Color Harmony

"Furthermore, it goes without saying that separations are essential to composition as connections.  When there are no segregated parts there is nothing to connect, and the result is an amorphous mash...we find that no visual organization is readable unless it is based on a limited number of perceptual values, which constitute the skeleton of the structure into which the finer gradations are fitted" (Arnheim, 350).

I was especially interested in the section where Arnheim describes how color is "organized" both as individual units in themselves, and as components that make up the gestalt of an image.  I thought Arnheim's description of this phenomenon was very effective, but also very elusive.  This concept of dual perception--the idea that our eyes can simultaneously perceive the holistic image and its components--stayed with me after I finished reading, but the reading didn't diminish the mystery surrounding this phenomenon.  I was especially struck by the idea that double perception does not often elicit the viewer's confusion. A person with "accurate" visual perception is able to look at a red and black dresser and immediately able to both "segregate its parts," and organize those parts into a recognizable whole.  She is able to perceive its individual colors (red and black), while simultaneously perceiving it as a whole object, not just a composite of red and black.  I think it's pretty remarkable that human beings are able to simultaneously construct and deconstruct images in this way without confusing themselves.

I thought Arnheim's comparison between art and music composition made good sense, but I can't help but think that there is a difference between the way viewers are able to see the components of the artwork as well as the whole, and the way that a listener is able to distinguish the constituent elements of a melody from the whole.  I think that the latter depends on some knowledge of musical composition, where as the former experience is more visceral.  We cannot help but to perceive color on multiple levels, but teasing apart music in this way seems to depend on a technical knowledge of music.  Once someone has a technical understanding of music, they are able to hear these technical elements in a piece of music.  One need not have a knowledge of art, however, in order to be able to perceive gradations of color in a painting.

This reading reminded me of something my brother, an abstract painter, said about his work.  He told me that he likes the physicality of paint--he likes to layer paint so that it forms a texture on a canvas instead of just a flat layer of color.  He said that he likes to create pieces in which the paint as a material cannot be separated from paint as the art itself. This aim reminded me of the "color harmony" Arnheim describes, where perceptual connections can happen so seamlessly, and color harmony is not an aesthetic decision on the part of the artist or viewer, but a natural process.