Open Book Pinkney Herbert Analysis

Open Book, painted by Pinkney Herbert in 2006, is an oil on canvas creation that uses a contrast of black lines and white spaces. When viewing the seventy-eight by sixty-eight-inch canvas, viewers gravitate to the emphasis of the dark, rectangular shape in the middle of the right side. This rectangular shape is probably the soul or meaning of what is inside the opened book. The thick black lines ripple out from behind the black rectangle to unite the idea of an “open book” and its pages. Without the abstract organization of pages, the harmony and feeling of completeness would not be present. This painting uses both elements of art and principles of design to create a sense of depth, which in turn leaves us with our own interpretation of the piece. Three elements that are tastefully exercised to create unity and a
The usual starting point of viewing the piece is the prominent black rectangle. This is the most talked about focal point because this is what draws onlookers to look further at movement within the work of art. Eyes seem to automatically travel up the length of the rectangle drifting towards the unique black, split line. From there, the crisp edges of the apparent page’s demand attention. Noticing the shadow effect (due to changing value) along the corners of the pages specifically nestled on the right side of the book, our focus goes down and around following the shadows to an explosion of lines. It’s hard to not immediately notice the two large, black V-shaped lines also extending from the book. Although these lines are the first details from this cluster of movement to grab the eye, there are countless lines nearby all begging to be noticed and interpreted. At first glance, the painting might seem dull due to lack of color, however, the incredible amount of movement takes up much of space and makes up an intricate dynamic of