Disequilibrium

     Disequilibrium

   
When someone hears balance, mostly the
first thought in mind would be something
in a state of equilibrium. That is called a
formal equilibrium, where the image is in
symmetry and and the objects, lines or forms
are mirroring each other.

L S Lowry, A Market Place, Berwick upon Tweed (1935)

This is a visual example of a formal equilibrium. Lowry depicts the town of Berwick upon Tweed and is a classic street scene. This picture shows a sense of formal balance. You can almost say that you are seeing some kind of mirror image from the middle of the composition. A perfect example of symmetry.

     But that would be a mistake to always
think of balance as symmetrical, a perfect
equilibrium! You can also make informal
equilibrium. It is more of a naturalistic way.
This way the artwork will have more movement
and flow. Although Lowry's painting contains
a lot of movement I don't think it has a kind of flow. 

Van Gogh, Starry Night

 


     This painting by Van Gogh has well balanced content. Although one might say it is in-equilibrium (not balanced), I disagree with that.  It is not a mirror image but it is well balanced. You can see a huge dark tower in one corner and in the other  is a huge bright moon. The small dark houses are then opposite the blue sky and bright stars. Unlike Lowry's this painting has more flowing movement.

Cezanne - Apples

An other interesting aspect when it comes to balance is also colour. The contrast of the colour, hue and brightness.  In this particular painting of Cezanne's Apples you can see the coloured apples and lemon in the middle with the apples having a bright warm reddish orange hue while the lemon have a cool green colour. You might think that the small can in the side of the painting is ruining the balance in the picture but as you might notice it is dark almost as if it was part of the table. And as we see that the balance is mostly portrayed with colours the can doesn't effect the balance in the picture.

  

     There are many ways in which you can 

achieve an art piece that contains equilibrium 

although it may feel out of order. That way 

when a person is seeing an artwork he or she 

can have a feeling of disequilibrium.