Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of

Since its publication fifty years ago, this work has established itself as a classic. It casts the visual process in psychological terms and describes the creative way one's eye organizes visual material according to specific psychological premises. In 1974 this book was revised and expanded, and since then it has continued to burnish Rudolf Arnheim's reputation as a groundbreaking theoretician in the fields of art and psychology.

Rudolf Arnheim is Professor Emeritus of the Psychology of Art at Harvard University.

Preface to the New Version

ix

Introduction

1

(9)

Balance

10

(32)

The hidden structure of a square

10

(6)

What are perceptual forces?

16

(2)

Two disks in a square

18

(1)

Psychological and physical balance

19

(1)

Why balance?

20

(3)

Weight

23

(3)

Direction

26

(3)

Patterns of balance

29

(1)

Top and bottom

30

(3)

Right and left

33

(3)

Balance and the human mind

36

(1)

Madame Cezanne in a yellow chair

37

(5)

Shape

42

(54)

Vision as active exploration

42

(1)

Grasping the essentials

43

(1)

Perceptual concepts

44

(3)

What is shape?

47

(1)

The influence of the past

48

(3)

Seeing shape

51

(4)

Simplicity

55

(8)

Simplification demonstrated

63

(3)

Leveling and sharpening

66

(1)

A whole maintains itself

67

(2)

Subdivision

69

(4)

Why the eyes often tell the truth

73

(1)

Subdivision in the arts

74

(2)

What is a part?

76

(3)

Similarity and difference

79

(9)

Examples from art

88

(4)

The structural skeleton

92

(4)

Form

96

(66)

Orientation in space

98

(5)

Projections

103

(3)

Which aspect is best?

106

(6)

The Egyptian method

112

(4)

Foreshortening

116

(4)

Overlapping

120

(3)

What good does overlapping do?

123

(4)

Interplay of plane and depth

127

(3)

Competing aspects

130

(4)

Realism and reality

134

(2)

What looks lifelike?

136

(3)

Form as invention

139

(5)

Levels of abstraction

144

(8)

La source

152

(4)

Visual information

156

(6)

Growth

162

(56)

Why do children draw that way?

163

(1)

The intellectualistic theory

164

(3)

They draw what they see

167

(2)

Representational concepts

169

(2)

Drawing as motion

171

(3)

The primordial circle

174

(5)

The law of differentiation

179

(3)

Verticle and horizontal

182

(5)

Obliqueness

187

(4)

The fusion of parts

191

(4)

Size

195

(2)

The misnamed tadpoles

197

(2)

Translation into two dimensions

199

(4)

Educational consequences

203

(5)

The birth of form in sculpture

208

(1)

Sticks and slabs

209

(6)

The cube and the round

215

(3)

Space

218

(85)

Line and contour

219

(4)

Contour rivalry

223

(4)

Figure and ground

227

(6)

Depth levels

233

(1)

Application to painting

234

(5)

Frames and windows

239

(2)

Concavity in sculpture

241

(4)

Why do we see depth?

245

(3)

Depth by overlapping

248

(5)

Transparency

253

(5)

Deformations create space

258

(3)

Boxes in three dimensions

261

(8)

Help from physical space

269

(2)

Simple rather than truthful

271

(4)

Gradients create depth

275

(5)

Toward a convergence of space

280

(3)

The two roots of central perspective

283

(2)

Not a faithful projection

285

(2)

Pyramidal space

287

(7)

The symbolism of a focused world

294

(3)

Centrality and infinity

297

(1)

Playing with the rules

298

(5)

Light

303

(27)

The experience of light

303

(2)

Relative brightness

305

(4)

Illumination

309

(2)

Light creates space

311

(4)

Shadows

315

(5)

Painting without lighting

320

(4)

The symbolism of light

324

(6)

Color

330

(42)

From light to color

330

(2)

Shape and color

332

(5)

How colors come about

337

(2)

The generative primaries

339

(2)

Addition and subtraction

341

(1)

Generative complementaries

342

(2)

A capricious medium

344

(2)

The quest for harmony

346

(4)

The elements of the scale

350

(3)

Syntax of combinations

353

(4)

The fundamental complementaries

357

(5)

Interaction of color

362

(2)

Matisse and El Greco

364

(4)

Reactions to color

368

(1)

Warm and cold

369

(3)

Movement

372

(38)

Happenings and time

372

(3)

Simultaneity and sequence

375

(3)

When do we see motion?

378

(4)

Direction

382

(2)

The revelations of speed

384

(3)

Stroboscopic movement

387

(5)

Some problems of film editing

392

(2)

Visible motor forces

394

(4)

A scale of complexity

398

(5)

The body as instrument

403

(3)

The kinesthetic body image

406

(4)

Dynamics

410

(34)

Simplicity is not enough

410

(2)

Dynamics and its traditional interpretations

412

(4)

A diagram of forces

416

(3)

Experiments on directed tension

419

(4)

Immobile motion

423

(1)

The dynamics of obliqueness

424

(4)

Tension in deformation

428

(4)

Dynamic composition

432

(2)

Stroboscopic effects

434

(3)

How does dynamics come about?

437

(3)

Examples from art

440

(4)

Expression

444

(19)

Traditional theories

445

(4)

Expression embedded in structure

449

(5)

The priority of expression

454

(3)

Symbolism in art

457

(6)

Notes

463

(24)

Bibliography

487

(16)

Index

503

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Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye / New Version

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials