See also:   [2-D design]
                   [3-D design]

                   [Form]
                   [Content]
                   [Context]
                   [Title]  

            [Art Terms]
                 


Formal Elements

Formal elements are the basic elements of an artwork and are meant to
be objective statements about the work. For example, whether a painting
"works" or not, is often subjective, however, the use of formal elements
can be pointed to so as to "bring out" certain aspects of a work. Often
a "formal interpretation" is used to talk about the basic aspects of the
work. 

There are two *supposedly* complementary aspects to an art work:

             content -- what is IN the work, it's meaning, the subject of the work.
and 
            form -- how the work is put together.

Content often disappears when there is pure abstraction, in this case we
must have information about the work's intent. (This leads to the famous
Intentionalist Falacy; ie, that
we can "guess" the intention of the artist. In most cases, such guesses
are amusing; eg, the "clear intent" of Georgia O'keef's flowers to have
specifically FEMALE content to them -- which was far a-field).

Formal Elements

Composition (the big cookie!)

Colour
Scale
Shape
Size
Value