The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts

This book is about how pictures take on meaning from the forces acting between the "centers" within them. In Arnheim's words "Geometrically, the center is defined purely by location as the point equidistant from all homologous points of a regular figure. Physically, the center is the fulcrum around which an object balances. Perceptually, the "balancing center" is the point at which all vectors constituting a visual pattern are in equilibrium. In a broader sense and irrespective of location, any visual object constitutes a "dynamic center" because it is the seat of forces issuing from it and converging toward it." Simplistic compositional tips like "avoid the center of the picture" and the fulcrum principle(balancing objects on the left and right of the image according to their visual weight), by being integrated into the theories presented here, are put into a larger context and derive greater meaning. Various topics are covered: how differently shaped frames(vertical rectangle, horizontal rectangle, square, circle) emphasize the geometrical center in different ways and how that effects meaning. How objects within a picture derive meaning from their location within it, and how they attract and repel each other. 2D and 3D interpretation of pictures. Symbolic or metaphorical meaning derived from vectors, the pushes and pulls of action within the picture. "Micro themes" located at the centers of pictures which summarize the story, pouring water in a bowl to symbolize conversation, a hand supporting another to symbolize the theme of support. I found the book very informative, giving me lots of things to look for in pictures, and ideas to try out in compositions.

I've been looking for a book like this for years! As a photographer, I know what I like but I can't always say why I (or others) like it--in other words, what makes a "good" image. Arnheim helps by examining with extraordinary sensitivity the psychology and even physiology of visual perception. Yes, it's complicated, and if you are not on the same wavelength as the author it may seem obtuse (perhaps even willfully so). But if your thinking is congruent with his, if you have been puzzling over how people examine images, how their eyes move about an image and absorb and appreciate it, then Arnheim's analysis is nothing short of brilliant and revelatory. I find myself saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!" as I read. There is more here than I need--much more. I don't feel that I need to master everything he writes in order to fulfill my need to understand visual perception so as to improve my photography. But I celebrate the day I discovered this book, and I congratulate the author on such a perceptive, clearly--even engagingly--written work.

Arnheim's great books inspired me to make my own analysis of one artist's paintings, van Gogh, so I just wanted to make a few comments about that. (I even once received a letter from Arnheim, saying he liked my ideas). As Ernst Gombrich has shown, analyzing space in a picture is an extremely complex business. The fact that even sophisticated observers sometimes form mistaken impressions of a pictorial space is itself an interesting phenomenon and illustrates an important principle of the human visual system, which is that it is not very good at evaluating precise metrical relationships. If the space is so constructed that it is at least internally consistent, it may look realistic when it is not, and the space may even seem distorted when it is not. Considering the problem of the different recession rates for the objects in van Gogh's paintings, how do we account for these distortions? We could simply dismiss them as errors resulting from van Gogh's inability to paint perspectivally, but would be a mistake, for the following reasons: 1) The magnitude and direction of the errors in the sizes of objects are consistent with known psychophysical mechanisms of size constancy. 2) There is a strong shape constancy effect, and also (as John Ward has pointed out), such as in the two chairs and the pictures on the wall (in his Bedroom at Arles). 3) Van Gogh's failure to map out an initial, precise, major metric eliminates the most important perspective cue for object scaling and thus permits the inherent constancy-scaling effects of the human visual system to surface. 4) Although distorted perspectivally, the space is nevertheless internally consistent. This is to be expected from secondary size-constancy effects. 5) The technique of squinting to enhance one's depth of field, which van Gogh sometimes used, would reinforce cues to size constancy by essentially putting the station point behind the artist. Points 4 and 5 require further discussion. As noted earlier, secondary size constancy is the tendency for the sizes of objects to correlate with other perspective cues. Even in a painting with a very poorly defined or no major metric (such as in van Gogh's Bedroom), most perspective errors are not random. If they were, the errors would occur in both positive and negative directions about some mean value and would therefore average out. This is rarely the case, however. Usually the errors show a consistent trend. This is because once a given direction and magnitude of deviation has been established, other cues tend to be altered accordingly for the sake of consistency. This can be seen in van Gogh's Bedroom where different objects show similar effects. Although the objects themselves show different vanishing points, the size effect is nevertheless the same. Van Gogh is also known to have used squinting in order to increase his depth of field. This would cause both foreground and background objects to appear simultaneously more in focus and therefor

This book offers an in-depth analysis of the visual dynamics in a piece of art according to the sizes, positions, orientations and the balancing centers of its components. Paintings, sculptures and architectures are the subjects of discussions in the book. In addition to the balance between the components of a piece of art, the shape of a picture frame, the environment, the perspective prescribed by the artist and the viewer all play an important role in the interpretation of a piece art. The author takes an step-by-step approach to explain how the understanding of the roles of all these elements would help us to appreciate a piece of art. Many examples, modern and classical, are provided to demonstrate his points. I find his approach to understanding a piece of art interesting and revealing. This is one of the best books I ever read about arts. I think this book would benefit aspiring artists and art enthusiasts alike. I would hane given it five stars instead of four and a half if the pictures in the book were in color.