Composition /

by Arthur W. Dow

Arthur Wesley Dow's Composition, first published in 1899 and given here in its revised ninth edition of 1914, is a course of exercises in what he called art structure. Rather than teaching students to copy nature, Dow taught them to arrange lines, masses and colors into harmony, building on three elements: line, notan, a Japanese term for the balance of dark and light, and color. Drawing on Japanese painting and prints, which he had studied in Boston with Ernest Fenollosa, he moves through compositions in squares and rectangles, landscape, flower and textile designs, and exercises in two and three values. Generations of American art teachers trained with it, and Georgia O'Keeffe was among his students. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.