining the shape of the mug creates an enclosure that facilitates the filling of the color.
The color solely serves as an enhancement to the mug’s shape, making it intrinsically subject to the line. In contrast, color-goes-before-line renders the color free. Rather than adhering to the line, the color is self-sustained. The expressionist personifies the color to some extent, imbuing it with unique characters. However, for the expressionist, the eccentric traits remain a mystery.
Therefore, an expressionist art practice is not to convey a certain emotion but to explore the uncertainty behind what seems to be ostensible. A blue mug’s shape is not to be defined, and the blueish tint is merely a side of its character, a vehicle for the changing world.
For expressionists who believe in the expressive power of color, the line-before-color technique hinders the spirit of the color. Drawing a line is a representation of containment, much like a cloud foreshadowing the color's brightness. Woman bathing, by Mary Cassatt, is one such example.
The release of color allows for actual expression, which, unlike the rigorous approach in the world of academic art, frees expression from physical constraints.
For expressionist painters, reflecting the objective world does not imply copying and repetition. The brush is dedicated to showing a "mid-place," a juncture where the subjective and objective worlds peacefully merge. As a result, expressionist painting is unlike anything else in the visual universe. The goal of painting is to depict a conceptualized world, not one that we observe.
A picture seen by the mind is represented on the painting. As such, we can observe in a lot of expressionist paintings that the color was frequently smeared over the hazy and ambiguous lines. Sometimes a painting's savage appearance results from the intense blaze of color burning the rigidity of the lines. Artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner use this method, believing that it truly captures the soul of the item.
As he says, the forms of visible nature are merely symbols for the artist, who should work from his imagination and inner vision.
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Rosalind
As a practitioner in the realm of art over the years, I have wandered through the palaces of both Western and Eastern artistic traditions. These diverse art pieces serve as wellsprings for my writing...