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Repeat After Me: Repetition in the Visual Arts
Introduction
When we view paintings and other works of art our eyes usually move across the surface of the canvas, hitting on various points, objects, and figures in the picture. Our attention is drawn to particular parts of the image—to certain figures or actions—which propel the narrative captured in the picture or which convey certain information to the viewer. Certainly the artist wants to be sure that the audience pays the most attention to the important elements—such as the focal point—in the image rather than decorative or background elements. In this lesson students will learn about repetition, one of the techniques artists often use to highlight important elements within a painting's composition, and to move a viewer's eye around the canvas, from highpoint to highpoint.
Guiding Questions
- How do compositional elements guide the viewer's eye around the canvas?
- What is repetition in the visual arts, and how does it affect works of art?
Learning Objectives
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
- Identify repetition in the composition of a variety of art works, and how it is used to create a unified composition
- Explain how the artist's compositional choices guide the viewer's eye to important components of the image
- Discuss ways in which the compositional structure of a painting affects the tone of the painting, or communicates information or emotional content to the viewer.
Preparing to Teach this Lesson
- Review the curriculum unit overview and this lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and EDSITEment-reviewed websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
- Note: All diagrams, line drawings, and questions for this lesson are available for students to download directly through the Student LaunchPad. You can access all of the diagrams for this lesson plan directly through the Teacher LaunchPad. You should read through the Student LaunchPad in preparation for teaching this lesson.
Suggested Activities
1. Practice Makes Perfect? Introducing Repetition in Composition
Visual repetition is one of the devices that artists sometimes use in order to move a viewer's eye across the surface of a canvas. In this activity students will learn to identify examples of visual repetition and to explain how repetition guides the viewer's eye through the visual field of the painting.
Begin with a definition of repetition in the visual arts:
- Repetition in the visual arts can be thought of as a recurring shape, color, object, motif, or other element within a work of art.
Have students begin by viewing the following painting which is available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource The National Gallery of Art:
Have students access the line drawing and diagrams of this image through the
Student
Launchpad to aid in discussing repetition in this image. Students should
immediately recognize that some of the shapes and forms in the painting appear
more than once. Ask students to identify some of the repeated forms. They will
likely identify the two gondolas—and in particular the cabins located at the
aft of the boats—as well as the balconies and some of the windows. But are these
the only visual repetitions?
Mention that repetition in the visual arts should be understood to include
not only the duplication of identical objects—such as the two boats—but also
of elements whose form is in some way similar. That similarity might be the
found in the form, the outline, the color, the tone, or even the brightness
and saturation of two objects or figures. In this Monet painting, students might
note the blue posts which frame the doorway on the far left side of the painting.
A similarly colored and shaped set of posts is found to the right of that doorway.
The shape and color appear again to the right of the second frame, this time
in front of the building next door. Finally, the two mooring posts for the boats,
while spaced further apart than the previous posts, compose a similar shape
and are rendered using the same color. Walk through this process with the class
as a whole to model what they will be looking for in the paintings used in this
activity. For a mapping of the repeated frame, as well as a second example of
repetition in the Monet, have students access the line drawing and diagrams
of this image through the Student
Launchpad to aid in discussing the use of repetition in this image.
Have students
view the following painting, which is available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web
resource The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Divide the class into groups of three or four students. Once they have had a chance
to examine the painting ask students to work together to find examples of repetition
in this image. Students should identify the repetition in the shape of the rower
and his scull, the bridge, and the cloud that hovers above it. Have students access
the line drawing and diagrams of this image through the Student
Launchpad to aid in discussing repetition in this painting. Now that students
have begun to identify instances of visual repetition they may wonder why artists
choose to include these features in their paintings. Visual repetition in some
ways acts like an echo. There is frequently one feature (often this is the object
that is in the foreground of the painting) that appears as the "original," with
additional recurrences seeming to repeat—to echo—the first. You may ask students
to think about what happens when they hear an echo. They hear the first sound,
they then turn their attention to the echoed "response," and soon begin searching
with their ears for additional recurrences. Visual repetition can have the same
affect: the recurrences of the visual "echoes" draw a viewer's attention to that
point in the image, and soon they are searching with their eyes for additional
references. In this way repetition is often used as a tool by artists for guiding
the viewer's eye around the canvas. Ask students to describe the path their eyes
follow when viewing the Eakins. They may draw their viewing path directly on a
printout of the line drawing available from the Student
LaunchPad, or number sequentially the objects in the order where their eyes fall. Where
did they look first? Where did their attention shift next? Do they notice anything
about the path that their eyes followed? When students have finished working with
the PDF printout have each group present what they have found, and discuss their
findings as a class. Many students probably viewed the image by focusing first
on the scull and rower, then moving to the bridge, and then finally alighting
on the cloud. Students may note that this series of steps takes the viewer deeper
and deeper into the "space" of the painting, beginning with the object that is
painted to appear closest to the viewer and ending with the one that is painted
to appear furthest away. Thus, the use of repetition in this painting not only
pulls the viewer's eye across the surface of the canvas, but also draws the viewer
into the painting, pulling the viewer into the imaginary depth of the picture.
2. Repetition and the Use of Color
In the previous activity students concentrated on the duplication of shape
or form in their investigation of repetition in painting. In this activity students
will examine the use of repetition through color. Divide the class into three
or four small groups of students. Once they have had a chance to examine their
painting, ask students to work together to find examples of color repetition in
this image. Assign each group one of the following two images, which are both
available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource The
Smithsonian American Art Museum:
Have students work together to identify instances of color repetition in the
painting they have been assigned. In the first painting, students should be
able to identify Johnson's repeated use of electric blue throughout the image,
as well as the use of red and yellow throughout the composition. In addition
to identifying the repetition of these colors throughout the painting, students
should work together to identify the ways in which Johnson's use of repeated
color helps to guide the viewer's eye around the composition. Have students
access the line drawing and diagrams of this image through the Student
Launchpad to aid in this discussion. In this image Johnson uses the electric
blue to draw the viewer's eye from the foreground of the image, along one side
of the street and deep into the Harlem street he has depicted, and then back
down the other side of the street to the foreground once again. In the case
of the Johnson image, the color blue, which he uses to delineate human figures,
cars, and even the edge of the street, is laid down like a nearly unbroken path
for the eye to follow.
In the second painting students should be able to identify the three burnt
sienna colored pillars or groups of pillars which are depicted as holding up
the roof of the mine. Have students access the line drawing and diagrams of
this image through the Student
Launchpad to aid in discussing repetition in this painting. When students
have finished working with the PDF printout have each group present what they
have found, and discuss their findings as a class. Like the visual echo effect
described in the previous activity, similarly colored components within a painting's
composition will draw the viewer's eye from one object to another which resembles
it in tone. In the case of the Schwartz painting, the three pillars pull the
eye across the scene. In part this is because they are all similarly shaped,
however, the painter's color choice also makes a difference. The eye is often
drawn to patches of light (or comparatively light) color. The three pillars
are among the lightest points within the composition. In addition, the walls,
ceiling, and floor of the mine are painted in cool grays and blacks. Even the
miners appear cool in color, wearing their dirty blue overalls. The three sets
of pillars are given a warm brown tone which stands out in contrast to the cooler
background.
Students
should work within their groups to answer the following question:
- How do these similarly colored elements within the composition help to move
the viewer's eye across the picture plane?
Once the groups have had a chance to investigate their painting and to answer
the questions on the LaunchPad, each group should present its findings to the
rest of the class. Next, have students return to their groups and view the
following painting, which is also available on the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource
The Smithsonian American Art Museum:
Have students continue to work together in the same small groups to find examples
of color repetition in Crite's painting. Have students access the line drawing
and diagrams of this image through the Student
Launchpad to aid in discussing repetition in this painting. Students should
be able to identify the repetition of the yellow and the blue in the outfits worn
by many of the women and girls in the image.
- How do these similarly colored elements
within the composition help to move the viewer's eye around the painting?
Students should concentrate on where the visual echo created by the yellow and
blue takes their eye. They may find that the blue and yellow create two crisscrossing
lines, which can be seen in the second of the PDF drawings available from the
Student
LaunchPad. Those crisscrossing lines carry the eye across the canvas, from
the bottom corners, and then pointing the eye towards the opposite upper corners.
Again, have each group present what they have found, and discuss their findings
as a class.
3. Working together: Form and Color
Often it is not only the repetition of either similar forms or similar color
that helps to carry the viewer's attention to each of the compositional elements
of a painting, but a combination of the two. In this activity students will examine
two paintings in which repetitive form and color play a role in drawing the audience's
eye across the picture plane.
Have students view the following painting,
which is available on the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource The
National Gallery of Art:
Assign half of the class to work on examining this painting for instances of repetition
of form, while the other half of the class sets about finding examples of repetition
of color. Students should work individually initially. When they have gathered
together their observations pair each student who worked on finding color repetition
together with another student who worked on repetition of form. Each pair should
discuss with the other what they have found. They should then work together to
find ways in which repetitive color and form work together to draw the viewer's
eye across the surface of the canvas. Have students access the line drawing
and diagrams of this image through the Student
Launchpad to aid in discussing repetition in this painting. The most striking
element in Bellows' painting is the cart loaded with yellow packages in the foreground,
and the viewer's eye is immediately drawn to the warmth of its color and to its
brightness. The viewer's attention is then drawn to the line of brightly-lit buildings
in the background and to the left of the cart. Next, the eye is drawn to the bright
spot in the sky between the skyscrapers. Students will note the similarity in
the shape of each of these forms, as is highlighted in the PDF drawing that is
available from the Student
LaunchPad. These are not the only examples in the painting of repeated shapes
(or color) within the composition, however, they are the ones to which the viewer's
eye is drawn. Students should also note the similarity in the use of color and
in the brightness of these three spots. In the case of this painting it is Bellows'
use of repetitive shape and color together than draws the audience into the composition
of the painting. Like the Eakins painting from the first activity in this lesson,
Bellows draws the viewer's attention into the painting, pulling the eye deeper
with each step into the illusionary depth of Bellows' street scene. Have students
view the following painting, which is available on the EDSITEment-reviewed web
resource The Smithsonian American
Art Museum:
Assign the half of the class who worked in the last exercise on color to work
on examining this painting for instances of repetition of form, while the other
half of the class switches to searching for examples of color repetition. Students
should work individually initially. When they have gathered together their observations
have students work in the same pairs as in the previous exercise. Each pair should
discuss with the other what they have found. They should then work together to
find ways in which repetitive color and form work together to draw the viewer's
eye around the surface of the canvas. Have students access the line drawing
and diagrams of this image through the Student
Launchpad to aid in discussing repetition in this painting. Students should
note the repetition in the facades of the shotgun shacks that line the background
of Biggers' image. In addition, their attention might be drawn to the bicycle
wheel lying next to the sidewalk in the foreground. This shape is echoed in the
windmill above the shacks to the right, the flower pattern in the woman's pink
dress, and again in the skeleton of the church's burning roof. The roof and the
woman's dress are also linked to each other in the repeated use of the deep pink
color found in both elements. Yet, the composition of the painting is divided
by Biggers' use of color. The woman in pink stands at a dividing line between
the warm-toned left side of the composition and the cool-toned right side of the
painting. While the pinks and reds of the left half unite that side of the painting,
it also seems to separate it from the cooler right half. This disunity is reunited
by the repetition of the wheel form: from the wheel on the ground, to the flower
in the woman's dress, to the wind mill above the houses.
Assessment
Divide the class into pairs and assign each pair one of the following images which
are all available from The Smithsonian
American Art Museum. One member of the pair will examine the image for repetition
of color while the other will examine the image for repetition of form. They will
then work together to discuss the ways in which repetition of both color and form
work to move the viewer's eye around the canvas.
When each pair has finished working on their painting have three to six pairs
who have each worked on a different painting share their findings with each other.
Each pair should also work together to write a brief explanation of their findings
for submission.
Extending the Lesson
You may wish to extend the lesson by assigning a short research project for your
students using the internet resources available from these EDSITEment-reviewed
web resources: The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, The National Gallery of Art, The Museum
of Modern Art's Art
Safari, The Smithsonian American
Art Museum, and The Art Institute of Chicago.
Have them find one example each of color repetition, form repetition, and a combination
of color and form repetition. Students should write at least one paragraph for
each image that they find explaining why it is an example of one of these three
elements.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
[http://www.metmuseum.org]
- Thomas Eakins' The
Champion Single Sculls
[http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?
dep=2&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=0&item=34%2E92]
- The National Gallery of Art
[http://www.nga.gov]
- Claude Monet's Palazzo
del Mula Venice
[http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?46374+0+0]
- George Bellows' New
York
[http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?68188+0+0]
- The Smithsonian American
Art Museum
[http://americanart.si.edu/index3.cfm]
- William H. Johnson's Harlem
Street
[http://americanart.si.edu/images/1967/1967.59.1119R_1b.jpg]
- William S. Schwartz's Mining
in Illinois
[http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_artworks1.cfm?StartRow=44&LastName=schwartz&FirstName=&Title=
&Keyword=&Accession=&dosearch=Go&db=all&format=long]
- Alan Rohan Crite's School's
Out
[http://americanart.si.edu/images/1971/1971.447.18_1b.jpg]
- John Biggers' Shotgun,
Third Ward #1
[http://americanart.si.edu/images/1987/1987.56.1_1b.jpg]
- John Folinsbee's Freeland
[http://americanart.si.edu/images/1985/1985.8.25_1b.jpg]
- Milton Avery's Untitled (Harbor Scene) work
from 1921-1925
[http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_artworks1.cfm?StartRow=25&
ConID=176&format=long&db=all&LastName=&FirstName=&Title=
&Accession=&Keyword=]
- Joseph Delaney Penn
Station at War Time 1943
[http://americanart.si.edu/images/1970/1970.176_1b.jpg]
- Arthur Durston Industry
[http://americanart.si.edu/images/1964/1964.1.92_1b.jpg]
- Ilya Bolotowsky's In
the Barber Shop
[http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_artworks1.cfm?StartRow=1&format=short&db=
all&LastName=&FirstName=&Title=&Accession=1964.1.79&Keyword=]
- Oscar Bluemner's Evening
Tones
[http://americanart.si.edu/images/2002/2002.24_1b.jpg]
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