DECONSTRUCTING THE HUMAN FACE USING LEAF VEINS IN PAINTING

ABSTRACT

This study “deconstruction of human face using leaf veins in painting,”seek to deconstruct the human face through a systematic simplification of the human face from a representational rendition to a minimalist possibilities using dicotyledons leaf veins. This study has brought to forea unique styleand mode of expression in painting through the use of dicotyledons leaf venations a toolfor deconstruction of human face. With the following objectives to; render the human face in representational form, create stylized human faces, reduce the human face to minimalist possibilities using dicotyledons leaf veins.The research started by looking at the works of artists who have deconstructed the human face through various means, this however led to analysing of their works. However, the review did not indicate artists‟ extensive systematic deconstruction of the human face using leaf veins. The methodology used for this research was practice led.Different species of leaves with monocotyledons and dicotyledons leaves veins were collected from their natural habitat and observed. Leaves with dicotyledons venations were later employed in the research on the basis of their aesthetic quality and thickness of their veins. The researcher made use of tools such as camera, sketchpad, to gather data like photographs of children‟s‟ faces and images of selected species of leaves.Data collected were analysed in different stages i.e.;Representational: this stage saw the production of drawings that captured human face in naturalistic manner. Stylisation: sketches from this category employed distortions and exaggerations of the facial features through integration of geometric shapes to depict features. Abstraction: this stage also saw a schematicrendition of the human face by formal simplification and placing emphasis on the representation of geometry, gradual elimination of three dimensional depths, reinterpretation of recognizable facial features, through redefinition of each of the shapes.Minimalism:at this stage emphasis is based on interception and clear depiction of geometric shapes with sharp edges using straight lines, and diagonal lines. All drawings and sketches were later used to generate paintings based on the stated objectives.This study established that veining patterns from dicotyledons leaf can be used to create paintings in studio exploration.The researcher realized that with detail representation of recognisable facial features, representational rendition of the human face could be achieve when leaf veins are imprinted in a cluster manner, which equally brings to mind an impressionistic rendition of the human face. Again, the study has shown that, multiple point of view and mask-like imagery could be achieved, through the depiction of geometric shapes to represent facial features as a means of stylising the human face.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background to the study

The human face functions as a platform for the carrying of the eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheek and forehead. These organs are used for breathing, communication, recognition, identity and expression of emotion and character. They mirror the human personality and allows us to understand the world around us. DeMello (2012), states that “Our faces are the visual thumbprints that we present to the world, they are the key to our personal identity and sense of self; they allow us to understand and recognise others and represent ourselves.” The face conveys message between the person and the world through which we may perceive what the person has experienced.

The human face has been presented in a variety of forms throughout the history of art. While some artistic schools of thought strive for naturalism through direct imitation and representation of the human face, others reject such direct imitation by deconstructing the human face either with purposeful intent or by accident. Finch (2008), asserts that it can be hard to tell exactly what is intentionally deconstructed, but there are usually distinct clues about a work that if viewed contextually, can reveal whether it is an anatomical error or purposefully placed in a piece for a specific reason.

According to Putman (2011), deconstruction is a means of breaking down forms into simple components so that new forms will emerge. It is characterised by the ideas of fragmentation, exaggeration and distortion where radical freedom and form recreation are encouraged. Samara in Çekmegelioğlu (2014), posits that “deconstruction is to deform a rational structure and space so that the elements within that space are forced into new relationships”. According to Curley (2013), in an artistic form of deconstruction, meanings and subject are been scattered and left for the artists (or the viewers) to put back together depending on his or her ability to see. Deconstruction of human faces could be traced back to the works of ancient Egypt, where faces of the kings (pharaoh) and deities were painted in a stylised manner which showed an apparent lack of concern for facial proportion. The artist of this period highlighted the importance of the subject over the style.

Post-impressionist artists like Vincent Van Gogh in his work “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” (1890) used swirling brush strokes and arbitral colour in expressive manner to distort the human face. Van Gogh and others during the post-impressionists period were more concerned about the properties and expressive qualities of line, pattern and the emotion of colour and not the subject. The Expressionist artists also displayed emphasis of emotion over realistic detail using brilliant colour, distorted, exaggerated and flat colour to simplify the human face. The fauvist artists Henri Matisse and others were more concerned about the role of colour in conveying meaning. Matisse in his work, “Woman with Hat” (1905) deconstructed the human face by using violently bold colours to distort his subject. In searching for new ways of depicting form, Picasso and Braque began to deconstruct the human face by breaking and fragmenting it into geometric shapes in order to depict more than one view point within a defined picture plane. The cubists proceeded with deconstruction of human faces in the second phase of cubism, which started in 1912 (synthesis cubism), taking deconstruction to another level, which was characterised by introduction of real elements such as newspaper, and later solid objects, developing technique now known as collage, which allowed them to explore the new effect of depth. This could be seen in Pablo Picasso‟s works like “Tête” (1937-38), “Man in Hat” (1912) as seen in fig. 6.

In Nigeria, traditional artist like Jimoh Buraimoh in his works “Meeting of Elders” (1975), as seen in fig.11,“Faces” (1975), “Faces and creatures” (1976), fragmented the human face into simple geometric shapes using local beads as his medium of expression. Jacob Jari, in his work “The Eye” (in fig. 13), also deconstructed the human face by reducing it to a simple circle filled with alphabets (letters E and Y), in which he also used painted cornstalks as his medium of expression. Others include Gani Odutokun in his work “Freedom cries” (1993), “Dry earth” (1993) where he distorted the human face with his idea of pouring liquidized paint on the canvas to render the human face in a suggestive manner. Kefas Danjuma in a painting titled “Ochigbo I” (1990) deconstructed the human face using vigorous brush strokes and contrasting colours allowing the human face dissolve into space. Yusuf Grillo in his work titled “Girl in Blue” (1963) elongated the human face by stylizing all the facial features. Olumide Onadipe in “Yellow Scarf” (2013) and “Portrait of Boy” (2013) painted interwoven leaves in a naturalistic form to create human faces.

It is important to note that several painters have continued to use different materials and tools to deconstruct human faces, but attention is yet to be given to deconstruction of human faces using veins from leaves. Leaf, as one of the objects of nature, is defined as “any flattened green outgrowth from the stem of a vascular plant” (Rogers 2014). Leaves vary in size and other physical characteristics, including the nature of the blade margin and the type of venation. Veins are strands of vascular tissue which appear prominently on the blade; the vein supports the lamina and helps in transportation of minerals to and from the leave tissue. The leaf veins are characterized into two which are; monocotyledons and dicotyledons. Monocotyledons veins are usually of equal parallel veins running down their leaves (also known as parallel venation). Examples of leaf plants with this kind of venation are sorghum halepense (Johnson grass), Cladiummariscus (Jamaica saw grass) and sabal minor (dwarf palmetto).While the dicotyledons are network of veins emanating from one or more larger veins (also known as net venation). Examples of this kind of leaf plants are Bauhinia monandra (Pink; Butterfly Flower; Pink, Bauhinia), Momordica charantia (bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash) and so on. In painting, artists have incorporated leaves in their works as a secondary subject, for example the Italian masters show the rendition of leaf (fig leaf) to cover the male and female genital in their nude paintings. This could be seen in the works of Albrecht Durer, titled “Adam and Eve” in 1504 and Masaccio‟s work titled “The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden”. Contemporary artists like Andy Goldsworthy, Walter Mason and Richard Shilling, used natural materials like trees, rocks, rivers ice, and leaves as subject and objects to create site-specific art works that reflect a relationship between the artist(s) and their surroundings.

1.1 Statement of problem

Works of early and contemporary artists have shown how artists have deconstructed human faces through distortion, fragmentation, exaggeration, scattering and by introducing unconventional painting materials. For instance, artists have incorporated the use of materials like broomsticks, sand, and cornstalks to create textural surface and support for dissection, fragmentation and breakdown of human faces into interesting compositions. This could be seen in works of artists like Pablo Picasso, Jimoh Buraimoh, and Jacob Jari. These example show artist‟s interest in the use of materials found around them for visual support and to achieve textural visual effect in their works. Hence, the problem of this research is to deconstruct the human face using textural patterns from leaves veins in painting.

1.2 Aim and Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to deconstruct human faces using dicotyledons leaves venation in painting. While the objectives are to:

1. render human faces in representational form using dicotyledons leaf venations in painting.
2. create stylised human faces using dicotyledons leaf veins in painting.
3. reduce the human face to minimalist possibilities using dicotyledon leaf veins in painting.

1.3 Justification of the study

Visual artists over the years have employed different elements of art such as line, colour, shape and texture to deconstruct the human face through distortion, fragmentation and exaggeration. Works of post-impressionist artists like Vincent Van Gogh and fauvist artist like Henry Matisse have shown the use of expressive qualities of lines created from vigorous brush strokes. In addition, artists have subjectively used colours to distort human faces. Cubist artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque used shapes (geometric shapes) to fragment human faces into components, while in the second face of cubism (synthetic cubism), real texture from material like newspapers and fabrics as an additional surface for the distortion and reduction of human faces were introduced. Textural materials, like the leaf surface, possess aesthetic qualities due to the pattern formation of the veins, which gives an impression of interconnected lines, when imprinted on a surface. Dogo (2014), buttress that “art should not be restricted to any stereotyped convention, and no material has just one value. Anything can be manipulated to become an art material, but it takes artistic insight to be able to recognise the value inherent in any object”. This idea highlights the reason and justifies the choice of leaves‟ veins as a vehicle for the deconstruction of human faces in this research.

1.4 Significance of the study

The aesthetically endowed nature of the net like veining patterns of the dicotyledon leaf veins stimulated this study. The use of leaves veins in painting reveals possibilities to the use of leaves venations as tool in painting, apart from its use to generate motif to create patterns in areas like textile and its rendition as a subject in painting. The use of leaf venations as tool in painting reveals alternative approach to conventional painting and it adds to more possibilities in painting techniques, which advance the aesthetic expression in painting human faces.

1.5 Scope of the study

This research covers faces of children within the age of five to ten years of age with different facial expressions. Seven species of leaves have been selected for this research on the basis of their textural qualities and thickness of venation, which enhance clarity when imprinted on canvas. Bauhinia monandra (Pink Butterfly Floweror Pink Bauhinia), Momordicacharantia (bitter melon, bitter gourd or bitter squash), Urenalobata (Aramina, Bur Mallow or Caesar weed), Ficussycomorus(Sycamore Mulberry), Gmelinaarborea(Beechwood, Gmelina, Goomar teak,  or   Malaina),    Amaranthushybridus(African   Spinach,   Efotete)  and   PsidiumGuajava   L. (Guava)

1.6 Conceptual framework

This study adopts the analytic cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso which involves the breakdown of form into components and the minimalist, multi-panel hard-edge paintings of Ellsworth Kelly that depicts composition of simple geometric forms painted with monochromatic bright colours. In order to systematically deconstruct the human face, the researcher began by adopting the cubist fragmentation of the human face through stylisation of the human face by depicting all facial features with geometric shapes rendered with leaf veins.

Cubism as defined by Kleiner (2009) “is an early 20^th century art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions, preferring composition of shapes and forms abstracted from the conventional perceived world”. This style of art according to Tyler and Ione (2001) is characterised by the idea of representation of forms in a flat two-dimensional surface of a picture plane, rejecting the traditional way of representation such as perspective, chiaroscuro, foreshortening and modelling, by adopting the approach of deconstruction. The cubist according to Choi (2004), reduced form in a fragmented manner and unprecedented distortion, which are apparently inspired by works of Paul Cezanne‟s reduction of object into geometric planes and also African mask. Analytic cubism according to Kleiner (2009) is characterised by the act of dissecting form into geometric shapes and placing it in dynamic interaction with the space around it, and the use of subdued hue, basically brown tone in order to focus the viewer‟s attention on form. In order to further simplify the human face, the researcher adopts Ellsworth Kelly‟s minimalist simplification of form. Minimalism as an art movement in painting and sculpture according to Porwal (2014), emerge as a trend in arts in the late 1950s and flourished particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Also known as ABC art, literal or reductive art.

Minimalism according to ¡nan (2014), the movement is characterized by the idea of extreme simplification of form and colour, through the use of basic geometric shapes and monochromatic palette of primary colour, which is based on systemic repetition of visual elements. That is the painters create works by repeating lines and colours. Simplicity plays an important role with depiction of sharp geometric shapes consisting square, rectangle, and circle are often used, rendered with purified and reduced colours. This simplification of visual elements, according to ¡nan allows the viewer to experience the work more intensely without the distractions from of composition.

According to Temkin (2013), Ellsworh Kelly minimalist painting is often characterised with the use of unconventional shaped canvas painted with monochromatic colour, the artist defy traditional distinction between painting and sculpture. Which was influenced by paintings of Klee and Picasso. This study has benefited from Ellsworth Kelly painting idea of depicting simple geometric shapes, through reduction of number of cubist shapes that were introduced in the sylisation stage of research into minimal possibilities. However, the manner and mode of deconstruction varies in this research, while cubist artists like Picasso and Braque deconstructed the human face into components of geometric shapes delineated with black outline, and while Ellsworth Kelly‟s minimalist painting shows deconstruction of forms using unconventional shaped canvas painted with plane bright colour, this research is concerned with deconstruction of human faces through systematic simplification of the human face from cubist geometric planes to reduction of the planes into minimalist simple planes rendered with the textural patterns of the leaf veins

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