Customer Reviews

Design and Composition

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The book is an excellent, well written overview of design and composition. I bought my copy from [local store], an affiliate of Amazon.com. Unfortunately, according to [local store], the book is now available from the publisher only as a black and white photocopy. Definitely not a good idea.

The 45 "colorplates" often make little sense when the author discusses the color relationships of black and white reproductions. The author obviously, never intended to use black and white reproductions. For example, when discussing Colorplate 23 the author states, "Color is so much at the heart of these shifting special conditions that a black and white reproduction of this work would make little sense." Later, on page 176, the author states that Colorplate 34 shows "color to be a predominant issue, and one that would be lost in a black and white reproduction. It would make even less sense to reproduce Hoffmann's The Gate (Colorplate 35) in black and white [as it is]."

Personally, I'm not happy that any book is sold without mentioning that it is a photocopy, but that little oversight is much more grievous when the very content of the book relies on color visual references. "Design and Composition" still has merit, but it is a serious flaw that color relationships are discussed using black and white photocopies.

While everything that the reviewer in "Black and White Copy of Original" says is true; it would be a shame to miss this book based on the omission of color in this publication. The wealth of information on design and composition covered by the author makes this book invaluable. My well read copy is dog-eared and underlined.

The first eight chapters cover "the various ways that any visual element may interact with its own kind..." [An element may be line, shape, value, volume, space, texture, and color]. However the heart of the subject, once the elements of design are mastered; lies in his last three chapters in which he discusses the interaction of the various elemnts, fifteen strategies for creating compositional order (the circle, the triangle, etc.), fifteen modes of presentation (deep space, shallow space, density, etc.), and finally a discussion of specific case histories (taken from Braque, Degas, Giotto, Rubens, Stella, etc.). The text is insightful for both the representational and the abstract artist.

The omission of colorplates is ironic and painful for anyone interested in a full comprehesion of Nathan Goldstein's insightful text. This is particularly true when one is reading chapter eight titled "Color"; the section titled "Color Dominant", a mode of presentation covered in chapter ten titled "The Forming of Compositional Order"; and in the case histories covered in the final chapter. Despite these frustrating flaws, due to a loss of color information, there is plenty here to keep the serious student occupied for years.

For the interested reader, Edgar Payne's book on composition covers some of the same issues on creating compositional order in representational painting. However, Payne's text is better for confirming what the artist has already mastered. Goldstein's is a means to learn the concepts without prior knowledge.

read four books on composition that go on about design & gave little on structure/armiture, which is composition. here goldstein eloquently clarified topics using masters & modern paintings. succinctness without university book pricing.