Actual problems of the composition of the artistic image

This essay explores the general compositional features by opposing the common understanding of composition as “an arrangement of the image on the sheet surface”. An image is essentially a text that conveys information from the author to the viewer and has no meaning without them. The main premise is that a semantic compositional unit can be represented by the sequence “conveyor — image — perceiver”. It is shown that a pictorial text consists of separate elements with a certain structure (experiments of R. Pritchard). These elements, in turn, are closely interrelated with each other, and only in this connection can their artistic meaning be perceived. The perception of meaning is a temporal process, which is determined by the transition of gaze from one group of elements to another. In different contexts and with a different “route” of perception, the same group can carry different meanings. It is important that if the image does not carry any specific information for us it can nevertheless cause associations which mostly reflect our inner essence. In this case, the viewer can understand the original general meaning of the work very subjectively, despite all the efforts of the author to show a clear structure of the image.

In this regard, the compositional “routes” of the spectator's perception of pictorial elements can differ greatly from one another, depending on the viewer's internal presets, which Alfred L. Yarbus proved experimentally back in the 1960s. The essay briefly discusses some properties of pictorial signs and their impacts on the emotional sphere of a person.

Finally, several pedagogical conclusions are made, in particular that the ability of the student to penetrate into the symbolic artistic-semantic structure requires education and development of his personality. Without this, he will only glean the surface, the material aspect of the image. That is why an unprepared student is often fond of "illusionism", of copying. Only serious pedagogical work that requires knowledge of the fundamental principles of composite image construction helps to cope with this.