The Emergence of a Holistic Artistic Image

Abstract

This article is the third in a series of articles on composition in the
visual arts (see “Composition as a Way of Communication in Teaching Visual
Arts.” — M.: VGIK Bulletin, No. 4 (38). 2018. P. 69–76. And “Actual Problems
of the Composition of the Artistic Image.”— M.: Bulletin of VGIK, No. 2 (40).
2019. P. 67—78). The article shows that, similar symbolic images may have a
completely different semantic meaning depending on the viewer’s worldview
and attitudes. If we turn to the previous articles of this series, we will see that
this meaning also depends on the context, thereby possessing ambiguity that
comes up to an internal semantic contradiction within a single detail. The
article explores composition as a text, organized by complex interconnections of
symbolic elements that form the integrity of the art form with its characteristic
“super-sense” that goes beyond the sum of the meanings of the individual parts
of the image. Here we can say that the true pictorial work involves the “invisible”
which is not depicted on the canvas. Thereby, it is possible to convey not only
what is visible with the bodily eyes in the composition, but also the spiritual
content of the depicted. This article attempts to show that a student who is
creating a composition, operates with signs, symbols, and even mythologemes,
while working on a graphic text that needs to be organized in a holistic form.
It completes the reasoning presented earlier in this series, and sums up the
previous arguments. A holistic image cannot be decomposed, because in this
case a pile of symbolic elements will lose its basic meaning. In conclusion, the
article shows that any element of composition as a system can only be considered
in conjunction with other elements, therefore there are immeasurably more
informational interconnections than the elements themselves. Thus, the general
information is by definition greater than that contained in the simple sum
of its elements, which gives the perceiver the opportunity to form additional
relationships and associations, a “super meaning” i. e. a new thought, new
unexpected feelings, a new understanding of something that seemed long and
well understood, giving rise to something akin to the “awakening” that suddenly
dawns on a person.