Objectives

Chapter 6 explores the many ways in which artists have addressed space in their work. When an artist draws a simple shape on paper—a square, a circle, any shape—they have really created two things: the shape, and the space that surrounds it. When the artist begins to draw larger shapes on the same paper, these new shapes appear closer. If shapes overlap one another, then the artist is working with "illusory space."

This chapter describes many techniques artists employ in order to suggest the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. Chapter 6 also introduces some of the terms necessary for understanding "actual space"—the volumetric space that we all live in, and the same space that artists who work three-dimensionally must address.

After reading this chapter you should:

1. know the definitions of key terms including:
   • axonometric projection
   • binocular
   • figure-ground reversal
   • foreshortening
   • linear perspective
   • mass
   • monocular
   • picture plane
   • positive and negative space
   • reserve
   • shape verisimilitude
   • volume

2. understand how artists and designers work with positive and negative space, and how sculptors work with "actual" space.

3. recognize the various techniques that artists employ to suggest illusory space including overlapping, object size, or rendering.

4. know the difference between the different types of perspective, including scientific and axonometric projection, and how these visual systems function in specific applications.

5. recognize how artists, since the time of the Renaissance, have employed perspective systems for organizing their paintings.

6. learn how artists deliberately distort space using foreshortening, or by deliberately avoiding the traditional rules of perspective.

Chapter 6 begins with a mention of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and its impact on the perception of space at the beginning of the twentieth century. What has impacted our concept of space at the beginning of the twenty-first century? Space is a construction of shapes and masses. We grasp space through illusion—that is the way we represent it. We might do this through scientific perspective, simple overlapping, or a complex computer generation. Space remains important for the modern artists who tend to distort it in a denial of verisimilitude. Space is the area where art takes place, where almost anything is possible.

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