Emotion in Art

If you've ever walked through an art museum, there's a moment we all experience when a piece of art stops us in our tracks. Something about that specific piece strikes you, whether a painting or a sculpture. For most people, it's not because of anything academic. It's because it triggered an emotional response. Art moves us. In fact, studies have shown that one of the main reasons people buy art is because it touches them. Mark Rothko was one of the most important painters of abstract expressionism. He once said, the fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions. Emotions, or feelings, are the part of living that makes us feel alive. In fact, the actual definition of fine art has to do with emotion. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, fine art is an art concerned primarily with the creation of beautiful objects. So what is beauty? The Oxford Dictionary defines beauty as a combination of qualities that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Basically, beauty triggers an emotional response. And fine art is an expression of beauty. But art in general doesn't have to be beautiful to touch us. Art can be stoical, or even unpleasant. The point is that it brings up emotions. So how does this emotional connection happen? It all really starts with the artist. Why do we as artists paint things? We paint things because we're moved by something, and we want to communicate that emotion to our viewers. It may be intentional or unintentional. An artist may purposely select an emotion for a piece and be strategic about it throughout their planning. Some artists want to make a statement with their art, and that could mean either making a political, a social, or maybe a religious statement. In a sense, that's emotional too. They feel passionately about a topic or a subject, and so they communicate that in their art. On the other hand, artists may communicate emotion unintentionally. Sometimes artists just simply paint, and if they're feeling a certain way at that time, it may convey in their artwork. For example, Jackson Pollock is one of the masters of art who suffered from depression. At one point, he even had a nervous breakdown. When you look at some of his work, you can sometimes see the expression of those feelings. And for viewers who struggle with the same issue, they may feel a special connection to his artwork. Of course, there's some art that to our modern eyes doesn't seem to have emotion. For example, if you consider the ancient Egyptian sculptures, they look pretty stoical when we see them. But we have to consider that perhaps to those living in ancient times, this artwork may have been very moving, and represented something very meaningful, such as a physical representation of their religious beliefs. Have artists always communicated emotion in art? Absolutely. You can look back at artists like Neresi, or the ancient Romans. Although it may not have become obvious to our contemporary eyes until the renaissance in the 14 and 1500s. So how do artists convey feeling in their painting? What is it about a piece that it can touch us and make us feel something? Let's look at some paintings, both historical and contemporary, and discuss some of the tools that the artists used in order to enhance the emotion of the piece. We'll begin with a piece by Caspar David Friedrich. This painting is so powerful. What a composition. The emotion is partly in the subject matter itself. The boy threw away his crutches in his praying, but even the way Friedrich has conveyed the crutches being tossed aside tells a story. Note the pale pink at the top of what appears to be a distant church. It's a very poignant touch. This painting has a very tropical, humid feeling. The viewer can almost feel the oppression of the heat. Church uses very warm color tones. He places dramatic values in the closest foreground, and then rapidly decreases the value as you move back through the scene, leaving the distant background almost completely dissolved. The hazed, visible sun completes the mood. One of the masters of communicating emotion in his painting is Winslow Homer. Look at the drama he's captured in this piece. In addition to the harrowing scene, take note of some of the small touches that give this piece impact. The fluttering red scarf, for example, or the little drips on her hand. The intense, visible brush strokes that enhance the emotion that's taking place. Notice how the waves guide the eye in a rocking motion. When everything's put together, it creates a very powerful painting. Now, paintings can also be very cheerful. This piece by Coype has a very warm, inviting feeling, and part of the reason for this feeling is his heavy use of light values. There's a lot of light. The emotion is also impacted by his combination of an almost lemony tone with a lavender blue. They are contrasting colors on the color wheel, meaning they have special impact. But because they're used so delicately, the painting still feels restful. The emotion is also set by the composition, which of course depicts tranquil water and very relaxed figures. Now, this piece by Van Gogh also uses yellow and lavender blue, more blue really, but the colors are much more intense and the brush strokes are very distinguishable. Note the power of complementary colors isn't delicate here, but rather it's taken to its full advantage to have impact. Viewers can practically feel the intensity of the sun. Another master at conveying emotion in his paintings is Turner. Look at the drama in this piece. The directional strong brush strokes perfectly mimic the whipping reins of an ocean tempest. Now, we know it's an ocean because of the wave-like loose shapes and the stormy colors. The single ship mast gives us just enough information to put the story together, but lacks enough detail that it really draws you into contemplation. Notice, by the way, his dramatic use of white. Rembrandt was well known for his use of whites as well, but figure painters have many additional tools at their disposal. Look at the following paintings and note the use of facial expression, the position of the body, the use of color to set the mood, and the subject matter in the background. Each detail can be used to enhance the painting's expression. Now, in addition to color and expression, artists can use lines to communicate emotion. Look at these two contemporary paintings. They're both very colorful, but the one on the left uses circular rounded lines and the piece on the right sharp edgy lines. The shape of the line influences the mood of the piece. Now, let's compare the rounded piece to another piece using smooth lines. Both are beautiful, but the painting with the circles comes across as very tranquil, peaceful, while the one on the right conveys energy, almost fluid motion. In this painting by Jacob Lawrence, the use of jagged lines in the figures, as well as the way the artist positioned them, gives an incredible feeling of effort and strain. Here's a portrait by Picasso in which the jagged lines are used to enhance the feeling of bitter pain, devastation perhaps, as opposed to his painting, The Lovers, which is softer in line and also in color. I think artists are generally fairly emotional people. Not that we're controlled by our emotions, but that we feel deeply. We're sensitive, and if you think about it, if artists didn't feel strongly about what they were painting, the end product would be very mechanical. Emotion is what makes art an experience.