Pictorial Space: Introduction

Space

Areas this concept covers:                                        

• Pictorial Space                                                    
• Architectural Space                                      
• Virtual Space                                                      
• Performance Space                                            
• Interpersonal Space                   

Keywords for Research

• Perspective / Perception / Negative/ Positive
• Urban/Rural/Form
• Reality / Constructed / Hybrid
• Body / Audience / Surveillance / Privacy / Physical

Artists

Fra Angelico 

Katharina Grosse

Hans Hoffmann

Otto Laske

Sarah Munro

Jackson Pollock

Frank Stella

Tarmara Wasserman

Art Movements

Early Renaissance 

Baroque & Neo-Classicism 

Cubism

Futurism

What space means when it is applied in art?

Does it have some shape?

How is space mandatory for the overall success of an art composition?

Pictorial space is concerned with shapes and space interacting on a flat surface with no implied depth. Cut paper silhouettes, stencils, and flat woodblock prints are good examples of pure pictorial two-dimensional space.

Edgar John Rubin (1886 - 1951), Danish psychologist and philosopher.  

Introduction: Pictorial Space

"Oh what a lovely thing this perspective is!"

- Paolo Uccello

Pictorial Space in art is in many ways a fiction, an oxymoran. The idea of rendering space has been a fundamental touch stone in all forms of visual arts practices. In Western visual art the idea of rendering space through single point linear perspective was a priority from the early 1400s, founded by the Italian architect Fillipo Brunelleschi. In Eastern Art, there was a more prevalent use of what is described as 'planar perspective' which would focus on distributing subjects across spatial planes, a method of rendering space far more suitable to forms of painting such as scrolls which would be common in China.

Looking at the way we render and mould space onto a 2D surface is a vast and in many ways endless pursuit. In this guide we will go through the various forms of artworks, from the 15th century all the way up to the present day, and examine how we see space and create art from it!

Did You Know?

Christo, Wrapped Walk Ways (project for Stephen's Green Park in Dublin), 1983. 

As part of the 1977 ROSC exhibition, Christo showed drawings which proposed to wrap the walkways around Stephen’s Green. Inspired by the Japanese ceremonial use of gardens, the paths all around the park were to be cloaked in white fabric for several weeks.

Although sketches of the Dublin proposal were sold prior to the ROSC exhibition, the decision for the project’s ultimate approval or denial fell with local authorities. In the end, it was denied. By the time ROSC ’77 opened, the project had been shelved.

Wrapped Walk Ways, Project for St Stephen's Green Park, Dublin (1977) Christo, Collection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased by the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland and Dublin Corporation, 1978. © The Estate of Christo. (Image Source)