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Composition /

Chapter 54: CONCLUSION
By Arthur W. Dow
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About This Book

A practical manual lays out a progressive method for studying composition by treating line, notan (dark-and-light), and color as foundational elements and offering graded exercises, brush practice, and examples drawn from Japanese materials and prints. It emphasizes building harmony through structured design work in squares, circles, rectangles, landscapes, and representational subjects, and explains systems of two, three, and multiple values alongside color theory and scheme-making. The approach advocates training appreciation and judgment through constructive practice rather than imitation, providing lessons and illustrations for students and teachers to develop control of form, color, and spatial rhythm.

CONCLUSION

I have not attempted to overthrow old systems, but have pointed out their faults while trying to present a consistent scheme of art study. The intention has been to reveal the sources of power; to show the student how to look within for the greatest help; to teach him not to depend on externals, not to lean too much on anything or anybody. Each subject has been treated suggestively rather than exhaustively, pointing out ways of enlargement and wide application. If some subjects have seemed to receive rather scant attention it is not because I am indifferent to them, but because I did not wish to depart from the special theme of the book; some of these will be considered in future writings. The book will have accomplished its purpose if I have made clear the character and meaning of art structure—if the student can see that out of a harmony of two lines may grow a Parthenon pediment or a Sorbonne hemicycle; out of the rude dish of the Zuni a Sung tea-bowl, out of the totem-pole a Michelangelo's “Moses”; that anything in art is possible when freedom is given to the divine gift APPRECIATION.

THE END