Theo van Doesburg

Theo van Doesburg's Composition I (1916) is very different from his other works of art that I found. He uses a lot of geometric shapes in his artwork, but they are usually rectangular and not spherical. I chose these three works of art of his because they are so different from his others as well as the one that I chose in my first blog post. In Composition I, I like his use of colors, plus the fact that when I look at it, it either looks like a tree form with objects on it or as if I'm seeing objects within the tree. His use of the element of form, shape and space helps him achieve the principle of proportion giving his painting the illusion of either seeing the outside of the form or seeing objects within the form.


In Composition in Gray (1919), he uses the elements of line, pattern, and texture to achieve the principle of balance and unity. I like how he uses gray scale instead of color. I like the way he shades it and gives it a three dimensional feel. To me, it looks like woven pieces of sheet metal. I think that because of all of this, it is a very cool and interesting piece of artwork.


In Composition IX (1920), Theo van Doesburg uses the elements of line and pattern to achieve the principle of balance. I like this work of art because I like geometric shapes and I like how the groupings of stair step rectangles give the painting depth.

Max Ernst

In, Terre Ecossaise, 1935, Max Ernst uses the element of line to achieve the principle of balance in this painting. I love the colors that he used and the surreal landscape.


In his painting, Europe After the Rain, 1942, he uses the element of color to achieve the principle of emphasis. Each section of the painting is emphasized with a different color and he puts the brightest and the darkest color just off center. I like the detail and the warm colors.

I could not find the name for this Max Ernst painting, but I LOVE it the most. He uses the element of pattern and texture to achieve the principle of rhythm.

Guillaume Apollinaire- Calligrammes

These three works that Guillaume Apollinaire created that he refers to as Calligrammes were all said to be created around 1915.

This first one is called "Cheval". I think that it is just beautiful the way he captured the look and movement of the horse with just the placement of words.






























This second one is called "L'oiseau et Le Bouquet". The group of flowers along with the bird look so pretty and I like the lines that he added in this one. I feel that with this subject being a little more delicate than the horse in the first one, that the lines are needed to give the picture he created a bit more stability.































This third calligramme is called "Eiffel". In this one he does not add any lines like he did in the previous one, but like in his "Cheval", I do not think that lines are needed. I like the way he wrote on the bottom right side of this piece even though I am not sure what it is. I just find it interesting.

In all three of these calligrammes as with the one in my first blog, Guillaume Apollinaire uses words to make pictures. I have do not know exactly what the say since my French is very limited, but I do not need to totally understand them to enjoy them. All four of these calligrammes are similar, the only difference is that sometimes he adds lines giving the picture that he is creating a little more substance. I love the idea of creating pictures with words and it would be something that I believe that I would enjoy creating in the future.