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The Power of the Center

A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts
by Rudolf Arnheim (Author)
Paperback
Price: $34.95 / £30.00
Publication Date: Oct 2009
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 250
ISBN: 9780520261266
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 95 b/w photographs, 62 line illustrations
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About the Book

What determines the overall organization of visual form in the works of painting sculpture and architecture? Artists have sometimes ventured practical rules of thumb and mathematicians have looked for formulas that would prescribe ideal spatial relations between shapes. This companion to Rudolf Arnheim's classic Art and Visual Perception shows how compositional form makes sense only when it utilizes visual symbols of the life experience that makes art meaningful.

About the Author

Rudolf Arnheim (1904—2007) was Professor Emeritus of the Psychology of Art at Harvard University and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Sarah Lawrence College. He was author of many books, including Art and Visual Perception, Film as Art, and Visual Thinking. 

Table of Contents

What determines the overall organization of visual form in the works of painting sculpture and architecture? Artists have sometimes ventured practical rules of thumb and mathematicians have looked for formulas that would prescribe ideal spatial relations between shapes. This companion to Rudolf Arnheim's classic Art and Visual Perception shows how compositional form makes sense only when it utilizes visual symbols of the life experience that makes art meaningful.

Reviews

"Arnheim was a distinguished psychologist, philosopher and critic whose work explored the cognitive basis of art—how we interpret it and, by extension, the world." 
— Cabinet
"It is the balance between the precision of [Arnheim's] specific analyses and their participation in a larger order of principles that makes Power of the Center such a satisfying book." 
— ARTnews
Rudolf Arnheim (1904—2007) was Professor Emeritus of the Psychology of Art at Harvard University and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Sarah Lawrence College. He was author of many books, including Art and Visual Perception, Film as Art, and Visual Thinking.