Towards An Objective Description of Art (Art Has Both Subjective And Objective Qualities)
[Disclaimer: This writing contains original research.]
The universe is both continuous and discrete at the same time. A particle can be a wave, and a wave can be a particle. Something similar could be said for art. Art can have objective qualities and subjective qualities. The objective qualities (such as the brightness and saturation of color) can be the basis for a subjective interpretation (such “clear” or “ambiguous”), while the subjective qualities (such as the warmth of a color) can also be the basis for an objective observation (such as the color temperature).
Art is not purely subjective. Art can be seen and understood with the primary elements of color, form, and meaning. Art can be personal, but personal does not equate to subjectivity. Both the execution and the interpretation of art is both objective and subjective at the same time, with objective qualities supporting subjective qualities and vice versa.
A big part of why many people assume art to be entirely subjective is because the various objective aspects of art in terms of color interaction and visual impact are not completely understood and explained through an objective lens. In other words, the idea that art is purely subjective exists because we don’t know how to objectively explain every aspect of art that should be objectively explainable. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t try, and what we already know points to the fact that there is a greater degree of objectivity for our “subjective” experiences with art.
The three primary elements of art, which are color, form, and meaning, allow for both objective and subjective observations and interpretations to happen. Color and form, specifically, are related in the sense that color influences form, and form influences color. For example, when a form consists of a curved surface that turns in space, and it is hit with a source of light, the form will exhibit a range of values from light to dark. Depending on the temperature of the light source and the color of the object, there will also be a range of colors from warm to cool that corresponds to lightness and darkness.
Forms do not have to be made only of objects depicted in space, but also can be abstract marks and shapes, as well as the overall composition which divides up the visual image into regions, out of and into which the eye of the viewer travels.
Take a look at the works of Francis Bacon. The gestural marks can be seen as violent and grotesque. Or take a look at the works of Renoir. The soft colors and brushwork on the skin of the girl can be felt as sensuous. These subjective qualities can, perhaps, be translated into a simple sum like energy, which would be an objective description, if we can have a greater understanding of describing geometry, light, and color within the combined framework of energy.
This sum of energy could be described in different ways, such as speed, acceleration, weight, and momentum. An image with high speed could consist of bright and vibrant colors. An image with low speed could consist of dark and muted colors. An image with high acceleration would consist of high contrasts of energy between areas with bright and vibrant colors, and areas with dark and muted colors. An image with low acceleration would consist of areas of colors that exhibit less contrast. An image with greater weight will consist of darker, heavier colors, while an image with lesser weight will consist of lighter colors. And an image with greater momentum will consist of dark forms that slide (diagonally) in space, while an image with lesser momentum will consist of either dark forms that do not move at all (in other words, they are static) or lighter forms.
In other words, Francis Bacon’s work are violent and grotesque, while Renoir’s works are sensuous for the same reason — they have varying amounts of energy, whether it is the speed, acceleration, weight, or momentum of the colors and values, or it is in the geometry, shapes, and composition, consisting of forms.
If forms have values, and values are one way to achieve contrast, color must also be discussed since it is another way to achieve strong contrast in an image without significantly altering the value (which is the brightness or the darkness of the image).
Colors are tricky because how they mix differ significantly based on the system of color mixing. With light, which uses an additive system of colors, the primary colors are Red, Green, and Blue. Additive means that the colors add up to create White (the absence of light equals Black). The opposite of additive is subtractive, in which a pigment or an object absorbs a certain color of light (such as Yellow) and emits or reflects the opposite color (such as Blue); in other words, a Red object appears Red because the object absorbs the Cyan, which is the opposite color of Red. Subtractive system has two sub-systems of color mixing , which are the system mixing pigments as in paint and the system printing pigments through the technique of coating, in which colors do not literally mix like paint but are coated or glazed as layers on top of one another. In Painting, the primary colors are Red, Yellow, and Blue; in Printing, the primary colors are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (and Black). The differences in terms of primary colors exist between different systems of color mixing because they allow the chosen colors to create the widest color gamut, or the range of colors, using just the 3 (or 4, in the case of Printing) colors.[1][2]
My guess is that, originally, the primary colors with light were Red, Yellow, and Blue, but, due to the evolution of the human vision to see a wider range of Greens, the Yellows were pushed out and made into narrower band of colors, and the Green became one of the primary colors for additive color mixing, while the equivalent in Subtractive color mixing with paint remained Yellow.
Colors can be quantified into numbers, such as brightness (or luminosity), saturation, and temperature. With these numbers regarding color, we can take baby steps towards an objective description of art.
Color exists in a system of adjacent colors that can be constructed as a color space. The color space, known as HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) is a system that organizes colors by their attributes that are measured and quantified.[3]
In additive color system, on a computer display, there are 255 levels of color, and every color is created using the 3 primary colors — Red, Green, and Blue (RGB), since RGB allows for the widest color gamut. The absence of color naturally brings about varying degrees of Black. Red (R) is the opposite of Cyan (C); Green (G) is the opposite of Magenta (M); and Blue (B) is the opposite of Yellow (Y). Red and Green produce Yellow (R + G = Y); Red and Blue produce Magenta (R + B = M); and Blue and Green produce Cyan (B + G = C).
Among the colors, Yellow is the brightest at 98 luminosity (according to Photoshop attributes), while Blue is the darkest at 30; Cyan is the next brightest at 91 luminosity, while Red is the second darkest at 54; and Green is the third brightest at 88, while Magenta is the third darkest at 60.
What this shows is that the colors have a natural affinity for certain level of brightness, meaning that they are the most intense and vibrant at that level. For example, Yellow is the most intense at mid to high brightness and less intense at low brightness, while Blue is the most intense at mid to low brightness and less intense at high brightness.
For example, to create a rendering of an Orange-colored object with a light and shadow, it is possible to achieve maximum vibrancy by shifting the light towards Yellow and the shadow towards Red because Yellow is naturally a bright color, while Red is naturally a darker color than Yellow.
Temperature is the warmth or the coolness of a color. It can be expressed with two ranges of color — Yellow and Blue (labeled as “temperature” in Photoshop), and Green and Magenta (labeled as “tint” in Photoshop). To go towards Red, the temperature should shift towards Yellow, and the tint should shift towards Magenta. To go towards Cyan, the temperature should shift towards Blue, and the tint should shift towards Green.
Orangish Red is the warmest of all colors, while Sky Blue is the coolest of all colors. Each color can shift towards warm or cool direction. When mixing adjacent colors near the peak (in the diagram), both colors need to be of the same temperature — cool or warm — to produce a vibrant outcome. Away from the peak, however, the two adjacent colors need to be warm and cool colors respectively to produce a vibrant outcome. Once the colors get farther apart, however, the closest colors — whether they are warm and/or cool — produce the most vibrant outcome. When a color is chosen or specified, it will always have warmer and cooler counterparts that are adjacent because color is a relative phenomenon.[4]
The HSV color system shows that as colors get closer to White, which is the sum of all 3 primary colors (Red, Green, and Blue), they become closer to the opposite color on the spectrum. Then the question must be asked — what happens when colors get closer to Black? Do they also get closer to the opposite color on the spectrum? What is the color Black anyways? We know that it is the absence of light, and some people refuse to categorize White, Grey, and Black as colors at all. However, this is wrong because White, Grey, and Black are colors as well, in the sense that opposite colors can be perceived in them relative to the adjacent colors, and they are made up of colors themselves. For example, Pink, which is the lighter version of Red (or a tint of Red) and, for a computer, consists of mostly Red and a bit of Green and Blue, shows in it a bit of the opposite color Cyan, which consists of Green and Blue. And Crimson, which for a computer consists of a darker Red (or a shade of Red) that consists of a partial absence of Red and greater presence of Black, has hints of Green and Blue observed distinctly together (although they do not appear together as Cyan, which is too bright of a color to appear in a shade of Red).
In Painter’s terminology, pure color plus White is tint, while a darker version of the color, which must often be concocted using a mixture of various nearby and opposite colors, is a shade. In Painting, while it is often straightforward to produce a tint by just adding White to a color, it is more complicated to produce a shade because adding a Black color will shift the hue due to the uneven mixing and/or hue inaccuracy of the Black pigment. (Just as the Pthalo Blue pigment appears very close to Black at high concentration due to its transparent nature but appears blue when diluted, or mixed, Black pigment often appears Black at high concentration and reveals a slight shift in hue when diluted, or mixed with other colors). And either by mixing a tint and a shade together, or by mixing a pure Grey and a pure color together, you get a tone, which is the muted version of the color.[5]
Using a field of opposition, a similar color space to the painter’s color space can be conceived, in which Black is represented as the direction of the opposite color as the color gets closer to Black. On the other side of the regular color space, past Black is the opposite imaginary color.
By recognizing that there is something in the nothingness, and that Black is a color in and of itself, not just the absence of color, I believe that a complete objective description of color can begin to be arrived at. All these attributes of color, including hue, saturation, value, luminosity (the native brightness of color), temperature, and others… are essential elements of describing art through an objective lens. And these objective, mathematical properties and attributes of color and form of an artwork can help translate the meaning of the artwork, since there is an objective basis to the subjectivity in art, and vice versa.
The element that unifies the objective side of art and visual imagery could be energy, which can be described as speed, acceleration, weight, and momentum. This makes sense, since everything in the universe, including the fabric of spacetime and every particle and even sentient beings such as ourselves, are made of energy.
This is not to discredit the merits of the subjectivity of art. After all, what is the point of all the math and numbers if we cannot feel and be moved by the work of art? I am simply pointing out that there is an objective basis to the subjectivity. Furthermore, I believe that not all opinions are equal, and some opinions are more informed than others, or truer and more valid than others. You cannot walk into museum, glance at a work by Picasso for 2 minutes, and then declare even his best works to be mediocre, or that you don’t like his work. Yes you may be entitled to your own opinion based on your own perception, but I would still point out that there may be something wrong with your opinion and/or perception, not the Picasso itself.
In other words, the subjective nature of art does not mean that everyone’s opinions regarding art are equal. You may be entitled to your own opinion, but it may be wrong in the eye of truth, which deals with both the subjective and the objective.
This then brings me to my point regarding truth. Truth is something that can be internally experienced, observed, and acknowledged. Equipped with an open mind and the right tools, anyone can have access to the truth, which is why truth is universal. Then, looking at art, evaluating art, and making opinions about art can be said to be a form of exercising the perception of truth and its calibration through debate and dialogue.
Sources:
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RYB_color_model
2: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/pricol2.html
3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV