The Spolarium

S P O L A R I U M
Juan Luna’s famous painting “Spolarium� was painted in a very large canvas and is more or less life
size. His painting portrays defeated gladiators in the arena being dragged into a pile of other corpses. On
the left side, there are many spectators viewing the spectacle with a variety of expressions. While on the
far right side of the painting, is a very notable grieving woman in torn and shabby clothing.
Horizontal lines are seen in the walls and the people watching the scene. But diagonal lines that denote
movement are very obvious and can be seen in the gladiators’ slain bodies, in the men dragging them
and in the floor tiles. There is a dominant use of contour lines as shown in the muscles of the arms, legs
and backs of the gladiators. In the use of color, there is a governing use of red mostly seen in the center
that attracts attention of the viewers at first sight. The use of green on the weeping lady’s dress creates
contrast against the gladiators’ red dresses. The intensity of the color red is very overwhelming. Almost all
of the colors used are warm colors that I think it is intentional. Luna used the colors in a way that he
injects his own symbolism in them. The

Spoliarium Painting by Juan Luna

An oil painting on poplar, the Spoliarium was painted by Juan Luna in Rome in 1884, winning the second prize at the
Madrid Academy Exhibition of Oil Paintings. The Municipality of Barcelona purchased this chef dʼoeuvre for the City
Hall. It is arguably the most internationally renowned piece of modern Filipino art. Today, it can be viewed in the
main gallery located on the ground floor of the National Museum of the Philippines.

The Spoliarium is very large, measuring four meters in height and seven meters in width. The painting depicts the
bodies of dead gladiators being dragged from a Roman arena. On the left side are spectators, while on the far right
is a woman with her back turned to the scene, her back partially uncovered. The painting's title is often misspelled as
Spolarium.

In ancient Rome, the word spoliarium referred to the Coliseum's morgue.

space

Definition:

(noun) - An element of art, space refers to distances or areas around, between or within components of a piece.
Space can be positive (white or light) or negative (black or dark), openor closed, shallow or deep and two-
dimensional or three-dimensional. Sometimes space isn't actually within a piece, but the illusion of it is.

"Space is the breath of art." - Frank Lloyd Wright

In art the term space refers to the actual space between objects, and it also refers to implied space, like what
can be achieved in a perspective drawing.

Space is the area provided for a particular purpose. Space includes the background, foreground and middle ground.
Space refers to the distances or areas around, between or within things.
movement

Definition of Movement: is the path the viewer’s eye takes through the artwork, often to a focal
area. It can be directed along lines, edges, shapes and color. Movement is closely tied to
rhythm.

An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of
artists during a restricted period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the
movement defined within a number of years. Art movements were especially important in modern art, when each
consecutive movement was considered as a new avant-garde.

One of the most popular painting in the Philippines, the Spolarium, depicts the 19th
century horror experience by Filipinos. It emphasized the violation of Human Rights
by the colonizers of Spain. Juan Luna, one of our National heroes expressed his
patriotism by painting one such masterpiece to enlighten the Filipinos out of
oppression.
In the Spolarium, he is able to unite his painting into expresing his message by
correlating every element with one another. In the use of color, he creates a
harmonious relationship between the red in the center of the painting and shade of
green in the darkness. Light is also balanced because of light colors used in the left
side of the painting against the grim-darkness of the right side. He creates a division
because of this, one half shows the horror of dragged corpse and on the other, the
mourning of a lady. Because of the contrast in color, the point of interest is able to
draw attention.
The shape involved in the painting also creates a point of interest that harmoniously
relates to the color of the painting. The color having expressed the center of the
activity, the shape creates a more bolder scene. The corpses that are dragged is
painted with a ratio 9:1, the body is nine times bigger than that of the head. The
same also is true with regards to the aged man who watches at the side. This is
because Juan Luna express life thru the body. By painting the body larger than any
other parts emphasize life. And in doing so shows dominance to attract attention.
The lines in the painting also contributes to its unity. First, because the lines that are
dominant in the painting are diagonal lines. Although diagonal lines inject
excitement, in this painting movement is created. Also, peculiar to these diagonal
lines is its formation of triangular patterns that emphasize stability.
The painting as a whole becomes a united one with an asymmetrical patterns of
elements. The contrast in light, createst eh distinction between the point of interest
against the background. The dominance of red in the point on interest is balanced by
the shade of green. The shape is also used with alternation, a dominance in the
shape of the body is given attraction. And of all the elements that are striking,
composition is the most evident. Because of its asymmetrical patterns, it provides a
comparison between light and darkness, the horror of dragged corpses against the
mourning of a lady, the thin almost skeletal bodies of aged men versus muscular
soldiers slaughtered in their prime. With everything pointing to the message : the
carnage of human rights violation.

The embers of Philippine history are as colorful as the Filipinos regard for Philippine visual arts.
These types of artworks depict the inner political and socio-cultural views; as well as the
sentiments of a Filipino master painter, like Juan Luna. His Spoliarium was all about the
bloodied bodies of gladiators, who were drawn as slaves; and dragged away from the wide and
powerful arena as they attempted to fight their Roman oppressors, with their own precious and
God given lives. In addition, these slaves on this world-renowned painting of Juan Luna were
physically stripped of their clothing in order to gratify the lewd and devilish contempt of those
Roman oppressors. Thus, this had excellently embodied the essence of the political, moral and
social lives of the Filipino, based on the critical analysis of Dr. Jose Rizal, the national hero of the
Philippines; and a contemporary of Luna. According to the author of Noli Me Tangere, the
masterpiece of Juan Luna centered on the severe ordeal of the Filipino nation, in which its
encompassing human nature, had never been regained.
Juan Luna's Spolarium, National Museum of the Philippines (Photo Courtesy: Vicky Ras-Altaie @ mrsvickyaltaie on
Instagram)

Also, his Spoliarium had provided a distinctive picture and persona of an open struggle against
reason and idealism, which were coupled with justice, fanaticism and cases of prejudice.
Historically, the Spoliarium was a remarkable painting which was submitted by the young and
genius Juan Luna at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes, in the capital city of Spain in 1884.
Due to its tremendous interpretations of the sociological situations in the Philippines, the said
masterpiece had bagged the first three gold medals out of the numerous and much coveted
citations for painting excellence. Conversely, the Spoliarium of Juan Luna was sold for 20,000
pesetas to Diputaciom Provincial de Barcelona. Hence, the said genial craftsmanship of Luna can
be found at the National Museum in the Philippines. “Would you believe?” If anyone of you will
visit the said national depository of the Filipino nation, this masterpiece of his would be the first
thing that visitors and spectators alike, would ever see. Wonderful and impressive, isn’t it?
The Making of Spoliarium

Based on historical accounts, the young and brilliant Juan Luna had spent almost eight months of
his fruitful life, to finally finish the historically significant Spoliarium. Thus, to make it a world-
class work of art, it was painted on a very large canvass with utmost love, care and beyond
compare perfection. To prove this astonishing impression by the author of this article, a famous
Filipino historian by the name of Ambeth Ocampo had once said,“The fact that remains that
when Juan Luna and Felix R. Hidalgo won the top awards in the Madrid Exposition of 1884, they
had proved to the world that indios can, despite their supposed barbarian race, paint better than
the Spaniards who colonized them.”

The Significant Influence of Spoliarium in Rizal’s Nationalistic Ideals

Of course, even if Rizal was a genius in a very subtle way, the greatest influence of Spoliarium
can never be denied nor eradicated, from his conscious and critical views of the socio-political
realities in the Philippines. In line with this, he had proudly lauded this momentous achievement
of Juan Luna alongside with Felix Hidalgo, during an exclusive gathering of expatriates which
were incidentally, all Filipinos. With this magnificent painting, Rizal was happy to know that at
long last, there were Filipino artists who had bluntly fought the tyrannical regime of the
Spaniards through a simple; but, meaningful work of art.
 Juan Luna Statue (Photo Courtesy: Elaine Lopez @chobewy on Instagram)

How Did Juan Luna Perceive His Well-Deserved Recognition for Spoliarium?

The National Commission on Culture and the Arts had said on their article and critical analysis
about “The Spoliarium”, Juan Luna never claimed that this masterpiece of his was not just a
glorious achievement. Instead, it was more of a patriotic duty. In support of this very wittingly
thought of statement, he became an active member of the band of Filipino intellectuals in
Europe, which was generously and solely dedicated to the undying principles of Filipino
nationalism, during the early months of the 1880’s and 1890’s. Among the brainchild of this
organization were Rizal, del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena. On the contrary, even if he had
sweetly and painstakingly labored in the Salons of Europe, it was ultimately for the reason of
proving that the Filipinos or indios were capable of being intellectually competitive, as other
foreigners could also be. In addition, his contemporary nationalists had grown out to be more
than what are expected of them. Above all, his Spoliarium was his own magnificent view of
nationalism. In a more explicit interpretation, the Spoliarium was Juan Luna himself; and his
colorful ways of putting into a canvass the real essence of nationalism with burning blazes of
pride and self- respect.

Spolarium at the National Museum of the Philippines (Photo Courtesy: Martie Rosales @marteerosales on
Instagram)

Why Was the Spoliarium the Best Work of Juan Luna?

Spoliarium was the best masterpiece of Juan Luna, because it had perfectly exemplified what it
takes to be a world- renowned painter at a very young age of 24. Best of all, his artwork was
able to surpass beyond expectations the works of both the Spanish and Italian painting masters
during his time. While in Rome, he was able to integrate, the classical masterpieces of
Michelangelo and Rafael to make the Spoliarium as glaringly excellent as the freedom of his
 fellow Filipinos. Imagine this. He had explored successfully the historical beauty and significance
of his creativity, on a large canvass which had measurements of 4×7 meters. Without expecting
much from this piece of historical interest, it had become an immediate and overnight sensation
for the Filipino people in those times of political uncertainties. The major reasons behind these
unforgettable adulations for Juan Luna can be clearly divided into two major things: First, it had
unquestionably bagged the first three Gold Medals in the said global and prestigious competition.
Second, it had gained international prominence among newspaper columns in Madrid, Barcelona
and Paris.

What Did They Say about the Spoliarium?

To those people who had nothing more to say about Juan Luna on a personal level, they had
cited his Spoliarum’s unforgettable rendezvous with colors and canvass as:

 It was more than a painting; it is a book and a poem at the same time
 It had showed that Luna was more than just a painter, he was a legendary thinker.
 It was not just mere mechanism of a genius

 The said artwork was able to reflect the other unique personalities of Juan Luna- a prolific
artist with so much ambitions in life
 Spoliarium is an art giant which can be likened to Hercules, of Greek Mythology, who has a
kind of strength that is truly beyond compare

Indeed, the Spoliarium of Juan Luna gave him the chance to tell the whole world that painting
is not a mere art of mixing and integrating different colors; to make a masterpiece livelier and
more historically relevant. . But it is an expression of one’s idea of liberty, self-respect and his or
her dynamic views about the varying social ills of a nation like the freedom loving Philippines had
gone through the years. After going through this article, “Would you want to become another
Juan Luna in the near future?”

hen Slaves Triumph Over Their Rulers[edit]

Juan Luna spent eight months to finish this award winning masterpiece on a greatly huge canvas depicting dying
gladiators. (Leon Ma. Guerrero, "The First Filipino" 2007) Ambeth Ocampo wrote, "...the fact remains that when Luna
and Felix Resurrection Hidalgo won the top awards in the Madrid Exposition of 1884, they proved to the world that
indios could, despite their supposed barbarian race, paint better than the Spaniards who colonized them." (Ambeth R.
Ocampo, "Rizal Without the Overcoat" 2000)
The Spoliarium (often misspelled Spolarium) is a painting by Filipino artist Juan Luna. The painting was submitted by
Luna to theExposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884 in Madrid, where it garnered the first gold medal (out of
three). In 1886, it was sold to theDiputación Provincial de Barcelona for 20,000 pesetas. It currently hangs in the main
gallery at the ground floor of the National Museum of the Philippines, and is the first work of art that greets visitors
upon entry into the museum.

Definition of Spoliarium
What exactly was the Spoliarium? Definition: The Spoliarium was a building or
chamber where the dead bodies of gladiators were taken to be stripped of their
armor and weapons prior to the disposal of their bodies. The picture below
illustrates the horror of the Spoliarium...
The Death of a Gladiator - the Spoliarium
A gladiator could be killed by another gladiator or, in the case of the animal fighters,
by a wild beast. Badly wounded , but still living gladiators (these were the noxii, who
had been sentenced to death in the arena), would receive a fatal blow to the head with
a massive hammer inflicted by a man dressed like Charon, the Ferryman of the
Underworld. The bodies of the noxii gladiators would then be dragged from the arena
sometimes by hooks in their heels, to make this chore easier. Their dead bodies were
dragged through the Gate of Death called the Porta Libitinensis, This name derives
from Libitina who was the goddess of funerals. The corpses of the gladiators were
then taken to the Spoliarium.

The Death of Trained and Free Gladiators - Auctorati and the Veterani
Some Roman citizens, often those in debt, sold themselves into gladiator schools for
money. These free gladiators were called auctorati. There were also experienced and
trained gladiators, referred to as veterani (veteranus), who were extremely valuable
assets. The auctorati and the veterani were therefore treated completely differently to
the noxii. A wounded veterani or auctorati would be afforded some dignity and care
and would be carried from the arena on a stretcher. Only backstage would someone
check if a veterani or auctorati gladiator was really dead.

The Spoliarium
Once a gladiators body reached the Spoliarium it was stripped of weapons and armor.
These valuable items were returned to to the dead gladiator’s lanista (trainer and
owner) or to the Armamentarium. The Armamentarium would have been located near
the Spoliarium and this was where the gladiator's arms and weapons were stored. No
writers of the Roman period has actually documented the full horror of the
Spoliarium. One can only guess at the terrible scenes were dead bodies must have
been piled up surrounded by the stench and blood from the dead bodies. Dead animals
were also disposed of via the Spoliarium.

The Spoliarium - What happened to the dead bodies?

No one can know for sure. Certainly many of the dead animals would have been sold
to butchers of Rome and sold to the people of Rome or used to feed live animals
which were to be shown in the Colosseum. But what happened to the dead bodies of
the gladiators? It has been said that Romans believed that the blood of a dead
gladiator had healing properties and could give greater sexual vigor. There is also the
terrible possibility that their bodies were also fed to the animals (to give wild animals
the taste for human flesh). Another method of disposal would be for the gladiators to
be thrown into mass graves or into the River Tiber. The bodies of the veterani
gladiators might be reclaimed and given a proper burial.
Excavations at Ephesus (in modern day Turkey)
Excavations at Ephesus in modern day Turkey have uncovered a gladiator's cemetery
where a body would be laid in a sarcophagus that rested on the ground. The cemetery
was discovered by accident in 1993. Epitaphs were very basic but occasionally
detailed the fights a gladiator had won.

Spoliarium
The content of this Spoliarium category on death in the Roman Colosseum provides
free educational details, facts and information for reference and research for schools,
colleges and homework. Refer to the Colosseum Sitemap for a comprehensive search
on interesting different categories containing the history, facts and information about
Ancient Rome. Just like the subject of Spoliarium there is hardly a page of Roman
history and the Romans that is not, on some way, connected to the Roman Colosseum
which became a symbol of Rome, its society, culture and life.

Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley was born in 1931 at Norwood, London, the daughter of a businessman. Her
childhood was spent in Cornwall and Lincolnshire. She studied at Goldsmiths College from 1949 to
1952, and at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. Riley has exhibited widely since her first
solo show in 1962. Among numerous exhibitions, she was included in the 1968 Venice Biennial
where she won the International Prize for painting.

Riley began painting figure subjects in a semi-impressionist manner, then changed to the Neo-
Impressionist technique of Pointillism around 1958, mainly producing landscapes. The same year
she was deeply impressed by the large Jackson Pollock exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery
in London.
In 1960, working initially in black and white, she evolved a style in which she explored the dynamic
effects of optical phenomena. These so-called 'Op-art' pieces, such as "Fall", 1963, produce a
disorienting physical effect on the eye. Riley taught children for two years before joining the
Loughborough School of Art, where she initiated a basic design course in 1959. She then taught at
Hornsey School of Art, and from 1962 at Croydon School of Art. She worked for the J. Walter
Thompson Group advertising agency from 1960, but gave up teaching and advertising agency
work in 1963-4.

After a major retrospective in the early Seventies, Riley began to travel extensively. Up until early
1980 she had been working on her 'curve' paintings, but these came to an end after a particularly
inspiring sojourn in Egypt. Her extensive exploration of color and contrast began after this. In 1983
she designed a mural made up of soothing bands of blue, pink, white and yellow for the Royal
Liverpool Hospital. In the same year, she made her first set for the ballet 'Color Moves' first
performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1983. Three years later she met the postmodern
'Simulationist' painters Philip Taaffe and Ross Bleckner, and was inspired to introduce a diagonal
element to her work, thus adding another dimension to her fascination with the juxtaposition of
colors.

Bridget Riley is one of Britain's best-known artists. Since the mid-1960s she has been celebrated
for her distinctive, optically vibrant paintings which actively engage the viewer's sensations and
perceptions, producing visual experiences that are complex and challenging, subtle and arresting.
Riley is acclaimed as one of the finest exponents of Op Art, with her subtle variations in size,
shape and position of blocks within the overall pattern. Her work is characterized by its intensity
and it's often disorientating effect. Indeed the term 'Riley sensation' was coined to describe this
effect of looking at the paintings, especially her early black and white pictures. Riley is fascinated
with the act of looking and in her work aims to engage the viewer not only with the object of their
gaze but also with the actual process of observation.

"For me Nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces - an event rather than an
appearance - these forces can only be tackled by treating color and form as ultimate identities,
freeing them from all descriptive or functional roles." Bridget Riley.

Though her work is abstract, the optical experiences obtained through viewing her work seem
surprisingly familiar. During her childhood, when she lived in Cornwall, she formed an acute
responsiveness to natural phenomena. In particular, the effects of light and color in the landscape.
Though her mature work does not proceed from observation, it is nevertheless connected with the
experience of nature. Of her paintings, she has commented: 'the eye can travel over the surface in
a way parallel to the way it moves over nature. It should feel caressed and soothed, experience
frictions and ruptures, glide and drift…One moment there will be nothing to look at and the next
second the canvas seems to refill, to be crowded with visual events.' This parallel relation between
Riley's art and nature has underpinned the development of her work, coloring the way it forms both
an exploration and a celebration of a fundamental human experience: sight.

Bridget Riley
Movement in Squares,
1961
Tempera on Hardboard,
1/2 3/4
48 x47 in.

Bridget Riley
Horizontal Vibration, 1961
Tempera on Hardboard,
1/2 1/2
17 x55 in.
Bridget Riley
Kiss, 1961
Acrylic on Linen, 48x48 in.
Bridget Riley
Blaze 1, 1962
Emulsion on Hardboard,
43x43 in.

Bridget Riley
Fall, 1963
Emulsion on Hardboard,
1/2 1/4
55 x55 in.
Bridget Riley
Descending, 1965
Emulsion on Hardboard,
36x36 in.
Bridget Riley
Arrest 1, 1965
Emulsion on Canvas,
1/4
70x68 in.
Bridget Riley
Breathe, 1966
Emulsion on Canvas,
117x82 in.
 Bridget Riley
Cataract 3, 1967
PVA on Canvas,
3/4
87x87 in.

Bridget Riley
Orient 4, 1970
Acrylic on Canvas, 88x127
in.

"In my earlier paintings, I wanted the space between the picture plane and the spectator to be active.
It was in that space, paradoxically, the painting 'took place,'" Bridget Riley summarized with
characteristic incisive clarity. "Then, little by little, and, to some extent deliberately, I made it go the
other way, opening up an interior space, as it were, so that there was a layered, shallow depth. It is
important that the painting can be inhabited, so that the mind's eye, or the eye's mind, can move
about it credibly."
In many basic drawing classes, students learn that there are three basic elements of a composition: the frame, the
positive and the negative space. The positive space is easiest to understand. Generally, it is the space occupied by
your subject. Conversely, negative space is the space that is not your subject.

The negative space is defined by the edges of the positive space and the frame or border (our third element). So, part
of our negative space is bounded by the frame and another part is bounded by the positive space. Sometimes the
negative space is completely bounded by the positive space. What it important also to note is that the negative space
also defines our subject.

The positve space is masked in black in the second photo.

The negative space is masked in black in the third photo.
Here is another example by artist Victor Vasarely on the difference between positive and negative space:

Enhancing Your Art with Negative Space:

As a designer and artist, it’s easy to concentrate and attach ourselves to the main objects of our work — So easy in fact, that we can easily forget about a
part of our work equally important: The Negative Space.
Negative Space is the space between an object, around an object, but is not part of the actual object itself. It is the opposite of an identifiable object which
can at the same time be used to help define the boundaries of positive space. (click title to read more)
As a designer and artist, it’s easy to concentrate and attach ourselves to the main objects of our work — So
easy in fact, that we can easily forget about a part of our work equally important: The Negative Space.
Negative Space is the space between an object, around an object, but is not part of the actual object itself. It is
the opposite of an identifiable object which can at the same time be used to help define the boundaries of
positive space.
Making Better Art with Negative Space

A good artist realizes that the space surrounding an

object (positive space / shape / mass / etc) is just as important as that object itself. Negative space helps define
a subject, and brings balance to a composition.
In mag3737′s “Negative Space“, the buildings (positive space) are separated, and more sharply defined by the
sky (negative space). The sky brings a balance to the composition, which without, would make the
photograph look quite bland.

In NG567′s “Negative space“, the positive space plays a much less

dominant role. The clouds and sky cut through the trees, making the sky the more definable area.
You may also notice that the image on the right loosely follows the Rule of Thirds (More on the Rules of
Thirds, Composition, and Framing). Negative space is used to help create thirds in many compositions —
perhaps more than you realize. Just consider how many landscape photographs you must have seen where one or
two-thirds of the composition are landscape, while the rest is clouds and sky.
Typically, negative space should not distract from the main subject… that is, unless the negative space IS the
subject, as is the case on the right.
Negative Space as the Subject

As you saw in the previous example, negative space does

not always have to be that complimentary, balancing element to a composition. Both positive and negative
space can be used in that way depending on how the artist or designer manipulates the composition.
Negative space can actually be used as the main subject in a composition itself, sometimes to the extent
where it takes on an identifiable shape defined by its surrounding positive space.
In numlok™’s “Negative Space Cross“, it is abundantly apparent how the negative space is the actual subject of
the composition. The physical bricks surrounding the empty gap create a common symbol that most can
identify with.
Using Positive Space to Define Negative Space

An artist can create positive spaces and shapes that in

turn carve out shapes in negative space intentionally. Perhaps the most famous example of this is Rubin’s Vase.

In Rubin’s Vase, the positive space takes on the appearance of a vase. When examining the space surrounding
the vase however, two faces looking at one another can be seen.

With all of this said, it’s probably also worth noting that a silhouette is not the same thing as negative
space. Negative space is the area surrounding, between, or in other words not a part of the identifiable object.
Shapes around the silhouette may be negative space, but the actual silhouette is positive space — a shape with
identifiable boundaries.
Negative Space is Not Constricted to One Medium
Negative space is not constricted to one form of art. On the contrary, it is an important element in most
mediums, including photography, painting, graphic design, sculpting, etc.

Negative Space in Logo Design

Since negative space is not constricted to any one medium, this probably goes without saying, but negative
space also plays an important part in logo design. Some of the worlds most recognized logos feature creative
negative spaces.

Take FedEx for example, which uses the spaces between the letters in “Ex” to create an almost subliminal arrow.
According to FedEx spokesman Jess Bunn:

“The arrow was indeed intentional as a secondary design element…”

“If the viewer sees it, it’s a neat, interesting visual bonus. If the viewer doesn’t see it, that’s OK. It’s still a
powerful logo. The arrow is intended to communicate movement, speed and the dynamic nature of our
company.”

More Examples of Negative Space

“Cross roads” by Aeioux uses negative space to create an implied subject of roads crossing in a city-like
environment.
“kers 5” by wester uses negative space to help emphasize the main subject.Without all of the negative space,
the main object would be much less interesting.
“negative space” by Alcino is a good example of negative space in a more physical form.
“Space and Motion” by David Leggett. The dark negative space contrasts sharply with the energetic colors of
the figure playing the drums.
How Are You Using Negative Space?
You’ve seen quite a bit of how other designers and artists use negative space now. It’s used as a balancing
element in many compositions, and without that balance, the rest of the composition would be much less
meaningful (if not formless). What are some ways you’ve taken advantage of negative space in your own work?