The power of the center : a study of composition in the visual arts

Using a wealth of examples, Arnheim considers the factors that determine the overall organization of visual form in works of painting, sculpture, and architecture. What Is A Center? The Center And The Middle ; Around The Balancing Center ; In The Third Dimension -- Thte Strongest Center And Its Rivals. The Pull Of Gravity ; The Viewer As A Dynamic Center ; Looking Up And Looking Down ; Weight Produces Venters ; Applications To Sculpture ; Applications To Painting -- Limits And Frames. Comprehension Requires Boundaries ; Once More, The Viewer ; The Frame And The Outer World ; The Frame And The Inner World ; Various Formats ; The Limits Of Sculpture ; Competition For The Balancing Center -- The Accent On The Middle. The Center Contributes Stability ; Playing Around The Center ; Dividing In Two -- The Invisible Pivot. The Shapes Create The Hub ; Upright Compositions ; Horizontal Compositions ; Diagonals Support And Divide ; Noli Me Tangere -- Tondo And Square. Floating Shapes ; Responses To The Round Frame ; The Tondo Stresses The Middle ; Disks And Spheres ; The Oval ; Character Traits Of The Square ; Albers And Mondrian ; A Square By Munch -- Volumes And Nodes. Vectors Control Meaning ; Kinds Of Nodes ; The Human Figure ; Faces And Hands ; Hands In Context ; Singing Man -- More In Depth. Objects Behaving In Space ; The Added View Of Projection ; The Charting Of The Vista ; Looking Into Odd Spaces ; The Two Interpretations ; The Basic Compositional Systems Once More -- Persistence In Time -- Glossary. Rudolf Arnheim. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 221-223.