What Makes a Work of Art Successful?
Art: Medium, Technique and Idea. Often one of the three is exploited at the expense of the others. A work of art can be technically splendid but lack idea.
“The very people who believe that everything has already been discovered and everything said, will greet your work as something new, and will close the door behind you, repeating once more that nothing remains to be said.” … “Newness is in the mind of the artist who creates, and not in the object he portrays.” ~ Delacroix Jan 25, 1850
I have said to myself over and over again that painting, i.e. the material process which we call painting, is no more than the pretext, the bridge between the mind of the artist and that of the beholder. Cold accuracy is not art. Skillful invention, when it is pleasing or expressive, is art itself. The so-called conscientiousness of the great majority of painters is nothing but perfection in the art of boring. If it were possible, these fellows would labor with equal care over the backs of their pictures. It might be interesting to write a treatise on all the falsities that can be added together to make a truth.” ~ Delacroix August 10, 1850
“We don’t know the why of the choices we make. When I know why I like a thing, I already like it a little less. A work is interesting in the degree to which it escapes its creator’s intentions and the spectator’s interpretations. It’s always a question of the real. In figurative art, it is there in the form of appearance; in non-figurative art, it is there in the form of experience. ~ Louvre Dialogues, 1967
Art: Line, volumes or texture (also in sculpture) and color are the true plastic art builders.
The rest follows: Field-orientation versus object-orientation is the key composition element to all successful works of art; Figure-ground (field-orientation is present in all successful compositions in various configurations) So are:
1. Field Orientation versus Object Orientation
2. Concentric configuration
3. Interruption
4. Repetition
5. Closure
6. Movement
7. Direction
8. Perspective
9. Volumes
10. Distance and intensity
11. Breaks in monotony
12. Tension
13. Harmony
14. Dynamism
15. Timing
16. Light
17. Shape relationship
18. Weight
19. Color Coordination
20. Perspective
21. Distance
22. Fooling Elements or trompe l’œil
23. Atmosphere or feeling and mood
24. Aura
25. Presence
26. Character
27. Spirit
28. Taste and flavor
29. Ideas
You need all fundamental elements to have art land or occur: Line, volumes or texture, color and composition. What determines its artistic value is the context of its creative ideas.
Hence, technique (the application or manipulation of media), medium (the dominating overall media as in bronze or canvas or paper or space) and creative ideas make works of art more or less successful.
Other criteria to consider: background, climate, environment, impression, place, property, scene, semblance, sense, space, surroundings, tone, address, affectation, appearance, bearing, comportment, demeanor, deportment, effect, manner, mannerism, pose, and tone.
© Philippe Benichou
