Repetition, Pattern, and RhythmWhat is repetition, pattern, and rhythm? How do they relate to each other?

Repetition refers to one object or shape repeated;

pattern is a combination of elements or shapes repeated in a recurring and regular arrangement; 

rhythm--is a combination of elements repeated, but with variations.

Repetition, pattern, and rhythm in a Buddhist mandala

Taizokai (Womb World) mandala, second half of ninth century.Hanging scroll, color on silk.The center square represents the young stage of Vairocana Buddha.

source http://www.mandala.hr

This scroll includes all three of these elements: repetition, rhythm, and pattern. Repetition is seen throughout the mandala in the repetition of figures. This is most evident in the center and the area immediately surrounding the center of the mandala. Pattern can be found in the areas where there are repeated figures that

are different in size but follow a regular, ordered arrangement in their recurrence. Rhythm can be seen in the two outermost layers, especially the second one from the edge, with a black background. Differing sizes of similar figures are repeated, with variations in their order and grouping.Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition

Repetition is an object, form, or figure that is repeated.

To get an idea of the effect of repetition in an artwork, look at the illustration below. There appears to be two boxes. In the first box, there is one colored circle. The second box is overflowing with multicolored circles, so many that they cannot all be contained within the box. What words do you think of when you look at the two different boxes? You might think of spare, lone, almost empty, lonely...or you might think of abundant, innumerable, unmanageable, out of control.

Donald Judd: repetition as a minimalist

Donald Judd, untitled (1969/1982),anodized aluminum each of 10 boxes 6 x 27 x 24 inches

Walker Art Center Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edmond R. Ruben, 1981From the Walker Art Center website: "One of the foremost practitioners of Minimal Art, Donald Judd is best known for his sleek, boxlike constructions made of industrial materials such as aluminum, plywood, sheet metal, and

plexiglass. Through these works, he sought to create a depersonalized art in which the exploration of space, scale, and materials served as an end, rather than as a metaphor for human experience. Emphatically concerned with pure forms, Judd’s works become statements about proportion and rhythm as well as three-dimensional space. His stacked boxes seem to come directly out of

the wall rather than projecting from a backing surface. This creates the impression that the artwork shares the observer’s space instead of being set

apart like a sculpture on a pedestal".

What do you think of this artwork? What does it make you think of?If you were to tell a story about this artwork, what would it be?How would it be different if he used different sizes, shapes, arrangement, colors?

Would you feel differently about this if you saw it in Walmart instead of a museum?

Easter Island: Ahu Tongariki, repetition as intimidation

Ahu Tongariki on Easter Island. c 1250--1500 CEMoai restored in the 1990's by a Japanese research team after a cyclone knocked them over in the 1960's.

Moai are monolithic human figures situated on platforms called ahu on Polynesian Easter Island. They were carved from rock and have overly large heads. They represent the faces of deified ancestors.(aringa ora ata tepuna).Imagine encountering this row of 15 moai, overwhelming in size and able to be seen from a far distance. The height of the moai is more than twice the height of the average human. The largest

one is 33 feet high. Imagine seeing one lone moai on the coast, compared to a row of 15 of them.

*Interesting fact: The multi-ton behemoths traveled up to 11 miles (18 kilometers) from the quarry where most of them were carved, without the benefit of wheels, cranes, or even large animals.Scientists have tested many ideas in the past, figuring that the islanders must have used a combination of log rollers, ropes, and wooden sledges. Now a pair of archaeologists have come up with a new theory After 1722 all of the moai that had been erected on ahus were toppled, with the last standing statues reported in 1838 and no upright statues by 1868, apart from the partially buried ones on the outer slopes of Rano Raraku.During this time the island was treeless because all of the trees had been cut down. Since there were no more trees, the islanders couldn't build canoes to go fishing. There was also a decline in birds and crop yields. That resulted in a decline in food. Since there wasn't any food to feed the chiefs and other leaders that kept the community civilized, the islanders turned chaotic. Soon clans clashed and destroyed their rivals' statues

A close up of the moai at Ahu Tahai, restored with coral eyes by the American archaeologist William Mullo.Photo by Bjarte Sorensen

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ahu_Tahai.jpg

Why do you think they were made and why were they moved?

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: the Umbrella Project

Christo und Jeanne-Claude Umbrella Project(Japan) 19911,340 blue umbrellas in Ibaraki Japan, and 1,760 yellow umbrellas at the Tejon Ranch in southern California

Photo taken by Dddeco 27 December 1991, image under the GFDL

Another massive project by Christo and Jeanne-Claude was the installation of large scale blue and yellow umbrella sculptures, 1.340 blue ones in Japan, and 1,760 yellow ones in the U.S. Besides covering a large area geographically in each site, the sites also linked one country to another. Imagine a field with one large umbrella sculpture. Now imagine more than a thousand of them, in the same field. What is the effect of repetition in this project?

Do-Ho Suh: Public Figures--a monument to many

"Let’s say there’s one statue at the plaza of a hero who helped or protected our country—

there are hundreds of thousands of individuals who helped him, and there’s no

recognition for them."— Do-Ho Suh

The maquette (model) for the sculpture

Do-Ho Suh Maquette for Public Figuresmixed media

MetroSpectiveJanuary 29 - November 8, 2003

City Hall Park, Brooklyn

Do-Ho Suh Maquette for Public Figuresmixed media

MetroSpectiveJanuary 29 - November 8, 2003

City Hall Park, Brooklynsource http://www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/03/metrotech/metrospective_suh_s03.html

From the Public Art Fund website: "For the lobby of City Hall, Do-Ho Suh turns the traditional monument upside down with his small-scale maquette for Public Figures. Instead of a single figure perched on a pedestal, Suh creates a pedestal supported by myriad miniature anonymous male and female figures, refocusing the viewer's attention from the individual to the collective masses. Challenging the established notion of the common citizen revering a monument to an important figure, Suh emphasizes the power of the individual within public space."

Do-Ho Suh uses repetition in much of his work, as a profound statement about the value of each individual within a larger group. In this sculpture, each figure is different from the others although they appear as a single entity. As a group they

carry the immense weight of history and the actions of every person, great or small. PatternPattern is a combination of elements or shapes repeated in a recurring and regular arrangement.

Symbolic uses of patternPattern is often used symbolically to represent many things: people, beliefs, the natural world, history, tradition. Colors and shapes have specific meanings, and are passed down from generation to generation. The predictability of pattern is important in establishing a historical tradition and cultural practice.

Ghanaian kente cloth

A characteristic Asante kente has geometric shapes woven in bright colors along the entire length of the strip, while Ewe kente often displays a tweed effect by plying together different colored threads in many of the warps. Ewe kente may also incorporate pictorial symbols...Colors convey mood, dark shades being associated with grief and used for mourning ceremonies, while lighter shades are associated with happiness. The symbolic significance of kente is located in the motifs (the elephant signifies kingship, the scorpion bitterness). The colors of the Ghanaian national flag – red, yellow, green and black – are popular in modern cloths."

Maori Tukutuku panels

Pou Tangata represent the many people who have lived in Tamaki Makau Rau

The Ngaru Nui represent the waves of the

Ngatokimatawhaorua. The zig zag part are the waves. The rectangle part is the waka

Tukutuku panels are a traditional Māori art form. They are decorative wall panels that were once part of the traditional wall construction used inside meeting houses.

The Alhambra

photo by Lucy Lamp

Islamic spiritual art does not allow the incorporation of imagery, so pattern is used to convey spiritual principles. This is a detail of a wall from the Alhambra in Spain, one of many, each

with complex multi-layered patterns that appear to mimic aspects of the natural world.

The restriction on making images led to the development of one of the most outstanding features of Islamic art. Artists avoided depicting likelike forms. Instead, they developed a special kind of decoration, called arabesque. An arabesque is a very complicated design. It can consist of twisting patterns of vines, leaves, and flowers. It can be made up of geometric shapes and patterns of straight lines, or it can have curving lines that twist and turn over each other. Sometimes animal shapes were used, but they were always highly stylized and not lifelike.

Pattern as decorationWe are all familiar with the use of pattern as decoration, from clothing, to everyday objects, to home decorating. Below is an example of an elaborate use of pattern in home decoration.

Yinka Shonibare Victorian Philanthropist’s Parlour, 1996-1997.

Henri Matisse loved pattern, and pattern within pattern: not only the suave and decorative forms of his own compositions but also the reproduction of tapestries, embroideries, silks, striped awnings, curlicues, mottles, dots, and spots, the bright clutter of

over-furnished rooms, within the painting. In particular he loved Islamic art, and saw a big show of it in Munich on his way back from Moscow in 1911. Islamic pattern offers the illusion of a completely full world, where everything from far to near is pressed with equal urgency against the eye

RhythmWhat is Rhythm?

Rhythm is like pattern, in that the same elements (i.e.shape, line) are repeated; however, with rhythm there are slight variations in the pattern. Rhythm is easily seen but can also be complicated and hidden. Think of water on a beach; it continually breaks on the shore in lines that are repeated, yet each one is different. Why?

photo by Lucy Lamp

In pattern, elements are repeated in the same way thoughout the whole composition, as in the example above. In the example of rhythm below, the same elements are used, but with variations.

See if you can sense and understand the difference.

Rhythm is most easily understood within music. Rhythm represents our desire for order. Rhythm is like our own heartbeat; it gives us a sense of the pulsing of life.Examples of rhythm in art

Grant Wood: rolling fields and plains of the midwest

Grant Wood Young Corn 1931"I realized that all the really good ideas I'd ever had came to me while I was milking a cow. So I went back to Iowa. "

Grant Wood

Vincent van Gogh The Starry Night Saint Rémy, June 1889.

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day”. Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh: personal vision of the night sky

Rhythm in an ancient Minoan fresco

Three women, fresco from Knossos palace, island of Crete Minoan civilization (27th c. BCE --15th c. BCE)

The Minoan civilization was long and peaceful. The palace at Knossos was large, colorful, and advanced in its engineering. The walls were covered with frescoes of humans and animals in a vibrant enjoyable world. In this fresco, notice the varied repetition of the figures, the hair, hands. and clothes. The graceful variations in these elements impart a graceful rhythm to the fresco.