Value in Art - Understanding One of the Art Elements

When one discusses the value in art there are two very distinctive paths to
follow. The concern with value in art is both a technical question related to color and to
light, and also a subjective issue which touches on philosophical, economic, art market
and aesthetic concerns.
Defined as one of the seven elements of art, next to line, shape, space, form, texture,
and color, the value in art is a quality or a value of light and dark of a certain shade or
tone. This art element is best understood if visualized as a scale or a gradient. In 1907
Denman Ross, American painter, art collector, a scholar of art history and theory,
introduced a value scale which is still applied today. On such a scale, from the lightest
shade, i.e. white to the darkest shade, i.e. black, various shades of gray reside. These
shades of gray describe the amount of the dark or light elements of any color and
describe its lightest and darkest tones or hues, thus giving us a closer understanding of
what value in art is. Such a scale is extremely helpful for painters to identify light, mid-
tones, and darks more easily.
Depending on the amount of white and black within a certain hue, the color appears
lighter or darker. Showing the standard variations in tone, the values near the lighter
end of the scale spectrum are termed high-keyed, while those on the darker end are
low-keyed. The lightening or darkening of the tones influences the saturation and adds
to the dilution of color. For many, value in art is more important than color, as it helps
to determine the tone of the color itself.
The Artist's Use of Value in Art
In two-dimensional artworks, the application of value can help in giving a shape the
illusion of mass or volume or it can give the entire composition a sense of lighting and
depth. By playing with effects of shading and of contrast, artists manipulate the public’s
eye and attempt to guide it to the focal point of the painting or drawing. It is a well-
known fact that the best way to attract the eye is to place the lightest element against
a dark element. This, not only creates the focal point of interest, but it can produce a
dramatic effect. In Baroque painting, the technique of chiaroscuro, literally meaning
light-dark in Italian, was applied to produce highly dramatic effects. Such a technique is
defined by a clear tonal contrast exemplified by very high-keyed whites, placed directly
against very low-keyed darks. Since candlelit scenes were extremely popular in Baroque
painting, many masters of the past turned to this technique. The most famous, of
course, is Caravaggio. Relying on the high contrast between the colors of his palette, he
created some of the most effective and dramatically charged paintings such as The
Denial of St. Peter.
How Do We See Value in Art?
The artist’s manipulation of all the art elements is crucial to the understanding of the
produced artwork. How the author draws his line, creates various textures, or to what
medium he/she turns to defines the aesthetic language of each author. This is also
relevant in the debate about value in art, and the arena of black and white photography
is frequently used to best illustrate the value in action. It is here that one can best
visualize how the infinitive variations of gray suggest planes and textures, and how
through these, the idea of the value, defined through contrast is achieved.
In comparison to the above-mentioned painter Caravaggio, who used a contrast of
color on his palette, artists such as the Impressionist painter, Claude Monet, and James
Abbott McNeill Whistler chose to concentrate on various ends of color values. Various
landscape images by Monet were created with the manipulation of high-key color
values, giving the image an atmosphere of vibrant energy, and of life. In contrast, the
atmosphere of the famous painting The Mother by Whistler was created with the use of
low-key values of color. These examples illustrate just how crucial is the element of
value for the creation of the atmosphere and of a certain narrative of an image.
Value in art has another definition as well. Apart from the technical aspect of the value
in art, the value can also refer to the sentimental, cultural, or ritualistic importance of
the work. Unlike the questions about color, contrast, or luminosity, this type of value
cannot be measured as it is entirely subjective and open to numerous interpretations.

REFERENCES:
https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/value-in-art