Principles of Composition

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Principles of Composition
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Variety
Henri Matisse, Memory of Oceania, 1953 Gouache on
paper, cut and pasted, and charcoal on white
paper, Museum of Modern Art, NY
Unity
Jackson Pollock, Shimmering Substances (Sounds in
the Grass Series), Oil on Canvas, 1946 Museum of
Modern Art, NY
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VARIETY
Joseph Cornell, The Hotel Eden, 1945, Assemblage
with music box, National Gallery Of Canada,
Ottawa
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RADIAL BALANCE
Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life, 1909-10, Oil on
Canvas, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
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A B S A Y
L M A M N E
C T E R I
C A L
Gustav Klimt, Death and Life, Before 1911,
finished 1915, Oil on Canvas, Museum Leopold,
Vienna, Austria
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Asymmetrical Balance
Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew,
1748-1749, Oil on Canvas, National Gallery, London
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S Y M M E T R I C A L
B A L A N C E
Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas, 1939, Oil on Canvas,
Museo Nacionale de Arte Moderno, Instituto
Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City
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Scale Proportion
Scale the size of something In relation to what
we Assume to be normal
Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Pursuit, from The
Progress of Love, 1771-73, 1790-91, Oil on
Canvas, Frick Collection, New York
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Claes Oldenburg, Stake Hitch, 1984, Stake
Aluminum, steel, resin painted with polyurethane
enamel, Rope polyurethanfoam, plastic materials,
painted with latex Dallas Museum of art
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Great Buddha of Kamakura, Kotoku-in, Kamakura,
Japan, 1252, Bronze, 43
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Scale
Proportion-size of one part in relation to
another within an artwork or size of one part in
relation to the whole
P R O P O R T I O N
Rene Magritte, Delusions of Grandeur II, 1948,
Oil on Canvas, Hirshorn Museum, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, DC
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EMPHASIS!
Jasper Johns, Target with Four Faces,
1955, Encaustic and Collage on canvas With
plaster casts, MOMA, NY